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IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

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Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#531

Post by Khoth »

Ekaros wrote: post #161
Bakary wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Applying Occam's razor, given that this process has repeated for years over multiple franchises, the conclusion is that the core audience is not who you think they are. Online commentary creates a strong visibility bias. Reddit is perhaps the most egregious example of this.

I don't see how it is not possible to make good product for both. That is the fans and general audience. Appeasing the later is pretty low bar. Instead it seems that shows are aimed at the vocal non-fans at social media.

It's definitely possible - the original LotR movies succeeded at this. Fans had big lists of criticisms but despite that largely loved them.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#532

Post by amanaplanacanal »

AdrianB1 wrote: post #460
ubercore wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want the best actor for a role, not one with the right skin color. You can hedge around the skincolor issue all you want, but that's the basis for your complaint.

So a future movie about the Ukraine war is perfectly fine if Zelenski is portrayed by a very talented black woman and Putin by a Japanese drag queen?

Perhaps we as a society can eventually get to the point where nobody cares what color skin people have. That seems like a great outcome to be.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#533

Post by jgerrish »

SunlightEdge wrote: post #442

To be maybe controversial... I'm still thinking about it, but I do wonder if diverse casting works in European fantasy stories. The problem I have is that it generally pulls me out of the experience/ makes it less immersive. I welcome diverse castings in modern shows (though we don't need every show to follow a template 'diverse' casting). A common counter argument is, well you can suspend your disbelief and imagine…

> I'm still thinking about it, but I do wonder if diverse casting works in European fantasy stories.

Hmm, I haven't seen Rings of Power, but your statement seems to be a not-so-subtle for a Think Bigger call for revolutionary new fantasy story settings.

Not just stories, not even worlds, but complete mythical ecosystems.

I've read a few fantasy stories lately by non-white non-male authors that were good, even great, like The Fith Season. Others that I was too dismissive of, with my own ugly biased offhand remarks, like Binti.

Ironically, I'd rather roll up a character in the Binti universe. Which seems like one interesting Litmus test for a "Kuhnian Paradigm" shift in fictional work.

Could I imagine sitting around with friends in a campaign in this world?

We'll always have the classic fantasy setting. It uses metaphor effectively to tackle capitalism and war and minority issues. But you can ironically escape that now. I think others saw that before me too.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#534

Post by motogpjimbo »

nibbleshifter wrote: post #445
motogpjimbo wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The evidence doesn't back you up here. The Rise of Skywalker made half as much money as The Force Awakens. Rey and Rose Tico merchandise didn't sell. Viewing figures for recent Disney Marvel TV shows have been extremely low. Star Trek Discovery can't be viewed in many countries because no network broadcasts it. Netflix's attempts at woke series tend to get cancelled after the first season. And so on. The poor perform…

It has fuck all to do with "wokeness", and a lot more to do with current production values just not resonating. Most media today looks the same, over-reliant on digital postprod and fuck all practical effects. It also tends to just keep recycling the same properties ad nauseum, getting worse each time. People are, frankly, bored of it.

I would argue that the problem is less due to franchise fatigue than it is to low quality and needlessly confrontational writing. Classic drama tends to have a universal quality to it that transcends any particular time, place and culture, and it's this quality that has been lacking in woke entertainments from the last five or so years.

Take Squid Game for example. I don't speak Korean and know next to nothing about Korean society, yet its core story about a group of people in desperate circumstances being forced to constantly reevaluate what they're willing to do to survive resonates with me just as well as if the show had been set in any other country.

Compare that with The Rings of Power, where Galadriel is portrayed as a perfect warrior woman whose biggest source of antagonism is the weak and unprincipled men around her. Or She-Hulk, who has to explain to Bruce Banner that men telling her how to do her job makes her a better Hulk than him.

Young progressives lap this stuff up but it leaves everyone else cold, including many women. In years to come, these stories are not going to be loved. These films and TV shows are not going to top any polls. The characters are rotten, unlikable and will not live on in anyone's hearts.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#535

Post by pvaldes »

onepunchedman wrote: post #505
SunlightEdge wrote: post #442

To be maybe controversial... I'm still thinking about it, but I do wonder if diverse casting works in European fantasy stories. The problem I have is that it generally pulls me out of the experience/ makes it less immersive. I welcome diverse castings in modern shows (though we don't need every show to follow a template 'diverse' casting). A common counter argument is, well you can suspend your disbelief and imagine…

When you say European, except for the fact that Tolkien wrote the story, what part of the show thus far has given you an explicit European feel? Did the Harfoots resemble British subjects, or do the race of men have to be from the European continent because of their skin color? Which city did Lindon look like? If we're already in a fantasy setting, why is there such a focus on relating the setting of the fantasy to o…

My bet is that the only reason to have "harfoots" is avoiding to pay for the use of the copyrighted word "hobbits" in the near future.

It sounds like a fart. Definitely lacking the talent of Tolkien to find the surgically precise word for each term, but I can understand the legal aspects of the need-for-control part.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#536

Post by johnfn »

indigodaddy wrote: post #48
Ecstatify wrote: post #13

Current standing on IMDB: The Rings of Power - 6.2 stars (42K ratings) House of the Dragon - 8.8 stars (75K ratings)

I have to believe that the HoD IMDb rating is being pumped up by a rabid fanbase, even though the show is in fact, a pile of garbage. RoP IMO is quite a lot better. I enjoyed the first episode.

Hm. The fanbase from GoT was rabid, I'll give you, but rabid with negativity - they hated the ending, and a lot of them soured on the entire show after it was over. LoTR has an equally rapid fanbase, I'd say, but they were much more uniformly positive towards the source material.

Then again, maybe that's why - the GoT fans are pleasantly surprised that HotD isn't a disaster, whereas the LoTR fans are upset that it's not as good as they'd expect.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#538

Post by amanaplanacanal »

oblio wrote: post #277
keepper wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Another example is the new Disney's Pinocchio, were the Blue Fairy is portrait by a black woman. The problem is not that she is black of course. but that the original story is set in Italy, Tuscany, mid 1800, were no black woman was ever seen It’s quite clear that that is YOUR problem. It’s funny when people like yourself claim “I’m not X” while then clear laying the case. And for the récord, i hope you open up a ge…

> There’s been black people in Italy for pretty much all it’s history. You may want to also read a few history books. (Black moors, Alessandro de' Medici, etc ) I hate this argument because it's disingenuous. It's in great part a lie and undermines the push for diversity. Just because there were 1-2-5-100, in major cities, in countries with populations of millions, didn't make them common and frankly more than a curi…

It would be a sad world if we judged all of our entertainment by how close they were to “average”.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#539

Post by vagrantJin »

Rant423 wrote: post #346
vagrantJin wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Critics are the experts. A fanatic, while crazy, has skin in the game. Their time and money. I'll take a fanatics POV over an experts everyday of the week and Sundays too.

In an ideal world, where everyone votes sincerely (and using an agreed-on scale), sure. But that's not the real world: here people are declaring a whole season of a show either a 10 or 1, after _maybe_ seeing 25% of it. In other words, this data is too noisy and so not trustworthy.

I dont know what the 'ideal world' talk is about, what I do know is that the audience votes with something valuable and real, not something vague and nebulous like expertise.

Fans have nothing to gain, not prestige, not fame, not even a fattening bank account. All they ask for is to be entertained. Peter Jackson and hos team may be to blame for leaving such a high bar to clear, but censorship will never be the answer.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#540

Post by LawTalkingGuy »

fttx_ wrote: post #342
peoplefromibiza wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So you’re now equating a pseudo historical character with a children’s book? So you're not aware that Pinocchio is a metaphorical book about Italian society and the need for free, universal, public schools in Italy? > only true northern Italians "true northern Italians" do not exist. They are like any other Italian. It is absurd to think the contrary. Probably even "Italian" as a distinct ethnicity doesn't exist. C…

I think you're right. Italian is not an ethnicity. Italy hasn't been a unified political entity for very long. There are Italians from all sorts of different ethnicities and races. Would it be okay for a Black person to play this role if they were Italian? If not, why is it okay for non-Italian white actors to play other roles? Is a Corsican person Italian? Is an Italian-American? Is Mario Balotelli (for example)? Wh…

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