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Is ‘The Rings of Power’ Getting Review Bombed? Amazon Suspends Ratings
The Hollywood Reporter ^ | Sept. 2, 2022 | JAMES HIBBERD

Posted on 09/05/2022 12:32:35 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

Where’s a wizard to fight trolls when you need one?

The mega-budget fantasy series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is under fire from some of its viewers. A day after the first two episodes of Amazon’s billion-dollar baby debuted on Prime Video, the show’s average audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is a “rotten” 37 percent, and reviews on Amazon have been outright suspended.

Compare that score to TV critics giving the show a very fresh 83 percent average, and many of the reviews were highly enthusiastic (“It’s great: a gorgeously immersive and grandly ambitious spectacle, packed with stunning imagery and compelling plot threads,” wrote TV Line). The Hollywood Reporter dubbed the first two episodes a rather successful, promising start.

The scores come a couple weeks after Marvel’s She-Hulk was declared review bombed on the site, with 88 percent critics score and an initial 36 percent audience score.

How The Rings of Power is doing on Amazon’s own user review ecosystem is not yet clear because the company has taken the unusual step of suspending user ratings for the show. An Amazon source says reviews are being held 72 hours to help weed out trolls and to ensure each review is legitimate. The source later claimed Prime Video started the policy this summer on all its shows.

“Review bombing” is when a group of online users post numerous negative reviews for a product or service due to its perceived cultural or political issues rather than its actual quality. Perusing Rotten Tomatoes’ audience reviews for Rings of Power, there are some one-star entries that meet the definition. “They wanted to involve such an important work with current politics and they have succeeded,” reads an example.

(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: amazon; ratings; ringsofpower; tolkien
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To: M_Continuum

I agree - I liked it. Possibly three things going on First the LOTR fanatics want it to be a literal interpretation of Tolkien’s mythos. A completely unrealistic expectation. I found reading the silmarlon to be more like a class assignment in a course I didn’t like than actual entertainment. Second you have the people who object to black elves, but I don’t remember Tolkien’s ever specifying a skin color for all elves. Third there are the jackasses who simply want to spoil things for other people - these are the sort of malicious busybodies who like to get on home owners assn boards and cause trouble for other people.


61 posted on 09/05/2022 2:55:53 PM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy - EVs a solution for which there is no problem)
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To: flamberge
I saw a contrived inter-racial romance between a black "elf" man and a white village woman.

The "black" elf is played by Puerto Rican actor Ismael Cruz Córdova and the "white" woman is played by Iranian actress Nazanin Boniadi.

62 posted on 09/05/2022 2:56:27 PM PDT by Drew68 (Ron DeSantis for President 2024)
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To: Bruce Campbells Chin
I think that's a fair point, although making him both black and having an affair with a human woman is a bit heavy-handed in terms of pushing a narrative.

So they can't control their sexual impulses even in middle earth, huh?

It figures.

63 posted on 09/05/2022 3:00:03 PM PDT by Bullish (Rot'sa Ruck America. )
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To: MinorityRepublican

Serious discussion about a fantasy genre. LOL


64 posted on 09/05/2022 3:01:26 PM PDT by QuigleyDU ( )
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To: QuigleyDU
Serious discussion about a fantasy genre. LOL

Yep LOL.

65 posted on 09/05/2022 3:02:17 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

I hope not. I really like the first two episodes. And I’m a serious Tolkien student.


66 posted on 09/05/2022 3:07:52 PM PDT by ottbmare (the OTTB mare)
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To: srmanuel
, comparing it to the original is not really fair, judge it on its own, I like both new shows.

If the show takes the name, comparing to the original is necessary. if it does violence to the author’s world, shame on them for profiting off of it. If they want to write an opposing story, call it something else.
67 posted on 09/05/2022 3:12:17 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana (What was 35% of the Rep. Party is now 85%. And it’s too late to turn back—Mac Stipanovich )
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To: BenLurkin
It is unthinkable in Middle Earth.

If they want black elves, purple elves or pink elves with green stars that eat soap they can make up their own fantasy world and have them.

There is a complete and total lack of creativity here that is appalling.

Come up with your own worlds, your own characters, your own mythology and you can do as you like.

This, "It's (insert name of already established character here) but he's a gay mouse with bladder issues" is fricking lazy.

Which means that the stories they try to come up with will bore your socks off.

Creativity gentlemen. And story telling.

But that is beyond them. Because they are wee timid cowering beasties who are afraid to try anything new.

There are any number of writers out there that create whole new worlds and populate them with interesting people.

Hire a couple of them to give you a frame work.

68 posted on 09/05/2022 3:15:04 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (The nation of france was named after a hedgehog... The hedgehog's name was Kevin... Don't ask)
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To: Thilly Thailor
Gollum was also a hobbit back in his Sméagol days.

Yes, a "Stoor Hobbit", a type that developed great strength, an affinity for water, learned to swim, and even wore boots to keep their feet dry.

Bilbo, Frodo, Pippin, and Merri were a mix of Harfoot and Fallowhide hobbits, known because they descended from "The Old Took", a known Fallowhide. They were generally thinner & a bit taller, and were more adventurous, making them suspect among the Hobbit community.

Samwise was probably mostly a Harfoot hobbit, as he stockier than the other 4 Fallowhide-stock hobbits in the story, and was generally more shy of adventure.

</MASSIVE_NERD>

69 posted on 09/05/2022 3:24:52 PM PDT by Yossarian
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To: ottbmare
Lol, serious Tolkien student being Ok with Galadriel and Sauron ACTUALLY MEETING each other along with implying Sauron ravished all three orifices of Galadriel. Yes, I believe JR Tolkien would green light that if push came to shove especially concerning the conversion she had with Frodo. Yes, she was in fact a liar by omission due to not mentioning any of that in the OT. Deconstructing main points yet you say you are a student of Tolkien, lol. We are only two episodes in and they already whitewashing what Tolkien wrote and shaped.
Bezos should of just came up with his own fantasy. Very lazy and very wrong from a true artistic ethical standpoint. Also, making a Mary Sue, Karen, and Rey Skywalker character is very crappy writing. Even Legolas got his ass handed to him in the beginning of LOTR. Never mind Aragorn, he constantly got his ass kicked until they started working as a team.
70 posted on 09/05/2022 3:35:25 PM PDT by rollo tomasi
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To: Yossarian

Love it!


71 posted on 09/05/2022 3:50:39 PM PDT by Thilly Thailor
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To: Bruce Campbells Chin
“The whole thing about Gil-Galad essentially exiling Galadriel back to Valinor was bizarre.”

Not as bizarre as her deciding once she got there to jump off the boat and swim across the entire sea back to Middle Earth. Whut?

72 posted on 09/05/2022 3:59:13 PM PDT by circlecity
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To: BenLurkin

Tolkien explains the existence of dragons and magic throughout his works.

Dark skinned elves or dwarves. Not so much.


73 posted on 09/05/2022 4:01:56 PM PDT by RedMonqey
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To: circlecity

No kidding. And before you get the argument of “she’s an elf so she could do it”, she also mentioned “frostbite” from the first scenes in the north. So evidently, Elves are indeed susceptible to the elements.


74 posted on 09/05/2022 4:05:34 PM PDT by Bruce Campbells Chin
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To: flamberge

My husband tried watching the first episode. He kept saying, ‘Boy, they are taking incredible liberties with this!’

(Wasn’t Galadriel Elrond’s mother-in-law, or something like that, in the family tree?)


75 posted on 09/05/2022 4:08:35 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: QuigleyDU

It wasn’t just a ‘fantasy genre’. It was an allegory and mythology with a lot of truths in it. (I think classical literature - including the Bible! - is a lot like that...)


76 posted on 09/05/2022 4:13:19 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: MinorityRepublican

In the past I’ve found Rotten Tomatoes audience scores to be fairly accurate. The “critics” usually come off as paid shills. Except The Critical Drinker, of course.


77 posted on 09/05/2022 4:55:41 PM PDT by Do_Tar (All my comments are creative or artistic expression.)
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To: BenLurkin
Ignore the racist morons who think having black elves is somehow unthinkable.

Racist? Really. You sure are swimming in leftist propaganda. Are you also OK with black Knights of the Round Table and that sort of thing? There is a legitimate reason for people to careful of their legends and culture.
78 posted on 09/05/2022 4:55:56 PM PDT by fr_freak
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To: BenLurkin

I was responding to a prior poster.

And, observe is not the same as obsess.


79 posted on 09/05/2022 5:35:41 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: fr_freak

Entertainment is a business. Nobody wants to make movies that only appeal to racists. There simply arent enough of them out there to be a significant audience.

LOTR is fantasy to start with. Getting bent out of shape over black hobbits is asinine.


80 posted on 09/05/2022 5:42:31 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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