5 ms·

Rings of Power isn't suffering from trolling, it's suffering from angering tolkien fans. Every review I've seen on youtube pretty much hates it. The gist I get

Rings of Power isn't suffering from trolling, it's suffering from angering tolkien fans. Every review I've seen on youtube pretty much hates it. The gist I get is that good writing has taken a backseat to woke messaging. I've noticed in the past few years that the professional reviews on rotten tomatoes tend to skew in way different directions than user reviews. I don't think it's because the professionals are right though. I think there's a lot of group think and peer pressure.

secret-noun 4y ago
Also worth mentioning how the Tomatometer is calculated: reviewer's scales (be it some number of stars, a 1 to 10 rating, a letter grade, etc) are quantized down to being either "positive" (1) or "negative" (0), and then, they are averaged to a percentage. One issue with this method is that middling reviews have more effect than they should. For example, if 100 reviewers all thought a movie was 51% good, the Tomatometer would read 100%. And, conversely, with just a two point difference, if they all thought it was 49%, the Tomatometer would be 0%. In both circumstances, the Tomatometer would probably not represent how the reviewers felt about the movie.
koonsolo 4y ago
Giving it a 1/10 score just means that person is very angry for some reason, not because they objectively evaluated the series and gave it a 1/10 rating because it's terrible on all fronts. Giving it a 3/10 means that series needs to live up to some kind of standard that other series don't need to live up to. If this series wouldn't be based on Tolkien and was released before anyone heard of "woke", it would at least be a 7/10. For reference, Xena is a 6.7/10.
- kshacker 4y ago
  Even a 6.7 likely has a few people giving it 1/10, a few people giving it 3/10 and a few people giving it 10/10. I have probably rated a couple of things 1/10 out of the 20 odd ratings I may have provided IMDB, but that does not make me angry, just that the particular topic (move, series, episode) somehow seemed to waste my time, but someone else may feel otherwise. > Giving it a 3/10 means that series needs to live up to some kind of standard that other series don't need to live up to. Whatever standard people used to give 3/10 to Xena could be used to give 1, 3 or 10. The problem is we do not know who is a genuine critic, and who is just a hater (or a complete aficionado) unless we start doing some kind of meta-analysis which is what Amazon seems to be trying to do, as long as they do it consistently.
- overgard 4y ago
  Well, basing a series on a well known work is a tradeoff. You have an automatic audience, but they have certain expectations and if you fail to meet them the backlash is harsh. Would it be higher rated if it wasn't based on Tolkien? Probably, but vastly fewer people would care about it. End of the day you have to respect the source material.
topranks 4y ago
The “woke messaging” narrative is just racists mouthing off. Ignore them. The Tolkien fans angry about deviations from books maybe have a point. But not being one I’m really enjoying it, praying it doesn’t go down hill but so far so good.
- overgard 4y ago
  I think it's entirely possible to be annoyed with overt obnoxious virtue signaling without being a racist, which seems to be what the critics are saying. One reviewer pointed out that the protagonist manages to be both a Mary Sue AND a Karen. (If you're unfamiliar with the tropes -- automatically good at everything with no heroes journey to develop themselves, and wants to speak to your manager). I haven't watched it personally but yikes if that's accurate.
- stiltzkin 4y ago
  Woke messaging is ESG score driven agenda.

secret-noun 4y ago

Also worth mentioning how the Tomatometer is calculated: reviewer's scales (be it some number of stars, a 1 to 10 rating, a letter grade, etc) are quantized down to being either "positive" (1) or "negative" (0), and then, they are averaged to a percentage. One issue with this method is that middling reviews have more effect than they should. For example, if 100 reviewers all thought a movie was 51% good, the Tomatometer would read 100%. And, conversely, with just a two point difference, if they all thought it was 49%, the Tomatometer would be 0%. In both circumstances, the Tomatometer would probably not represent how the reviewers felt about the movie.

koonsolo 4y ago

Giving it a 1/10 score just means that person is very angry for some reason, not because they objectively evaluated the series and gave it a 1/10 rating because it's terrible on all fronts. Giving it a 3/10 means that series needs to live up to some kind of standard that other series don't need to live up to. If this series wouldn't be based on Tolkien and was released before anyone heard of "woke", it would at least be a 7/10. For reference, Xena is a 6.7/10.

kshacker 4y ago
Even a 6.7 likely has a few people giving it 1/10, a few people giving it 3/10 and a few people giving it 10/10. I have probably rated a couple of things 1/10 out of the 20 odd ratings I may have provided IMDB, but that does not make me angry, just that the particular topic (move, series, episode) somehow seemed to waste my time, but someone else may feel otherwise. > Giving it a 3/10 means that series needs to live up to some kind of standard that other series don't need to live up to. Whatever standard people used to give 3/10 to Xena could be used to give 1, 3 or 10. The problem is we do not know who is a genuine critic, and who is just a hater (or a complete aficionado) unless we start doing some kind of meta-analysis which is what Amazon seems to be trying to do, as long as they do it consistently.
overgard 4y ago
Well, basing a series on a well known work is a tradeoff. You have an automatic audience, but they have certain expectations and if you fail to meet them the backlash is harsh. Would it be higher rated if it wasn't based on Tolkien? Probably, but vastly fewer people would care about it. End of the day you have to respect the source material.

topranks 4y ago

The “woke messaging” narrative is just racists mouthing off. Ignore them. The Tolkien fans angry about deviations from books maybe have a point. But not being one I’m really enjoying it, praying it doesn’t go down hill but so far so good.

overgard 4y ago
I think it's entirely possible to be annoyed with overt obnoxious virtue signaling without being a racist, which seems to be what the critics are saying. One reviewer pointed out that the protagonist manages to be both a Mary Sue AND a Karen. (If you're unfamiliar with the tropes -- automatically good at everything with no heroes journey to develop themselves, and wants to speak to your manager). I haven't watched it personally but yikes if that's accurate.
stiltzkin 4y ago
Woke messaging is ESG score driven agenda.