Rings of Power -- all opinions and spoilers welcome thread.

[Parmandur]

You could remove the entire second movie and not lose anything

The Hobbit should have been 1 or MAYBE 2 movies that didn't go into any of the extra stuff. And the Black Arrow should have been an arrow, not a ballista bolt

The biggest problem was that they failed to live up to the Rankin-Bass cartoon.

 

[ART!]

The show is already longer than the three LotR fims and I have more striking recollection of elvish in those films (Gandalf and Saruman battling over the Caradhras for example) than in the show.

I think this is an unfair comparison, the two storytelling formats being so different.

Movies require a concentrated, hyper-focused, rigidly-structured storytelling that will (hopefully) keep an audience engaged for 90-180 minutes and have a potent, singular impact.

Modern dramatic tv, non-network storytelling is generally much more decompressed.

So, naturally movies are going to burn things into your metaphorical retina more than a tv show might; that's how they work - heck, it's the only way they work.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

the majority of reviews are 5 stars: last I checked, 5 star reviews were almost theajoriry even with the cartoonist review bombing included.

We don't have a clear picture of the actual reception of RoP because of

1) Coordinated review bombing
2) The fact that Amazon suspended reviews in early September and didn't resume until later. On September 9, Amazon deleted almost all 1-star reviews to "weed out trolls." We are asked to trust their action was objective
3) The fact that IMDB - which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon - stopped registering negative reviews early in September also clouds any real data. They've since resumed.

Rotten Tomatoes is also very polarized. Audience reception is at 39% overall, critics at 85%; my personal sense is somewhere between these numbers.

The distribution pattern has otherwise been very unnatural and unusual - lots of 1s and 5s, very negatives and very positives; very few in the 2-4 range, which suggests to me this has been opened as a front in the culture wars, obscuring any collective assessment of the show on its actual merits.

Discounting the 1 star reviews, which are ludicrous om theor face

Sorry. You don't get to do that. Review bombing may have happened, but it's really not that simple.

It might be years until we get a clear picture; I imagine the market will ultimately inform us. I feel there have been some valid criticisms levelled, and I hope Amazon takes them to heart moving forward. I would like the show to succeed.

 

[Mercurius]

I've scanned some of the 1 star reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, and most are generally thoughtful and almost none are "culture war-y" (unless whether Rings of Power is sufficiently Tolkienian is a culture war issue, which it is not).

Most of the negative reviews I've seen on various sites--whether large or small--mostly criticize the (poor) quality of the show, secondarily the divergence from Tolkien, and thirdly (and only rarely, if at all) culture war elements.

 

[Garthanos]

The biggest problem was that they failed to live up to the Rankin-Bass cartoon.

Not poetic/musical enough?

 

[eyeheartawk]

Most of the negative reviews I've seen on various sites--whether large or small--mostly criticize the (poor) quality of the show, secondarily the divergence from Tolkien, and thirdly (and only rarely, if at all) culture war elements.

Most of the criticism I've encountered has been about the pacing of the show.

 

[Garthanos]

Most of the criticism I've encountered has been about the pacing of the show.

Prefer the pacing of Wheel or Time so far... they arguably made it better in that regards to the books

 

[wicked cool]

I think the problem for this show is The characters on this show are not likeable (for the non Tolkien purists)

The main character
Galadriel-yes I understand she’s not human but she gives me zero. She come off as all powerful but I’ve found tv villains more likeable.I can’t think of another fantasy show where the lead is this bad . She has zero personality, poor leadership etc. there are even times where you expect her to start making out with Sauron etc. she jumps into the ocean because she hates Sauron and then betrays her entire race because he tricked her

Elrond-at time’s likeable but this times were when with Durin. Other that if his name was Joe and not Elrond I wouldn’t care about his scenes

Durin and the dwarves-other than the nursery rhyme being the key their scenes were ok especially the father and Durin

Theo-I call him the (adric an old dr who companion of the show). He’s a character I just want eliminated from the show. He’s not even a good villain like a Joffrey from GOT he’s just awful
Isildur-wow so far huge disappointment
Arondir- basically the Jackson hobbit version of Legolas but unlike Legolas he doesn’t have gimli for the banter
Hal brand-the character isn’t believable even in a fantasy sense and isn’t a good villain. I’d match him up against many tv villains he would come up short
Nori and the hobbits-nori is likeable but her screen time was mostly filled with a confused old man who for 99% is unlikeable and she is sorrounded by harfoot that at times are homicidal maniacs to somewhat likeable

I’m willing to put this up against a bunch of shows with Lower budgets for one o f those blind taste test audiences and I bet it loses

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And the Black Arrow should have been an arrow, not a ballista bolt

No. This is where you are failing to understand the differences between novel and film. In a novel, the author can tell us how a tincey wincey arrow can kill a massive monster, and we don't have conflicting information from our eyes telling us how ridiculous that looks. On film, we have to show, not tell, how the dragon is killed.

Books are not films, films are not books, if you slavishly translate from one to the other you end up with something stupid.

 

[ART!]

No. This is where you are failing to understand the differences between novel and film. In a novel, the author can tell us how a tincey wincey arrow can kill a massive monster, and we don't have conflicting information from our eyes telling us how ridiculous that looks. On film, we have to show, not tell, how the dragon is killed.

Books are not films, films are not books, if you slavishly translate from one to the other you end up with something stupid.

This is an extremely true thing.