What did critics promise after the preview screening of 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power'? Why is Amazon freezing ratings and believing their project is being review-bombed? How did viewers and media react? Read the overview, without major...

Finally, the long-awaited Amazon series 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' has been released, much to the anticipation of critics and fans of Tolkien and his universe. Yes, not everyone shared the enthusiastic opinions, but the wait still stretched over years. They couldn't come to an agreement even after the premiere of the first two episodes. That's what we're going to talk about today.

What did critics promise after the preview screenings? Why is Amazon freezing ratings and believing their project is being review-bombed? How did viewers and media react? Read the overview, without major spoilers.

It started so beautifully...

So, the new adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's works launched worldwide on September 1 and 2. Critics after the initial special screenings mostly praised the show for its expensive visuals, special effects, and fresh ideas, but Tolkien fans immediately criticized it for disrespecting the source material.

As early as August 29, English-language media hailed the show as a 'cinematic masterpiece' and a 'pleasant return to Middle-earth.' Film critics at GameSpot called the narrative slow, but nonetheless a unique project with its own twist, distinct from Jackson's projects, and also noted they were excited to see what the project would become. Collider said fans should prepare for the series' scale and would be blown away. Entertainment Weekly was also in complete ecstasy.

What happened next?

The viewers entered the fray. So why did the new project anger fans so much? There are several reasons, according to Amazon. It's a combination of racism, misogyny, and alleged infidelity to the original. The creators are confident that the 'Lord of the Rings' fanbase deliberately tanked the ratings, citing backlash since the cast announcement and first trailers. They also recalled the 'She Hulk' project, which Marvel fans decidedly did not appreciate. But, sidestepping 'House of the Dragon,' which had the opposite story with viewers – the project was criticized before release, but afterwards, the reviews were largely positive.

In September, the media's opinion also changed – every new review tore into and continues to tear into the project.

Let's cite just a few particularly liked comments from the web:

• 'This is even sad. The visual effects are spectacular, but only achieved through a large amount of high-quality CGI.'
• 'The dialogue is terrible, and the acting is amateur level. Where did the casting budget go? Did it even happen?'
• 'The narrative is disjointed and meaningless. It's still just random pictures separated by random sequences, practically without a single plot.'
• 'Obviously, the visual effects are good, but it doesn't compensate for the terrible plot and acting. And what happened to the elves who didn't age? Did they just decide to throw canon out the window?'
• 'This is not Tolkien's world, and it doesn't even resemble our real world. It is exclusively a diatribe (harsh, aggressive, fault-finding criticism combined with personal attacks – editor's note) by Hollywood activists.'
• 'I'm not sure if we were supposed to laugh, but my husband and I laughed so hard at the clumsy dialogue.'
• 'Typical fantasy. A very boring, soulless, and at times just cringe series.'

Are the Tolkienists alive?

Negative reviews come most of all from those who lovingly cherish the source material. Fans are upset that Galadriel is a super-warrior, not the mage without a sword that she was portrayed as in the trilogy. The choice of actress is also displeasing – in their opinion, she doesn't handle the role. The inclusion of elves and dwarves of other skin colors continues to be debated, which contradicts the source material. There are also notes about the hobbits with Irish/English country accents, who were offended by the manifestation of ignorance and a strange disrespectful portrayal of the characters. They also argue that the showrunners shouldn't have shouted so loudly about a Tolkien adaptation if they deviated from the original material.

What about the freezes?

Reviews on aggregators also exploded – Rotten Tomatoes gave the project only a 37% audience score, and this with an 84% critic score. The gap is so colossal that it would seem strange to anyone. It's funny that the ratings literally split into two halves – five stars or half a star. At the same time, the number of reviews is hidden. But we note that the audience numbered several thousand.

On IMDB (which belongs to Amazon) it has 6.6/10, with 25.5% of reviews being only 1 star. And 10 stars were given by as many as 32.9% of viewers. Other ratings do not cross the 10% mark.

On Amazon Prime itself, they've even hidden user ratings, temporarily freezing them for 72 hours. Clearly because when an unprepared viewer starts the series, a rating that is too low would scare them off.

Whether the low ratings were indeed provoked by fan 'review bombing' is unknown. 'Review bombing' refers exclusively to coordinated actions by groups of people who are instructed to give one or two stars. Most often, such 'attacks' happen on films and series that are hyper-motivated by a political agenda.

What does the 'After Credits' team think of the series?

My own review as a Tolkien fan, who was initially skeptical of the project, I will describe in a few words. Nothing special happened over a couple of episodes, where the plot is going is unclear, what dark force has returned is also unclear. The actors don't look convincing, and the only completely clear and beautiful part of the project is the visual and audio accompaniment. But perhaps the series creators would have been better off investing not in the picture, but in a well-written script? Now no one will ever know.

Here's the opinion shared by Ivan Starchikov after watching, so far, just one episode:

The first episode is a bit uneven. The authors seem to either rush to cover the vast scope, or slow the action down too much. Very beautiful, by the way, the series justifies its high cost. And yes, it is gripping in places. I'll keep watching.

Maxim Klein left his mixed review:

The return to Middle-earth was mixed. Fans criticized the show for its dialogues, which try to mimic the style of the original, and its intrusive identity politics. The most expensive series in history also failed to impress critics: the first two episodes seemed boring and unengaging to most. Expectations for the 'Lord of the Rings' prequel adaptation were too high, which played a significant role in the audience's reception of the project.

The key feature of the series was an attempt to show the world familiar to viewers from a completely new angle. There is very little from Jackson's adaptations here, let alone the Legendarium: the creators only take the books as a basis, creating their own unique image of the fairy-tale territories. Undoubtedly, one cannot deny that the new 'Lord of the Rings' is capable of impressing fans of the old films. The scale of events and the preservation of the atmosphere not only benefit the project but also allow it to be considered the main screen event of the first half of autumn.

However, the surrounding hype, caused by the breaking of certain expectations, suggests that the series will go down in history as one of the industry's biggest failures. Inevitable comparisons with 'House of the Dragon' will ruin the reputation of a show that strives to find its own style: sometimes it's easier to please fans by showing a detailed adaptation rather than your own vision of popular works. Ultimately, 'The Rings of Power' will become another reason for discussions about the impossibility of a detailed translation of literature to the screen.

Comparison with 'House of the Dragon' was also not avoided by Ivan Kilyakov:

It's hard to say anything definitive based on the first two episodes, and that, in general, is an obvious thought, but with the same 'House of the Dragon,' after the first two episodes, everything was more or less clear. 'The Rings of Power' is quite a different matter. The show amazes with its scale, pleases with its cast, and you can feel attention to detail and great effort. But despite all this, throughout almost the entire pilot and a significant portion of the second episode, it's hard to feel anything but bewilderment.

Why does the great elf king Gil-galad look so much like Trump, when by his role in history he should be at least Roosevelt; why does a well-trained squad of elven warriors lose to a troll, whose fellow was defeated twenty years ago by the forces of four hobbits and a stale spear; why, indeed, does Galadriel sail to the West in the very first episode, only to return? No argument, actress Clark swims excellently, but, hand on heart, that's not why we all gathered here.

Although, in this, in general, is the point — we all don't understand why we gathered here. Many are satisfied with Tolkien's books and Jackson's trilogy, some citizens particularly sensitive to skin color, it seems, should not watch American television at all, reflective viewers, and critics too, are in slight confusion — where and how it's all going is not very clear. But actually, the series is not bad, much better than one could think from the trailers: Elrond, although he looks like a character from 'Sex Education,' is very touchingly friends with the dwarf Durin, Durin's dark-skinned wife is an actress of amazing charisma, Celebrimbor is well cast, the landscapes are amazing, the dialogues do grate on the ear, of course, but what can you do, no one is without sin.

Meanwhile, there is also a positive review of the project from Nadezhda Vasilyeva:

The first thing that comes to mind after 17 minutes of the first episode is scale. It was clear from the trailers that Amazon intends to show something vast, and they prove it from the very beginning, and they do it well.

The pace of the narrative in the first episodes is uneven. One moment you're thrown right into the thick of things, given a brief overview of the last decades before the story begins, then the plot slows down, and we are smoothly and unhurriedly introduced to the various inhabitants of the 'Rings of Power' world.

A fairytale quality is felt in every frame here — so much so that even scenes in the dark corners of Middle-earth don't feel totally gloomy. The convoluted dialogues can be slightly tiring, but this is an important part of the presented world (just as important as in Aaron Sorkin's films). And as for the characters themselves, about whom there was so much debate — personally, I have nothing critical about the racial diversity of the cast, the main thing is the actors play decently. And if you forget Peter Jackson's films for a while and accept that 'The Rings of Power' is a product of its time, you can have a pleasant time performing an act of pure escapism.

Evgeny Belousov discussed the reasons for the failure and the problem of choosing an audience:

You know what? I think the creators themselves simply haven't decided what audience they want to work for.

The progressive viewers who advocate for modern society and don't know what the 'Lord of the Rings' books, their appendices, etc., are. People who have watched at most 6 Jackson movies and are ready to absorb new canon frameworks, regardless of the original source.

Or else, the fanbase of all 'LOTR', which is diverse (including progressive, and not only those who appreciate white elves) and can accept any cast and change, but only if it is indeed 'THE LORD OF THE RINGS': 'You can change anything, but treat our beloved work with care and soul, work on the script and bring the spirit of Middle-earth into it.' Well, yes, in a word — fans.

But it turns out that Amazon didn't want to offend the first group and attract them with new fantasy, even if they don't know what brand is being released. But here you have strong women, racial diversity, and beautiful scenery. But they also want to get a pretty penny from the second group, because those know what the 'Lord of the Rings' brand is, but completely disagree with the script, atmosphere, and sometimes even the cast. As if their beloved source material was taken as a skeleton, and they themselves were ridiculed.

So the project turned out where the first group is not offended but doesn't understand what's happening because too much knowledge of the original is needed. And the second group is in shock at how they want to be used in the capitalist system of rating views to recoup the budget, spitting on the love for the original. But it doesn't suit either group. And Amazon wants to have their cake and eat it too... sorry. All because 715 million bucks, no matter how you use them, won't give balance if you're only chasing justifiable investments and ratings.

Generally, the series has a combination of problems. Not just competition with 'House of the Dragon' and the 'Game of Thrones' universe. 'The Rings of Power' has too few rights, too frivolous handling of the original, which has such a colossal fanbase, too disorganized squandering of the budget, too presumptuous attitude towards the product, too frequent mention that $715 million was poured into the series, too little advertising and work on the script, and too strong a competitor. Too many 'toos'. And after two episodes, 'House of the Dragon' takes power for itself without any rings.

What are people laughing about online?

Let's take a slight detour to the audience's reaction. Memes and video edits are a big promotional boost that no modern project can do without. If we talk about the reaction to the series on TikTok, it seems that the mostly very young audience did not appreciate the project – there are practically no videos. And if you compare it with the same 'House of the Dragon,' the 'Rings of Power' series is in a very precarious position. Its popularity is falling, not rising. Memes, while entertaining viewers, mostly talk about the show in a negative light, mocking something absurd. Here are just a few examples.

Is there a future for the project?

Will Amazon enable the display of ratings and reviews? We don't know. Maybe they will, but only for a very short time. Fan debates don't subside, and new viewers don't understand what's happening at all. Any such reaction definitely harms the project. Therefore, if you rely on critic and viewer ratings, we recommend you wait and form your own conclusion about the show.