It seems to be a given these days that any series or movie that includes a number of female leads or Black/Asian actors in roles that were predominantly white in the past will be labeled as woke and in some ways have defiled any version that came before. Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon, and Star Wars series Obi-Wan Kenobi have already weathered such storms, and now Amazon Prime’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has been subjected to similar complaints. However, series star Morfydd Clark has dismissed criticism over the series’ diversity as “nonsense.”
Traversing familiar stories is a tricky subject for studios and filmmakers, with social media opinions being able to boost or hobble a movie or TV show before it is even released. Whether it is gender-swapping or race-swapping of characters, a change of setting or another different interpretation of what people believe a thing should look like, there are many productions walking on eggshells to try and be inclusive but not alienating at the same time.
The Rings of Power has a strong, diverse cast, which has led to some Tolkien enthusiasts hitting out at the show, even going as far as to claim the author would have hated the changes made to his world. However, Clark has no qualms in dismissing the complaints. Speaking to Inverse, she said:
“[Tolkien] was a really complex person who wrote a really complex world, and this idea that anyone could know exactly what he would've wanted or what he would've liked is, I feel, nonsense.”
The Rings Of Power Reviews Have Included Some Nonsensical Review Bombing
There are usually two kinds of people in the world, those who know Middle Earth and those who know Peter Jackson’s movies based in Middle Earth. Of course they are two different things, and that means that the reviews of The Rings of Power can pretty much be split into those who two same categories. In the midst of the high-praise from critics, audience scores are once again being skewed by reviews that just don’t make much sense and make review scores mostly redundant.
A quick glance at The Rings of Power’s Rotten Tomatoes reviews finds many contradictions that even just watching the trailer for the series are easily dismissed out of hand. Whether it is a ½ star rating calling the language of the series “olde-worldy” or a 1 star review saying the special effects are cheap, there are plenty of reviews that consist of one-liner reviews from accounts that have seemingly been set up only to leave the comment.
With the series currently holding a 83% critic rating against a 37% audience rating, it is clear to see that there are plenty of people currently with an axe to grind, but if the viewer numbers prove the series to be as big as expected, Amazon will not really care one way or the other.