This, ladies and gentlemen, is why we can't have nice things.
The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Prime Video has suspended user ratings for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for the next 72 hours so Amazon can make sure any submitted reviews are legitimate. Why? Well, the show is the latest target of online trolls who are review bombing the series across a number of platforms, including Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb.
Despite boasting positive reviews from critics, the pricey Amazon series has a "Rotten" 37% Audience Score on the review aggregator. This comes weeks after the same thing happened to She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (because it has a female lead), so what's the issue this time?
Sadly, it appears to be that the series has a female lead and a lot of actors of colour. There have been arguments online that an elf should not be Black and that it makes no sense for a dwarf to have a darker skin tone because they live underground. We wish we were joking, but that's a legitimate issue for some "fans," and this sort of vile racism has become fairly prevalent lately.
Not everyone who has left a negative review is a troll or racist, of course, and there will be those who simply don't like what Prime Video has delivered with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
The problem is, it's become all too commonplace for these so-called fans to attack TV shows and movies simply because they feature the sort of diversity that reflects the modern world. She-Hulk twerking has been treated like the worst thing ever, though you just know it would be hailed as an all-time great moment if it was Deadpool pulling off those moves.
In the case of this show, it's only right that Middle-earth isn't whitewashed, but not everyone can see past their own bigotry. IMDb is said to have also started removing negative reviews, and while some will cry foul and call this "censorship," the fact is that incels and racists seem determined to spread their hateful opinions through review-bombing. As a result, this is what happens.
The first two episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power are now streaming on Prime Video!