‘Painful To Watch’: Viewers Hate ‘Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power,’ Which Critics Insist Is Another Example Of Racism | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Amanda Harding.

    There's been a lot of hype leading up to Amazon's "Lord of the Rings" adaptation, "The Rings Of Power," but now some fans are saying it's a huge flop.

    The series premiered the first two episodes Thursday and currently has an 84% critic rating and 36% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

    This certainly isn't the first time critics and viewers disagreed on whether a show was a triumph or a fail. But some reviewers are accusing fans of being "racist" for their one-star reviews. A writer for The Hollywood Reporter likened these reviewers to "miserable little trolls" who were "review bombing" the series simply because casting directors chose to add black actors into it.

    However, the reviews tell a different story. Many of the people panning "Rings of Power" say it's a visual masterpiece with an impressive score, but the dialogue is clunky and it's difficult to connect with the characters. They are not angry about diversity initiatives. They just think it's an unworthy adaptation.

    "Complete disaster of a show, boring story, horrible characters (especially Galadriel), poorly written dialogs [sic], and it's just two first episodes of the show. Above else, no respect for Tolkien and his work," one person shared.

    "The first episode was painful to watch. Not even the gorgeous CG backgrounds could save this mess. The dialogue was baffling. It sounded like they asked an AI to write it. The acting was uninspired and the protagonist was unsympathetic and unlikeable," another agreed.

    "While the visuals do not disappoint, not once did they manage to make me care about any of the characters," another person shared.

    "They forgot to spend their big budget on what matters: the dialogue is robotic and lifeless, the way the story is written conveys little to no emotion, and everything feels generic as if it was an unlicensed adaptation. The soul is just not there."

    "Rings of Power" had a lot to prove. First, it's the most expensive television series ever made, costing a jaw-dropping $715 million to produce the first season. That's more than seven times as much as HBO's "Game of Thrones," cost per season which is currently airing a spinoff prequel "House of the Dragon" in direct competition with "LOTR." Amazon spent $250 million acquiring the rights to Tolkien's intellectual property in the first place.

    It's worth mentioning that "House of the Dragon" also added black main characters to the cast and they managed to maintain an 85% critic rating and 84% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.