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Speaking of dodgy reviews, there's a new series on Amazon Prime called The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. It's based on fan-fiction. This is sort of a prequel.

I watched about 10 minutes of it. It looked simply like a vehicle for Girl Power. It reminded me of that chick who is terrible in the latest Star War movies. She's there because she has a vagina, not because she can act or is in any way charismatic.

Morfydd Clark plays the main character, Galadriel, who is an elf. She's pretty, bosses everyone around, and kind of has a resting bitch face. To be fair, this series might not be awful...to the usual 13-year-old mindset. People with tatoos (that is, who have no taste) may like it.

But apparently LOTR nerds don't. However, I haven't come here to bury Caesar, etc. etc. The interesting thing is that all the bad reviews at IMDB have been scrubbed. And apparently Amazon owns IMDB.

That is an effective and rational filter that matches my own. I may watch a little more just so I can report back. But I find it incredibly interesting how corrupt corporations have become.

I like this comment from a fellow under a YouTube video on the subject:



I believe that "comfort" would have sufficed as the proper word. And another commenter supports the Kungian view of how comments (or up or down votes) are skewed:



I had always supposed that movie (or product) zealots were responsible for inappropriate up or down votes, or reviews that gave a "10" to what clearly was a 3.5 movie. I'm familiar with the Mac universe where Steve Jobs could have put a keyboard on a cow patty and a certain percentage (and a quite influential and vocal one) would have praised him for his innovation.

And that still is a factor, particularly regarding much-loved things such as Lord of the Rings. But in this case the consensus seems to be that there is very little Tolkien in this new series by the die-hards and purists. That leads me to believe that it's certainly a strong possibility that all those "10" reviews are not from enthusiastic (and misguided) fan-boys but from those with a vested financial interest in the film.

Whatever the case may be, it does seem that Amazon owns IMDB. And there is no doubt that the critical reviews have been scrubbed.

I'm 26 minutes into The Rings of Power and there are two points that make this movie mediocre:

1) The lead female character is basically a feminist fantasy. She knows best about everything, sort of an Elfen Greta Thunberg and with the same resting bitch face. And this lead actor, again, can't act. This isn't prejudice talking. This is becoming a true stereotype: Lead women in films tend to qualify for the role because they have a vagina, not because they can act.

2) There is nothing new to say about the Tolkien story. Sauren is apparently "out there" and gaining strength. Blah blah blah. There's zero reason to watch this. There's nothing new. It's just a rehash.

I love how a BBC reviewer, generally skeptical of the series, writes:



LOL. "Commanding." She looks totally out of place and comical. When she single-handedly takes on a troll and wipes him out easily, "commanding" is the last thing on my mind. It seems bizarre and unreal. This girl, at most, should be back home doing her nails while chatting on Instagram.

Looks aren't everything, but the guy who plays Elrond looks like a complete douche-bag.



Here's a review from Forbes: 'Rings Of Power' Is Getting Review Bombed So Hard Amazon Suspended Reviews Entirely

Oh, and the reasons for the low reviews can't have anything to do with thin characters and a boring story:







No. That's reality. When Star Trek: Voyager had a black Vulcan, it was silly because it had "affirmative action" written all over it. That was then. This is now. Once I saw the Ass-Kicking White Female in the lead, I knew it was only a matter of time until the checkbox was ticked off for black characters. And, sure enough, the quota was filled. I think that is what people are reacting to. Movie goers have zero problem with black stars, as the box office clearly shows. But this affirmative action ticking of the checkbox stuff is about rejecting the quota system. It has nothing to do with disliking black actors.

I added a final paragraph to my above post which I think you may agree with.

Visually, several dump trucks full of money has been put into this series. It does look good. But, yeah, it's definitely geared toward juveniles and the juvenile mindset.

If Galadriel was played, say, by a Xena-like Lucy Lawless, I would be enthusiastic. I loved Xena. She was an ass-kicking female in a tongue-in-cheeks series that pulled it off.

But this blond chick looks like the closest she's ever come to any physical exertion is in a yoga suit on her Peloton. There is zero gravitas there. And they can CGI-her into killing trolls, but it just comes off as silly.

This is why I can't watch many of the recent British period pieces. They pretend to be late-eighteenth century stories, but have some black woman playing the part of Jane Eyre or another such genteel lady of the time. This is not just nonsense, it is lying, deceiving,  disinformative nonsense. 

I have yet to see a white man playing Kunta Kinte,  Shaka Zulu or Martin Luther King. Maybe those roles are yet to come.  

Apparently this is a vanity project for Bezos. And I've read that by the time you add in advertising costs, this could be a 1 billion dollar project.

But, really, the story telling is less vibrant and sophisticated than the 1988 PBS series, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. And that series had better material to start with. It probably had 1/5000th the budget of the Bezos vanity project but was at least a watchable series.



There's nothing wrong, per se, with something being steered toward children. But "children" is different from "juvenile" or "unrefined taste." And The Rings of Power seems to be inherently insipid.

None of the actors are compelling in the first episode. Do not any of the producers understand what good acting is? They have this big Elf Meeting and Mr. Head Elf gives a speech. And he's totally bland. All of the actors are bland. I was thinking of John Gielgud giving that speech (or a better speech). Then you'd have something. You'd begin to imagine this is a real world.

But today's actors (or at least the ones the Woke producers cast) are insipid. The Rings of Power is less than soap-opera quality acting. And it's totally woke. The girl is in the lead simply because they had to have a strong girl. The men are all subordinate and mousy. Artler has the benefit of having seen two episodes so maybe some elements do get better.

But talking about juvenile, there is a species in this era of Middle Earth who are all just obnoxious cute little things. They may as well be Smurfs. The Hobbits had their quirks, but they were not Smurfs.

No wonder they are cracking down on bad (realistic) reviews. This series sucks (for the money they spent).

I did 13.85 miles in and around Ueland Tree Farm today.



I'm still struggling a bit with the smoothest way to get the bike into and out of the back of the Ford Focus wagon. I cracked (but not shattered) the plastic cover of the electronic display during the process of in-and-out. No big deal but it's annoying.

I rode on the same narrow bypass trail that wends its way through the woods in one section. I did better being a little more familiar with the bike. And some (perhaps half) of the problem is my skill level. I'm just not a dirt demon when it comes to these trails. I'm more of a granny. Even so, the bike is a bit back-heavy and, among other things, that (and the weight) makes it less nimble and maneuverable.

But I did okay. And it is somewhat of a difficult trail.

At the top of Zach's Lookout, I ran into a neighbor. We'd met each other a few times when he and his daughters were out biking around the neighborhood. I showed him my new bike. He wanted to know what I paid for it. I told him $1645.00. He thought that was way too much. Because, gee, I could have bought an electric scooter for that money.

Not suffering from Tourette's, I therefore didn't say: But I didn't want a scooter, jackass. I wanted a bike to get some exercise. That's why I'm riding while you're walking around in your silly grandpa shade hat."



He was sort of a low-level ass. He said he was thinking about getting an electric bike to commute to work so that he could be more "environmentally friendly." Oh, brother.

Did I say that out loud or am I still just imagining Tourette's?

Did he look like this guy?





After looking at some scooters, I believe they would be more dangerous than an electric bike.