last week ended The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and this one has done the same The House of the Dragon, two of the most anticipated series and two of the ones that have had the most impact so far this year. And although there are those who say that they cannot be compared because so and sothe truth is that not only can they be compared, but they must be compared.
With releases so attached to each other (it was HBO that wanted it that way; Amazon was going for it from the beginning) it has been done on purpose for your comparison… or rather for your competition, although one leads inevitably to the other. But when it comes to adaptations of popular epic fantasy worlds, the kind of productions that they are… how could they not compare?
Well, although my opinion is more than clear, I have taken a look at the great platforms for moviegoers and series fans to see what ratings they collected for both series and this is what I have found.
Metacritic collects reviews from supposedly professional media, what they call ‘metascore’, as well as user votes and opinions.
Metacritique:
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- The Rings of Power: 71 (out of 100)
- The House of the Dragon 69 (out of 100)
Users:
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- The Rings of Power: 2.5 (out of 10)
- The House of the Dragon: 5.2 (out of 10)
In Rotten Tomatoes they do something similar, on the one hand they take into account the ratings of specialized critics and on the other, it is the users of the site who vote and comment on the content.
Metacritique:
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- The Rings of Power: 85% (of 100)
- The House of the Dragon: 85% (of 100)
Users:
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- The Rings of Power: 39% (of 100)
- The House of the Dragon: 84% (of 100)
On IMDb, however, only the opinions of users are taken into account, although it is the site that collects the most participation.
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- The Rings of Power: 6.9 (out of 10)
- The House of the Dragon: 8.6 (out of 10)
Finally I have gone through the Spanish version of FilmAffinity, where they collect professional reviews, but where the score that is observed is that of the site’s users.
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- The Rings of Power: 5.8 (out of 10)
- The House of the Dragon: 7.5 (out of 10)
This exercise is a mere entertainment, because these data say little if they are not deepened. The little he says, yes, is that The House of the Dragon is above The Rings of Power.
However, it is worth mentioning that the two series, but especially The Rings of Power were victims of the so-called bombing review, the bombardment of reviews, usually from the extremes, and also usually in negative terms. To this bombing reviewyes, they responded on Rotten Tomatoes and especially on IMDb, a service owned by Amazon, in a sudden way in the first days, blocking the possibility of voting and withdrawing thousands of negative votes.
Amazon, in fact, came to be criticized for censorship because they only applied it to the extreme that did not suit them, that is, to the fanboys who went straight for zero, but not to those who did the same but in reverse, voting ten for a series of which if something crystalline has remained, it is that it has been a permanent source of controversy (another example of bombing review evident is the 2.5 average user rating on Metacritc).
On the other hand, and it is also worth commenting, the enormous spending on advertising that Amazon has made gives the feeling of having biased the criticism made in large portals around the world. It is very striking how many of the major media have emphasized their criticism of how the essence of the original material has been respected in the Prime Video adaptation, when the most widespread criticism among experts on Tolkien’s work has been that.
“The treatment of the Tolkinian material is respectful and of great fidelity to the canon” they wrote, for example, in the praise they dedicated to the series in El País, while the Tolkien adepts who have best handled it describe the series as ‘fanfic’, refusing to call it an adaptation.
But this is just one of the numerous controversies that has dragged The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and it is not the object of this entry to enter there, forgive the redundancy. Also The House of the Dragon It has had its detractors. But since we are talking about criticism… let the context be taken into account a bit.
And which one do you prefer? doThe Rings of Power either The House of the Dragon?
