Amazon is reportedly delaying user reviews for all of its Prime Video content, including the recently released The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. According to Variety and Deadline, the delay is intended to prevent review bombing, or the act of bombarding a specific show, movie, game, or book with negative comments.
According to an Amazon representative, the policy was implemented to give the service time to determine whether a user review is from an actual viewer rather than a bot or troll looking to hijack the reviews section. Amazon implemented the policy earlier this summer, beginning with the reboot of A League of Their Own, which faced review bombers who disagreed with the show's political stance.
Unfortunately, The Rings of Power has received a similar influx of negative reviews, with some users criticising the inclusion of actors from underrepresented backgrounds. The series, set during Middle-Second earth's Age, takes a different approach to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings universe. According to Amazon, the series drew 25 million global viewers on its first day, making it the biggest debut for Amazon Prime Video to date.
Despite Amazon's efforts to stem a wave of negative reviews on its platform, The Rings of Power has been review bombed on other websites such as Rotten Tomatoes and the Amazon-owned IMDb. The series currently has a 34 percent general audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while 24.7 percent of IMDb reviewers gave it one star.
Rotten Tomatoes attempted to address this issue in 2019 by introducing verified reviews, which allow users to show proof that they purchased tickets to the film they're reviewing. It also began prohibiting users from posting reviews for films that had not yet been released. This obviously doesn't help much with TV reviews, but it was in response to users who were bombarding Captain Marvel, Black Panther, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi with negative reviews at the time.