Lord of the Rings is my Star Wars.

[Kolby Jack]

I always see the middle-aged folks who grew up around the 70's/80's looking back on Star Wars like it was this amazing, game-changing thing that blew their minds. I love me some Star Wars, but being born in '89, I did not grow up with it. I mean, the prequels came out in my formative years, sure, but... they're the prequels. I don't hate them like many do, but I recognize them as not-very-good films.

But then there's The Lord of the Rings. A film trilogy that, while it has its naysayers, was basically just as much of a phenomenon. Accolades out the ass, quotes, music, legions of fans, and even an underwhelming prequel trilogy (though The Hobbit stands a bit higher than Episodes I-III, IMO). And it crashed into my life at around the same age as many die hard Star Wars OT fans found Star Wars.

Now, I'm not blind or dumb. They're not perfect films. Neither was Star Wars. I mean, Ewoks? Nor am I trying to compare them. How can I? But I'm just glad I got to experience having something like this in my life. Something I can share with my currently month-old niece when she gets older, perhaps, or my own children, if that ends up happening. I wonder if kids today will have something like that to call their own. I hope so.

EDIT: I just realized, some snarky ************ is probably going to come in here and post that Clerks II clip. Go for it, but know that I've seen it before and you're not being nearly as original or clever as you probably think you are.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Er, ok, but I'm not seeing the discussion value here.

Now, we could ask if Star Wars was the first big movie series like that, or if there were previous ones, and make predictions about what the next will be that will inevitably be wrong.

I would throw Harry Potter (to a lesser extent, The Hunger Games) in there as a rival, though.

 

[Kolby Jack]

Hmmm, Harry Potter is a contender I suppose. The problem I have with it is it was released not very long after the books. In fact they started the movies before the books were all published, IIRC. Lord of the Rings had the benefit of being made several decades after the books were published. It could introduce a classic epic to a new generation. Everyone knew what Harry potter was all about because they had read/were still reading it at the time.

The problem is that Star Wars is still in progress while LOTR is over and done, there's not a lot you can say about LOTR besides "remember those movies? They were fun".

Well to be fair we only learned that Star Wars was continuing within the last couple of years. It's not like it was always determined that there would be more. That decision only came with a massive corporate acquisition that nobody saw coming.

 

[distortedreality]

I think the difference is that the original Star Wars trilogy was actually ground breaking in quite a number of ways. The LOTR trilogy, while enjoyable, didn't exactly do anything new/different, in my opinion.

Neither did Harry Potter, for that matter. I'm not sure what would be a more appropriate comparison.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Hmmm, Harry Potter is a contender I suppose. The problem I have with it is it was released not very long after the books. In fact they started the movies before the books were all published, IIRC. Lord of the Rings had the benefit of being made several decades after the books were published. It could introduce a classic epic to a new generation. Everyone knew what Harry potter was all about because they had read/were still reading it at the time.

While it's true the books hadn't stopped coming before the movies started, it's not like there weren't a fair few people who had read LotR before the movies came out.

I think the difference is that the original Star Wars trilogy was actually ground breaking in quite a number of ways. The LOTR trilogy, while enjoyable, didn't exactly do anything new/different, in my opinion.

Neither did Harry Potter, for that matter. I'm not sure what would be a more appropriate comparison.

Hmmm...perhaps. I'd argue that Star Wars wasn't groundbreaking, it was doing familiar things, but on a grand scale that set the standard for doing them from then on.

Likewise, LotR sets the standard for fantasy movies, and to an extent Harry Potter for YA, though that one won't last, IMHO.

 

[Kolby Jack]

I think the difference is that the original Star Wars trilogy was actually ground breaking in quite a number of ways. The LOTR trilogy, while enjoyable, didn't exactly do anything new/different, in my opinion.

Neither did Harry Potter, for that matter. I'm not sure what would be a more appropriate comparison.

Well, Return of the King is the only fantasy film to date to earn best picture at the Oscars. Both LOTR and Harry Potter I believe are credited with reigniting public interest in big-budget fantasy films, as well.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Both LOTR and Harry Potter I believe are credited with reigniting public interest in big-budget fantasy films, as well.

As seen in the imitations and attempts to cash in that sprung up following them. The attempts to turn the Narnia series into LotR comes to mind.

 

[distortedreality]

Hmmm...perhaps. I'd argue that Star Wars wasn't groundbreaking, it was doing familiar things, but on a grand scale that set the standard for doing them from then on.

Well, Return of the King is the only fantasy film to date to earn best picture at the Oscars. Both LOTR and Harry Potter I believe are credited with reigniting public interest in big-budget fantasy films, as well.

I guess I was talking more from a technical standpoint than anything else.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I love me some Star Wars, but being born in '89, I did not grow up with it.

See, I'm also from '89, and my big childhood crush was Star Wars. I started by collecting stickers for a sticker album (which comprised all three movies), then moved on to collecting the action figures, a Millenium Falcon that shot rubber discs, then concept art/info books for characters and spaceships and only then did I see the movies. I was playing with the toys well before I even knew who the characters were, what their relationship was or what they were even supposed to sound like (I gave Chewbacca, R2-D2 and Yoda all normal voices, and thought Yoda was a regular crewmember of the Falcon). When I did see the movies it was but a part of the geekdom osmosis process. I rented them on VHS, then I bought the special 1997 editions at MGM studios, where I also got an R2-D2 cassette player and a trivia question machine. And then the Super Star Wars SNES games happened, and the list goes on.

Improbable as it would be to become the biggest Star Wars fan in the 90s, before even watching the first prequel movie, there I was, small and fat and disgusting and very much crazed about the whole thing.

Anywho, I loved Lord of the Rings when it came out. I never saw to compare it unfavorably to Star Wars.

Captha: move over

NO.

 

[happyninja42]

So...what are we trying to debate here OP? You've basically just put up an opinion piece, though not really even that. You've just said "I like LOTR more than Star Wars."

Um...ok? That's fine, everyone has their own opinion on whatever. What discussion are you trying to foster here? I just don't really get the point of this thread. You have a personal preference for LOTR over Star Wars. Ok.

 

[Bernzz]

I grew up with parents who loved Star Wars, so I saw the VHS tapes (before many of the Lucas edits) before the first prequel film came out. (I was born in '93). However, I also grew up reading and watching LotR, so both are actually that kind of series for me. I adore them.

 

[NLS]

After the fuck-up that was the lotr prequel trilo...I MEAN The Hobbit, I'm just waiting for Peter Jackson to go full out Lucas and do a special edition re-release sometime in the next 10 years. Completely replacing Ian Holm as Bilbo with a CGI Martin Freeman (of course mo-capped by Andy Serkis), also adding a total of 187 minutes of extra scenes, but instead of re-shooting on location with original cast, all scenes are done in CGI. Oh, and that first uruk who got shot at helms deep actually shot first. The destruction of the Ring is also replaced with an extended scene where Frodo and Sam do a trench run with their eagles, wings locked in attack position, because fuckin eagles.

Eventually, after the disaster that is the LotR Special Editions, along with the hack and slash game The Ring Unleashed, and a somewhat successful The Ring Wars animated series, Disney finally intervenes and buys the whole franchise. They then announce Silmarillion and The Hobbit to be non-canon and that a new LotR trilogy is in the works, with the first movie "The Ring Awakens" to premiere december 2025 and directed by Neill Blomkamp.

I've been to the future, and I've seen some shit.

 

[Cowabungaa]

LotR has indeed been very influential, bringing epic fantasy back in the public mind and setting a trend for the next decade and a half. Whether it'll have a larger influence we'll probably figure out in the next decade or two.

I can see why it can be called the Star Wars for a new generation, in any case. Probably together with Harry Potter. Epic fantasy has shaped the 2000's and paved the way even for the popularity of Marvel movies today.

 

[Fox12]

Hmmm, Harry Potter is a contender I suppose. The problem I have with it is it was released not very long after the books. In fact they started the movies before the books were all published, IIRC. Lord of the Rings had the benefit of being made several decades after the books were published. It could introduce a classic epic to a new generation. Everyone knew what Harry potter was all about because they had read/were still reading it at the time.

The problem is that Star Wars is still in progress while LOTR is over and done, there's not a lot you can say about LOTR besides "remember those movies? They were fun".

Well to be fair we only learned that Star Wars was continuing within the last couple of years. It's not like it was always determined that there would be more. That decision only came with a massive corporate acquisition that nobody saw coming.

Harry Potter and Star Wars are definitely cultural phenomenons, but I think it's worth mentioning that Tolkien is taken a bit more seriously. His novels, and the films, are studied in universities, and taken much more seriously. HP and SW... Aren't really. And, frankly, while I enjoy them, they're comparatively shallow.

LotR certainly has its flaws, the books and films alike, but there's a lot more complexity and value in them. I think it's much more likely to stand the test of time because of that. Star Wars, maybe, HP, probably not. I mean, mysreries of Udolpho was a cultural phenomenon too, and how many people here have read that?

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

The Hobbit movies are better then the Star Wars Prequals. Even at thier worst its still better.

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

But Bilbo didn't do flips over orcs or kill his wife

 

[Muspelheim]

I think that the Lord of The Rings films did have a similar effect to Star Wars. The first Star Wars films did a lot to bring the sci-fi genre out into everyday life, and reached lots of people who wouldn't have known they'd like films like that. Both trilogies set a new standard, and I think that both the sci-fi and the fantasy genre as they are and how they've developed owes a lot to those films. They lit a spark.

No Star Wars, no sci-fi boom, and certainly no later Lord of the Rings and no fantasy boom. Likely no Marvel films of the same class, either.

As for nostalgia, I do have a lot more feelings towards the LoTR-trilogy than Star Wars, since I saw them when I was young in the cinema. I saw them, talked about them with my mates, looked at stuff like it, did funny dub clips like everyone else. I'll always remember them fondly. But that proves nothing, really.
Hell, I've got more nostalgia for the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull than the first three, because I saw it in the cinema the first time I was travelling abroad on my own. It's no different to the pure Star Wars nostalgia. It's just happy memories from something that made you happy when it came into your life.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

But Bilbo didn't do flips over orcs or kill his wife

But he did have a glowing blue sword

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

But Bilbo didn't do flips over orcs or kill his wife

But he did have a glowing blue sword

Ah damn that's true.

Now I expect an extended cut scene where Bilbo roasts in Smaug's fire while Gandalf picks up the ring and sword then walks away