Lord of the Rings is the new Star Wars

[WayneLigon]

I guess we were hoping LotR would be the new Star Wars. How can I really relate how that movie changed everything about movies and science fiction and especially SF movies? It proved that you could have a runaway bestseller that was about aliens and spaceships and good old fashioned fun.

I was hoping LotR would usher in a new age of fantasy on film but so far it hasn't happened like it did with Star Wars. We have Narnia coming up, and others, but it's been a slow, slow process. Maybe studios didn't want to over commit? But since when has that been a problem for them? I dunno.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

so in 25 years the prequals are going to come out and ruin everything?

Gah! Not a 12 hour Silmarillion prequel!!!!

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Yeah, that's along the lines of what I was trying to say. Hit someone at the right phase of his life (usually very early) and it stays.

I agree. And LotR may engender the same nostalgic feelings for you, that Star Wars does for others, who saw it originally during that "magic time" in their lives.

But I don't think it's come anywhere close to having the cultural impact that Star Wars did. A part of that, I think, has to do with the fact that LotR didn't really give us anything new. It gave us better fantasy, but fantasy nonetheless. With the exception of the balrog (which is really just a fire demon like the one seen in End of Days,) everything in LotR can be found in Willow. Not exactly groundbreaking.

Don't get me wrong. I love LotR and own it on DVD. Conversely, I'm not sure if I'm going to buy Episode III. ("Greatest movie of all time," GeoFFields? You can't be serious...) But there's a big difference between saying LotR and Star Wars may affect viewers of similar ages in the same way, and saying they have (or will have) an equal impact on our culture.

 

[shilsen]

Do you think Romeo would have killed Juliet as Anakin did Amidala? I didn't think so.

Edited above for accuracy

 

[Ranger REG]

RE: Movies - Lord of the Rings is the new Star Wars

... I am speaking of course of Peter Jackson's movies, not of the book. It hardly makes sense otherwise, doesn't it?

Oh, I wouldn't say that because I do agree with Crothian, and have expectation that he should screw up the prequel (Hobbits).

But I wouldn't mind Peter Jackson do a re-imagined Star Wars.

Just imagine the power of WETA and ILM working together on effects ... that is unholy. Commence fully-body ecstatic shaking.

 

[Dark Jezter]

But I wouldn't mind Peter Jackson do a re-imagined Star Wars.

I can just see it now. As the Death Star approaches the Yavin moon, sad music plays while we get a drawn-out scene of peasents crying as their sons are taken away and placed in the cockpits of X-Wing fighters.

And then there's a scene where a very feminine-looking Luke jumps out of his Snowspeeder, somehow lands inside of the AT-AT walker, kills everyone inside with cool lightsaber tricks, destroys the controls, and then stylishly rides the top of it as it tumbles to the ground.

 

[Silver Moon]

So, based on your comparison, does that mean that Peter Jackson's "King Kong" will have the same level of success as George Lucas's "Howard the Duck" ?

 

[Blue_Kryptonite]

so in 25 years the prequals are going to come out and ruin everything?

I'm sure it won't take 25 years to put The Silmarillion on film.

 

[Ranger REG]

So, based on your comparison, does that mean that Peter Jackson's "King Kong" will have the same level of success as George Lucas's "Howard the Duck" ?

Gawd, I hope not.

At least he's heading in the right direction, by NOT making it a modern remake, like the 1970's version.

 

[Esteban]

So, based on your comparison, does that mean that Peter Jackson's "King Kong" will have the same level of success as George Lucas's "Howard the Duck" ?

GAAH! Still the worst movie I ever paid to see, and that's saying something...

As for the idea that Lord of the Rings is the new Star Wars - I have to agree. Like many people here, I grew up with Star Wars - even saw the RotJ with a bunch of friends the day of my high school graduation. Still, it was differant world back then. A large portion of the world's population (Soviet Union, China, Eastern Europe) didn't know what Star Wars was and never got to see the movies. Even this summer, while legions of costumed fans lined up in America and Western Europe there was hardly the same energy and enthusiasm in places like the Czech Republic or Russia. Compare that to the number of Lord of the Rings (book and movie) fans in those countries. My point is that the Lord of the Rings was a worldwide phenomenon.

And it's also influencing our culture. Just today I was reading an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer comparing the extensive limestone caverns in a county in Eastern Kentucky as similar to the 'Mines of Moria from the Lord of the Rings' and I just saw a guy in a Miata with the license plate '2 Hobbit'.

-Steve