Comparative discussion on the fantasy dilemma

Rating: 10/10 (12 December 2001)

I must say that Lord of the Rings the movie is a complex, astounding, and a bloody brilliant work of art (pardon my English). The movie takes the book and repairs the faults it had. The book is a bit dry and tedious in places which slows down the pace of the thing, but in the movie you can see how close evil snaps at frodo's heels. The closeup of the ugly and gory orcs and goblins is a mark of Peter Jackson, he's not afraid to use ugliness to get a reaction from a crowd.
I also just like the concept of the thing, there is only elementary magic which the highest magicians can use, basic telekinesis, and influential magic can be seen used, and gandalf uses a plain horse to get from one place to another (and horses are expensive so not a lot of people have them). The world created by J.R.R. Tolkien is not a world of fireballs, and flying brooms, it is a world where the most powerful item in the world is a small ring, which can at first sight make you invisible and in the end corrupts your soul.
I would not try to compare Harry Potter with Lord of the Rings. Yes they both have magic, but that is the only obvious similarity they share. If we take it out, then Harry potter is generally just about a geek which finds school life to be rewarding (and in a school of geeks he is the coolest geek of them all), and helps defend a priceless stone from being captured into the wrong hands (and ***diminutive spoiler*** the same guy who tries to capture the stone is the guy who killed his parents). Lord of the Rings is then generally about a small geek who is thrust out of his normal cosy life into a violent and perilous adventure in which the whole world might stand or fall with his actions. The difference is quite a large one if you take the magic out of them both.
People who will fall in love with Harry potter but not Lord of the Rings are people who like plainly obvious plots, simple conversations and other safe and predictable movies.
People who will fall in love with Lord of the Rings, but not harry potter are people who have grown up out of the kiddie movies and want some "real" fantasy plots (real meaning fantasy movies which are finally taken seriously) with great actors, polished storyline, superb CG and some bloomin' heck to boot.
Generally people will like and love them both, Harry potter as a great children's movie, and Lord of the Rings as a great film classic.