Star Wars Ep. 4,5,6, Vs The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

[corianderstem]

I won't lie - I was so excited for The Phanton Menace, and even the next one. I won't lie again - I really liked them at first. There was really nothing like sitting in a big theater with a couple hundred other people who'd grown up with the Star Wars movies erupting in cheers and applause when the first images came on the screen.

It was only upon further reflection and viewings that I realized they kinda sucked. But it was fun to go see them. And they each had their moments (none of which involved JarJar Binks).

I mean, come on ... Liam Neeson and Ewan MacGregor? They got points just for that.

 

[phanan]

I meant that the feel, look and theme of Star Wars was around in the form of everything from Flash Gordon to Lost In Space. I should have made that clearer.

Ah, ok. Yes, Lucas was definitely inspired by those old flicks.

But he still came up with Star Wars all on his own. LOTR has been around long before the movies.

 

[Screwtape2]

Ah, ok. Yes, Lucas was definitely inspired by those old flicks.

But he still came up with Star Wars all on his own. LOTR has been around long before the movies.

But LOTR has a completly unique feel and doesn't feel like the books at all. Star Wars on the other hand just feels like another cheap science fiction show with the exception of Empire. Taking inspiration isn't back, I just have a hard time excepting that something as unique and beautiful as LOTR could be less than a film that could get lost in similar movies. There are no movies similar to LOTR.

 

[U2Kitten]

I won't lie - I was so excited for The Phanton Menace, and even the next one. I won't lie again - I really liked them at first. There was really nothing like sitting in a big theater with a couple hundred other people who'd grown up with the Star Wars movies erupting in cheers and applause when the first images came on the screen.

It was only upon further reflection and viewings that I realized they kinda sucked. But it was fun to go see them. And they each had their moments (none of which involved JarJar Binks).

My brother was one of those guys who waited in line to see it at midnight when it opened. He got real excited too, then said how he covered his face and sunk lower and lower in his seat as TPM got worse and worse. I hadn't seen it since the theater and I rented it a few weeks ago. It's a BAD movie. But I am not a prequel basher and I get real annoyed with all those purists who bitch that Lucas 'ruined' the saga with them.

ROTS was worthy of the saga, but it gave me a completely different view of Vader than I got from the old movies. A BETTER one, one that made me feel sorry for him instead of hating him. Before I'd thought he was just some asshole who ditched his wife and babies of his own free will to go with the Emperor. Now I can't ever feel the same way about Anakin, all I can see is this pitiful hot guy crying and worrying about his wife, and getting duped by a mean old man.

I mean, come on ... Liam Neeson and Ewan MacGregor? They got points just for that.

Yeah

 

[fly so high!]

 

[God Part III]

well, this poll is star wars vs. lotr. not sure why you need to have seen gone with the wind in order to compare these two.

Don't ever watch Gone With The Wind, whatsoever

What I mean is the more movies you see, the easier it is to seperate the bad from the good ones. Like now, for instance.

 

[God Part III]

But LOTR has a completly unique feel and doesn't feel like the books at all. Star Wars on the other hand just feels like another cheap science fiction show with the exception of Empire. Taking inspiration isn't back, I just have a hard time excepting that something as unique and beautiful as LOTR could be less than a film that could get lost in similar movies. There are no movies similar to LOTR.

LOTR is one of many adaptations, one of many epic movie trilogies, and it should be noted that without Star Wars, the LOTR movies would never have been made.

Nothing is special about LOTR except for the story, which was what secured its success.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

LOTR is one of many adaptations, one of many epic movie trilogies, and it should be noted that without Star Wars, the LOTR movies would never have been made.

Nothing is special about LOTR except for the story, which was what secured its success.

I was going to make this point earlier but there is a fundamental flaw in your logic here... Without LOTR (the books) there would probably be no Star Wars.

On the movie side, I agree that LOTR would probably not exist without SW blazing the trail in terms of special effects and CG (especially with the dreaded special editions and Episode I).

In terms of story however, the archetype characters of Luke, Han, Obi Wan, Vader, Lea, etc all have roots in LOTR. Now, I'm not going to totally praise Tolkien here either since he pretty much lifted a great deal from early mythologies such a Beowulf and King Arthur but I look at him and Lucas as two peas in a pod; they both reinvented a classic tale for a new generation in an accessible manner.

 

[Screwtape2]

LOTR is one of many adaptations, one of many epic movie trilogies, and it should be noted that without Star Wars, the LOTR movies would never have been made.

Nothing is special about LOTR except for the story, which was what secured its success.

All films are basically adaptions in the sense that one is putting a vision that is confined to words and illustrations to film. It is what you do with it that determines how good the movie is. LOTR was just words on a page, basically colorless and mute. What Peter Jackson did was turn those words into a world that you could live in and touch. Middle Earth has a feel like no other place in film history.

 

[U2girl]

"The Empire Strikes Back, and Terminator 2 are the best sequels ever" - right after Godfather part II.

It took time to make LOTR because the effects weren't evolved enough, and there was nobody around to try and take on such a famous story. I enjoy both trilogies and both are in my top movies - I watched the DVDs of LOTR movies last week and I thought "this must be what S. Wars must have felt like". Maybe a slight nudge to S. Wars for the s. effects impact and the pop-culture significance.

I will say that LOTR is probably the first major movie trilogy I can think of (S. Wars, Godfather...) where a certain episode isn't significantly weaker than the previous ones, even if that is due to the awesome source. As a book fan I do wish certain stuff was done differently (Gimli, Faramir and leaving out Scouring of the Shire) and the last movie had too many endings, but I disagree with the purists that disliked the films. It is, after all, an adaptation and an interpretation, not a straight re-telling of the story page by page. I never saw the alleged homosexualness of hobbits or elves.

 

[U2Kitten]

 

[Copy]

I was going to make this point earlier but there is a fundamental flaw in your logic here... Without LOTR (the books) there would probably be no Star Wars.

QFT.

 

[Canadiens1131]

Books schmooks; books are for losers. just like reading.

 

[LMP]

"The Empire Strikes Back, and Terminator 2 are the best sequels ever" - right after Godfather part II.

What about Aliens? Huh? Huh? Huh? It's in the Top 5.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

What about Aliens? Huh? Huh? Huh? It's in the Top 5.

along with Airplane II (better than the original IMO)

 

[LMP]

along with Airplane II (better than the original IMO)

It's good and has Shatner, but I still like the original more.

X-2: X-Men United was an amazing sequel, as was Back to the Future Part II and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan.

 

[Screwtape2]

It's good and has Shatner, but I still like the original more.

X-2: X-Men United was an amazing sequel, as was Back to the Future Part II and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan.

It is kind of sad how had bad X-Men 3 and Star Trek 3 were considering the direction both films could have taken. That's probably the biggest knock on Return Of The Jedi. There was so much potential in it that was never seen.

 

[LMP]

The Search for Spock was a solid movie, but is bad compared to the bookends of that 3 movie story arc: Wrath of Khan and The Voyage Home.

A Bryan Singer X-Men 3 would've been the shit, instead we got an amazing reboot of the Superman series. Win-win.

 

[Lancemc]

There's also one major flaw in logic here as well. The LOTR novels don't mean shit in this debate. This is about the films through and through and only the films.

But aaaaaaanyway. A Bryan Singer X-Men 3 would NOT have been shit. Instead we got a terrible X-Men sequel and a completely disappointing Superman reboot.

 

[dietcokeofevil]

I have tried on more than one occasion to stay awake during the Lord of the Rings films.

I haven't pulled it off yet. Everybody in my family hates me for it.

 

[Canadiens1131]

The LOTR trilogy were so awesome on the big screen. At home, I could fall asleep to them.

 

[U2Man]

maybe you need a 42" plasma screen and a surround system.

 

[Blue Room]

I was going to make this point earlier but there is a fundamental flaw in your logic here... Without LOTR (the books) there would probably be no Star Wars.

Really? I have never seen an interview where Lucas has mentioned LOTR as any type of inspiration for Star Wars. I'm not saying you are wrong because certainly I havent seen every interview or read every word Lucas has said about the subject. Do you have a specific interview or book where he said that as I'm curious?

What I have read or heard Lucas say is that his inspiration for Star Wars was Flash Gordon and the Saturday afternoon serials that played at theaters when he was a kid (where he got the inspiration for Indiana Jones also). I know he looked into mythology, etc. while writing the screenplay. But he had the basic story in his head, he used historical and mythological stuff for the details in the story which might explain some similarities but not the story itself. But I havent ever seen him mention LOTR specifically.

Peter Jackson has however said that Star Wars and what Lucas had done was one of his inspirations to make a BIG movie like LOTR. He said it in the TV tribute they did for Lucas. Of course maybe he was just saying that for the special. But I dont think so.

 

[U2Kitten]

There's also one major flaw in logic here as well. The LOTR novels don't mean shit in this debate. This is about the films through and through and only the films.

They do mean something big in my opinion, because it's the fact that the movies don't live up to my visions from the books that made me choose Star Wars.

 

[hcbiggs2002]

Why the trilogy of Lord of The Rings of course! So long as you take LOTR trilogy movies at face value and forget about the actual books they're based on. Coz it's an almost impossible job to reproduce the books in their entirerity into movie format, I mean the movies as they are are all over 3 hours long or more!! But I think Peter Jackson did an amazing job of keeping true to the essence of JRR Tolkien vision of Middle Earth and even though I love the Star Wars trilogy too but LOTR is far suprieor in every way!

 

[Saracene]

LoTR films trump Star Wars for me on virtually every level. I've never been that much into Star Wars - I first watched the trilogy when I was 16 or so and while I liked it I didn't love it. I didn't much like LoTR books either but I absolutely adore the films. Fantasy/epic films are so very, very hard to do right and Peter Jackson did a spectacular job IMO.

 

[U2girl]

http://www.spookybug.com/origins/lotr.html

 

[mdw3935]

It's Star Wars for me. I do love LOTR but nothing will beat watching Star Wars: A New Hope on the big screen when it came out when I was 7 years old.

 

[mdw3935]

http://www.randomescape.com/RandomLink5_03_07.htm

This might run a close second.

Chewbroccoli

 

[God Part III]

I was going to make this point earlier but there is a fundamental flaw in your logic here... Without LOTR (the books) there would probably be no Star Wars.

On the movie side, I agree that LOTR would probably not exist without SW blazing the trail in terms of special effects and CG (especially with the dreaded special editions and Episode I).

In terms of story however, the archetype characters of Luke, Han, Obi Wan, Vader, Lea, etc all have roots in LOTR. Now, I'm not going to totally praise Tolkien here either since he pretty much lifted a great deal from early mythologies such a Beowulf and King Arthur but I look at him and Lucas as two peas in a pod; they both reinvented a classic tale for a new generation in an accessible manner.

Well, if there is a flaw in my logic there is in yours as well - as you say, the characters and story of Star Wars is that of mythical archetypes. The LOTR books really doesn't mean anything for Star Wars, the greatest influence is probably Flash Gordon, along with Kurosawa probably.

And what I mean by Star Wars leading the way for LOTR is not just CG, it's risk. Epic moviemaking had been dead since the early 60's, and those were historical films. Nobody had ever put such a huge budget in fantasy filmmaking. Star Wars is probably the most influential film in American filmmaking since Citizen Kane or some of Hitchcock's films.