I like the way that Star Wars has been held up as the benchmark to which the LOTR movies should aspire to. Star Wars has had a great impact on the collective pop culture of the world, and it will be interesting to see whether PJs films can achieve the same level of popularity or instant recognisability.
I think that the LOTR films start off at a bit of a disadvantage, because they were not about entirely new concepts. When Star Wars came out, we had hitherto no idea about lightsabers, Jedi Knights and the Force, and the moviegoing public had not been treated to such visually spectacular space battles.
On the other hand, hobbits, elves, Rings of Power and orcs have been around since Tolkien wrote the Hobbit. An entire genre of fantasy novels had been spawned long before PJ took up the torch, and we had already had a small spattering of fantasy films such as Willow or The Neverending Story. So, while they are undoubtedly the best fantasy films ever made, they are only one part of an already existing culture.
At a guess, I would say that the books of Tolkien will keep riding the new wave of popularity which was spurred in large part by the movies introducing new fans to Tolkien's work. And that the movies, while great works in their own right, will simply become part of the greater body of Tolkien related works. They may eventually live on as classics, but the books will I think have a greater following in the long run.
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But Gwindor answered: 'The doom lies in yourself, not in your name'.
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