[Thenamir]

RE: Fantasy and film

I believe that the LOTR films will remain as classics for one reason in particular – that they are the first films that took the fantasy genre seriously, gave it the treatment it deserved.

In all movie making, there is an attempt to create a suspension-of-disbelief that makes us who watch the flick engage and even believe, if only for a short time. The aforementioned Neverending Story (OK) and Willow (horrors!) and most other fantasy films that I could name were made almost winking-and-elbowing the audience into an artificial form of that suspension-of-disbelief, as if to say, “yes, we know that we don’t have the budget of an insurance commercial, let alone a feature film, just humor us.” In my opinion, anytime you have a Muppet as a main character in a movie that does not clearly have the word “Muppet” in the title, you’re wasting my money and insulting my artistic intelligence. (The same could be said about any movie starring David Bowie, but that’s a minor digression.)

PJ’s Lord of the Rings will be remembered as the first fantasy film with to which was given enough resources (in time, talent, budget, and attention to detail) to bring a beloved story (reasonably) faithfully to the screen. Comparing LOTR to prior fantasy films is rather like comparing old black-and-white sci-fi a la Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon to the first Star Wars movie, now known as Episode IV, A New Hope. And just as Star Wars revived the sci-fi genre (look at all the quality sci-fi that has come out since…along with some not-so-quality stuff), the LOTR movies have revived the fantasy genre – the floodgates are open, Narnia (wow!) Eragon (yawn) are just two examples, and more are in the works.

I’m with most folks here, I wasn’t 100% happy with everything that PJ did with the books to make a good movie, but as a movie I was definitely 100% happy with the results. It’s an amazing achievement, and I think it will be well remembered down thru history.