Do you all LOTR haters dislike the fantasy genre or just these particular movies? Just curious. (I have no particular interest in defending the movies, by the way, though I'd fight to the death over the books. )
I preferred the films to the books. I've read them twice now, when I was 11 and about 4 years ago. I always thought there was too much time spent on the history and language of every single race or tribe. The Hobbit gets it just right and is his best book by some distance.
Wow, I have no conception of how it could be possible to like the films more than the books. I love The Hobbit, but I think it has less depth, fewer philosophical or mythic musings - it's just a smashingly fun adventure story, and it's the trilogy that I find myself reading over and over again, not The Hobbit. I'm fascinated by what Tolkien was attempting to do with the trilogy - not just write a story but create a myth that burst the boundaries of the books themselves.
I understand. His ambition with the trilogy is staggering but he has too many ideas for the three books. A lot of them can seem tagged on and never fully fleshed out whereas I thought the Hobbit was just a better book even though I concede it does have far less depth than the trilogy. It just works better as a story. The trilogy introduced whole chapters just to get an idea across but they didn't always flow with the rhythm or the tone of the story. For instance I would have loved if he spent more time with the character Tom Bombadil but the story moves swiftly on. I think the three books are good but would have been a better six books.
Six books?! Well, I think you really have to fall in love with Tolkien's creation to want that. Don't get me wrong, I think the books are entertaining, but fantasy is not really my thing. Other than LOTR, I don't touch the fantasy genre, whether in novels or films. I'm a big fan of English novels that are well written, that use the English language well, you know, a bit sophiticated. That's another reason why I thought the trilogy was a fun read. But with regards to the plot, it was a bit long. I think someone in this discussion mentioned that too much time was spent on the backstory of the cultures and languages, and I agree with this.
If your in to this kind of stuff, then have a ball, but I found the length of the books to be more than enough. Any longer and I wonder if I would have finished them.
The films really did it for me. I found them supremely entertaining. It think it had a lot to do with the cast and the action sequences.