[Movies] Star Wars vs Lord of the Rings: FIGHT!
- Thread starter strawman
- Start date
- Status
Lord of the Rings. At least it's not constantly tinkered with and made worse.
EDIT: Plus, I was more of a Star Trek guy than Wars.
EDIT: Plus, I was more of a Star Trek guy than Wars.
Totally ignoring George Lucas and his ride off the crazy train for me it's Star Wars. Han Solo was my childhood idol. I thought the ships were great. My friends and I spent many hours of our youth in lightsaber battles. And on more than one occasion I tried to use the force to move an object in my general vicinity. To date I have not accomplished it. I definitely think LotR's is a better series but something about Star Wars was magical.
I'm thinking you are. I'm talking about living in a world where the movies don't exist. Not in the universe the movies portrayed.
If the Star Wars movies didn't exist we wouldn't have all the cool Star Wars toys (admit it you had them when you were a child), all the cool Star Wars conventions or the gathering of Slave Leia's. Can't recall any LotH conventions or scantily clad women dressed as Hobbits.
http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&h...5&tbnw=141&start=0&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0
http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&h...5&tbnw=141&start=0&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0
Star Wars changed movies forever.
Lord of the Rings just got a bunch of Oscars it didn't deserve and pumped some money into New Zealand.
Lord of the Rings just got a bunch of Oscars it didn't deserve and pumped some money into New Zealand.
For the better though?
I'd like to see what the Lord of the Rings movies would have been like in a world where Star Wars hadn't come along and basically created the summer blockbuster.
No no no. You must choose. It must be one or the other.
You take the blue pill and...wait, no, hang on...
I thought Jaws was considered the death of cinema? It was, after all, the birth of the blockbuster.
Easy question. Rather have Star Wars and no Lord of the Rings. Even though I love the LOTR movies and rewatch those more regularly than I rewatch Star Wars.
While the LOTR books have been incredibly influential on fiction and even science fiction in books and movies, the same can not really be said, to the same extent anyway, of the LOTR movies.
Without the Star Wars movies, we don't have ILM (So, no Jurassic Park, no Terminator 2, basically CG Animation as we know it is gone), which means we don't have Pixar, and even just as far as purely creative influence and not the physical, technical ramifications, its inpired a tonne of science fiction and fantasy, we don't have Firefly, we don't have Alien (And we probably wouldn't have Lord of the Rings anyway).
Without the Lord of the Rings movies, not a whole lot changes. Mo-Cap is less prominent in movies, movies are shorter, and maybe Game of Thrones wouldn't have gotten turned into a TV show (Which is admittedly a huge blow)
Plus, without the Star Wars movies, we don't have any Star Wars comics, books or toys.
But without the Lord of the Rings movies, we still have the Lord of the Rings books.
While the LOTR books have been incredibly influential on fiction and even science fiction in books and movies, the same can not really be said, to the same extent anyway, of the LOTR movies.
Without the Star Wars movies, we don't have ILM (So, no Jurassic Park, no Terminator 2, basically CG Animation as we know it is gone), which means we don't have Pixar, and even just as far as purely creative influence and not the physical, technical ramifications, its inpired a tonne of science fiction and fantasy, we don't have Firefly, we don't have Alien (And we probably wouldn't have Lord of the Rings anyway).
Without the Lord of the Rings movies, not a whole lot changes. Mo-Cap is less prominent in movies, movies are shorter, and maybe Game of Thrones wouldn't have gotten turned into a TV show (Which is admittedly a huge blow)
Plus, without the Star Wars movies, we don't have any Star Wars comics, books or toys.
But without the Lord of the Rings movies, we still have the Lord of the Rings books.
The kids (14-16, couldn't tell) sitting behind me (and not shutting the fuck up) tonight when I went and saw Chronicle were pretty impressed by the Battleship trailer.
North_Ranger
Staff member
I'll be honest, back when I first saw Star Wars (at the tender age of 10-12, I think), I loved the movies to bits. Seriously. I watched Return of the Jedi so many times that in the end the video tape just snapped. I loved the visuals, the story, the music, the characters who while archetypes were also memorable without being walking clichés or cardboard cutouts. I loved how the films felt like they were taking place in this strange yet oddly familiar universe; that when you were watching them, you really were there.
Then came the re-mastered versions in movie theaters. I went to see them because I wanted to see the movies on the silver screen. They were still fantastic, but somehow all of the CG characters added just didn't seem to fit the movie. Like they were there only for showing-off (eg. turning the white walls of Cloud City into views of sunset) or forced comedy (the scene in New Hope where Luke's floating car startles a humongous lizard thingie in Mos Eisley, leaving a Jawa hanging by the reins "comically"). They started feel more like distractions than adding anything new and poignant to the film.
Then came the prequels
And last month, when I tried to watch the originals (re-mastered) that I had taped on TiVo... I just couldn't find myself enjoying them as I had. Everytime I saw those added CGI effects, I remembered this:
And this:
And mother****ing this:
Those images were carved into my mind, and they actually took out a good chunk of the magic and enjoyment I had felt when watching the original trilogy. And reading the articles where George Lucas keeps saying he'll change more... I lost hope when it comes to Star Wars. For me, the movies I loved as a kid are gone.
Therefore, I choose the universe with LotR in it. And spare you the fanboyish rant why I loved them
Then came the re-mastered versions in movie theaters. I went to see them because I wanted to see the movies on the silver screen. They were still fantastic, but somehow all of the CG characters added just didn't seem to fit the movie. Like they were there only for showing-off (eg. turning the white walls of Cloud City into views of sunset) or forced comedy (the scene in New Hope where Luke's floating car startles a humongous lizard thingie in Mos Eisley, leaving a Jawa hanging by the reins "comically"). They started feel more like distractions than adding anything new and poignant to the film.
Then came the prequels
And last month, when I tried to watch the originals (re-mastered) that I had taped on TiVo... I just couldn't find myself enjoying them as I had. Everytime I saw those added CGI effects, I remembered this:
And this:
And mother****ing this:
Those images were carved into my mind, and they actually took out a good chunk of the magic and enjoyment I had felt when watching the original trilogy. And reading the articles where George Lucas keeps saying he'll change more... I lost hope when it comes to Star Wars. For me, the movies I loved as a kid are gone.
Therefore, I choose the universe with LotR in it. And spare you the fanboyish rant why I loved them
North_Ranger
Staff member
For once, Mathias, we are in complete agreement.
I'm with you on jar jar and Anakin, but I thought Yoda's fight scenes were the best in the series, aside from the Darth Maul fight.And mother****ing this:
Those images were carved into my mind, and they actually took out a good chunk of the magic and enjoyment I had felt when watching the original trilogy. And reading the articles where George Lucas keeps saying he'll change more... I lost hope when it comes to Star Wars. For me, the movies I loved as a kid are gone.
Therefore, I choose the universe with LotR in it. And spare you the fanboyish rant why I loved them
As for living in either universe...
Fact is none of you would live as the "heroes".
Star Wars: YOU would be Lars Owen.
Lord of the Rings: YOU would be a farmer living in the West Fold, or a respectable Hobbit living in Hobbiton with no inclination for any sort of adventure.
shitty farm or shitty planet. hmmmmm
Fact is none of you would live as the "heroes".
Star Wars: YOU would be Lars Owen.
Lord of the Rings: YOU would be a farmer living in the West Fold, or a respectable Hobbit living in Hobbiton with no inclination for any sort of adventure.
shitty farm or shitty planet. hmmmmm
North_Ranger
Staff member
I just have to agree with Plinkett when it comes to scenes with Yoda and his lightsaber: in the original trilogy, Yoda was a wise old sage who did not need a lightsaber. The Force was his ally, he didn't need to resort to violence and weaponry. He was a philosopher, a sage, a scholar. Not a bouncing ball of green that looks like he should be going "Arriba! Arriba! Andele! Andele!".
North_Ranger
Staff member
I could think of worse ways to spend one's years. Good company, good food, lovely neighbourhood, tobacco/weed with no side effects... and no Sand People to f*** up your moisture vaporators.
Agreed. Yoda was still old as fuck during the events of ep. I-III. I could buy it if it was perhaps 500 years earlier and he was only a Jedi Knight. Yoda was beyond using a lightsaber as much as a Jedi Knight was beyond using a blaster.
Added at: 07:55
I guess, I was under the assumption that the thread was involving the adventure aspect associated with the films. I think most people in the Star Wars universe were pretty much Lars Owen types - yeah there's cool technology and space travel, but look how long it took Luke to get his ass off on adventure.
As for Lord of the Rings, magic and adventure only exists for a very few. I guess it would be cool to live with the elves in Rivendell...
Added at: 08:01
Personally, I would want to live in the Star Trek universe. That universe has the greatest chance of an average asshole like me to actually do something that's different from current reality. You've got to be super smart to be a cadet in the Federation, but growing up in that universe, I'd imagine that joining the Federation would be akin to joining a civil service organization. I mean, being a captain would be impossible as hell, but I'd be content working in engineering or as a science officer.
North_Ranger
Staff member
Except life sucks if you're a redshirt.
And the only alcohol that you've got is synthenol.
And the only alcohol that you've got is synthenol.
Fixed.
The 'heroes' in both universes can be very exceptional people, true. But I don't think that means even a fairly average person couldn't experience something akin to an 'adventure'.
In SW, if you are a human, join up with the imperial military and fight against the rebels, pirates, or other scum of the universe. Or desert and go over to the rebellion if that's more your thing.
I LotR, a Westfold farmer could travel to Gondor and become a mercenary against Mordor.
A hobbit probably wouldn't have many opportunities for questy type of things. Unless of course if a wizard manipulates a group of dwarves into pressgangin you for a mission where they send you first into the lair of a dragon.
I never quite understood what Gandalf was hoping to accomplish with that, by the way. Surely he didn't think thirteen dwarves and a hobbit had much of chance against a dragon that had soloed Erebor. I don't get it, unless if Gandalf was a bit more ruthless than he comes across in the movies.
North_Ranger
Staff member
Maybe he hoped to find something fat and chewy for Smaug to chew on while he and the dwarves looted the place clean.
I'm pretty sure he planned on meeting back up with them in Laketown, but his errand with the White Council proved to take longer than anticipated.
- Status