I have to confess, I have never read a Harry Potter book and have only seen a very few bits and pieces of Harry Potter movies. When Harry Potter came out for the first time I picked up the book in the library and glanced through it. Around that time I was reading the fantasy novels of Jack Vance (Lyonesse was one) . In my opinion, Vance was a better writer than JK Rowling , though I know many many take a different view. I read Lord Of The Rings trilogy about 40 years ago. Saw all of the movies and loved them. I have also seen 6 or 7 of the Star wars movies, including the three most recent. Never read a Star Wars novel. Lord Of The Rings is a deeply engrossing work of story telling and pure heroism vs. evil. So many characters are a little hard to follow, but it is a true epic, and the movies even improved on the book in some ways. Has to be Lord Of The Rings for me.
I've never seen Lord of the Rings. It's hard to choose between Harry Potter and Star Wars. I enjoyed them both for different reasons. I haven't seen all of the Harry Potter movies but really enjoyed the ones I have seen, especially the first one and the Half Blood Prince.
If you've never seen the movies you're lucky because you still have the chance to read the books first but make sure you read "The Hobbit" first then "The Lord of the Rings" Trilogy.
I remember in high school having to read the Trilogy. I could not make sense of any of them. If the teacher had told us about the Hobbit, maybe it would have helped. I have never seen the HP or TLOTR movies. A few weeks ago I did attempt to watch the first HP movie, but changed channels about a half hour into it.
The book "The Hobbit" is also called "There and Back Again" but the one book was turned into three movies and they are called "An Unexpected Journey", "The Desolation of Smaug", and "The Battle of the five Armies. The Book "There and Back Again" is actually the book that Bilbo wrote and gave to Frodo saying he would have to finish it in "The Lord of the Rings" books
I read the first book, "There and, back again" and, refused to read the others, I waited for the movies and, got more out of them than out of the book I had read. I just hate it when they mix up a series like they did when they came out with Lord of the Rings, An Unexpected Journey should have been first.
People tend to either Love The Hobbit and LOTR books or they just can't get into them. As it's been said the Songs and Elvish Poetry can be a little hard to get through but if the books draw you in they become part of you. If you think the LOTR is a hard read you should try "The Silmarillion" it's not the type of book you just read through it's more like the Encyclopedia Britannica of Middle Earth with History, Legends, Family lineages. It's fine to be a LOTR fan but if you find yourself studying the Silmarillion you have gone to far.
Excellent suggestion because books were written to exercise the imagination of the literate mind.
Once transferred to the interpretation of a director or a producer's interpretation much is usually lost.
( look at the film adaptation of Catch 22 )
In the case of Lord of the Rings and some other stories, universal love sometimes fuels a universal adaptation which often doesn't live up to our literary imaginations.
Much to the disappointment of those with superior imaginations.
( although among great literary works and trilogies, The Lord of the rings ranks right up there with the Harry Potter series of movies.)
Those with inferior imaginations or who did not bother to red the 1478 pages or the Silmarillion firdt edition of another 365 pages of background and lineage.
I love Harry Potter. We are a family of Potter heads. I enjoyed the fact that this magical world existed within ours and that you got to see how young wizards grew up. The characters were interesting and dynamic and the stories were well told.
I have two nieces who went to Disney World some years ago specifically to attend the opening day of the Harry Potter theme park, or whatever it is there, so I know there are many rabid fans.
Yeah, me, too. I have all the Harry Potter books. I loved how the kids grew from little kids to adults. And I liked how JK Rowling wrote about "life". People die in various ways and she didn't sugar coat it.
( Game of Thrones ... might even be tied for first with Potter )
Lord of the Rings (with The Hobbit)
Star Wars
Harry Potter is intriguing in that it ties together all the magical lore we have heard into a single story. It makes it possible to conceive of magic actually coexisting our Muggle world. And I think the books are very well written with great storylines that all tie together well across seven books.
Game of Thrones is just an awesome story with interesting, varied characters and quite believable adventures. It is exciting, unpredictable and really pulls on one's emotions. An extraordinarily good series of books.
Lord of the Rings is masterful. See above regarding GoT. It is just that I like the storylines of GoT better than LoR. GoT is far more complex.
Star Wars is simplistic stories with okay characters. It is creative and fun, but for the most part it is successful due to the special effects in the movies.
Star Wars is simplistic stories with okay characters. It is creative and fun, but for the most part it is successful due to the special effects in the movies.
I agree-- the special effects were awesome! (Especially at the time the series started, I believe they wereadvanced for that time). But other than that,the other stuff was OK-- but nothing special.
Star Wars is simplistic stories with okay characters. It is creative and fun, but for the most part it is successful due to the special effects in the movies.
Some of the adaptations were fun. This one is by "Improve Anywhere":
Having grown up reading at a young age the fantasy and science fiction pulp magazines handed down by my older brother, I developed a definite affinity to such stories. In some ways I agree with John's opinion of the three choices. I watched the first Potter movie, but only parts of the others, and only because I would watch Alan Rickman in virtually ANY part he had played. Although I never read any of the Potter series, in fact NONE of the novels connected with any of the choices here, I did read and liked a couple other Rowland novels.
As for Star Wars, being the science fiction follower I always was, I did enjoy the first series (IV, V & VI), tolerated the next three (I, II & III) but thought that Mel Brooks' spoof 'Spaceballs' was more repeatedly watchable: "Just what we need, a Druish princess." and "I'm surrounded by Assholes."
My prize goes to the Rings trilogy. Having been a weekend hippie during the 60s and early 70s, I'm ashamed for never having read the hippie bible, Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings', but I was exonerated due to having read Heinlein's 'Stranger in a Strange Land'. The Rings trilogy I could easily watch over and over. After all, not only was I once compared to Gandalf, but I think of myself more like Bilbo Baggins, who considered himself never too old for a new adventure - and isn't that what I'm doing, living now in China?
I finally got to see Star Wars - Episode VII yesterday, and was pretty disappointed. First of all, why did something have to happen to break Chewie's heart, and I guess I was saddened seeing Carrie Fisher's reprise, knowing she passed away not long after acting in the new trilogy.
Although I don't have program listings for what is shown on Chinese TV stations, I'm hoping to see Episodes VIII and IX, now that they've shown Episode VII. They show movies in series here - like all the James Bond movies, all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, all the Indiana Jones movies, etc. (not necessarily one right after the other, but within the next day or two).
Although I have not seen the subsequent 2 remaining episodes, and don't know whether Han and Leia's son gets turned around, perhaps even is the one who defeats the evil leader, but it would be just retribution if Chewie were to do him in.
I read the LOTR and the Hobbit books when I was young. I think they are very spiritual in a way. I give Peter Jackson raves for what he did for the movies. That was no easy task. Very hard to bring to life and he did a great job.
Never read the Potter books. The movies were good, enjoyable, just seemed to be geared to a younger audience. Rowling was brilliant in the way the protagonists and the audience could kind of grow up together.
I was young for the original three star wars movies. Had some of the original action figures. Looking back, I wish I had kept them. I watched all the three originals but I never actually watched the later three. Just have seen parts here and there.
I was really young when Star Wars came out. My mom took me to see the movie and I remember being absolutely enthralled and mesmerized. What a fantastic world! Me and my siblings went home and played out the scenes.
Harry Potter and LOTR I was blessed to share with my sons. My youngest son would sit for days reading each book until he was finished. I remember we were on our way to the beach one year when one of the HP books was released and we had to stop on the way to pick up the book. He sat under a beach umbrella and read that darn book through our whole vacation. He still is a ferocious reader.
LOTR was another fantastical world. It was amazing to watch it come to life on the screen.
I loved them all for different reasons because they were important to me during different times in my life. They each hold memories that I share with my siblings or my sons.
This was also 40 odd tears ago. I had recently finished Isaak Azimov's Foundation Trilogy and my girlfriend had gone to visit Europe with her family for a month, or so.
After having read the Foundation Trilogy I enjoyed the Trilogy concept.
Having a little time on my hands I decided to go to the book store. Yep, a real book store, and looked around. Lord of the Rings caught my eye. On the way home I stopped by my favorite deli to get an Italian hoagie and a 6 pack of "English" beer. It would have been John Courage or Harp.
Started reading and thoroughly enjoyed it from page 1. Tolkien did a good job of setting the scenes and bringing the characters and action to life.
Years later when the movie came out I had doubts any movie could do the books justice. But I was wrong. The movies were good.
I appreciated a gift my girlfriend brought me from her stay in London; a first edition, autographed copy of Watership Down by Richard Adams.
HP and LOTR would be tied, except for the fact that, IMO, the LOTR books need to be "skimmed" to be readable. LOTR is one of the few instances of the movies being better than the books. I liked the story in the books, but I LOVED the movies. Tolkien's books had too many fluffy songs that annoyed me on first reading, and which I just skipped altogether on later readings. They were tedious, generally silly, and detracted from the story.
HP, even though it was geared toward kids, never slipped into the trap of being childish. Rowlings doesn't underestimate kids' intelligence or talk down to them. Great storyline (ok, maybe the ending is a bit of a copout), great characters, wonderful attention to detail and research into myth and legend.
I grew up on Star Wars. I loved the original trilogy, but the quality has gone downhill since then.
3. LOTR. I don;t know why but I just can't stand the movies. I fall asleep every time. And I can't read the books. Tried reading "The Hobbit" when I was in 7th grade and gave up because Tolkien uses language that is just too flowery or something.
The flowery language doesn't bother me. It's when characters burst into silly songs. I could happily have strangled Tom Bombadil, and I thought Peter Jackson was brilliant for leaving him out of the movies.
I only saw the movies for Star Wars and Harry Potter and while they were ok movies never live up to what your imagination can come up with when reading a book, so meh on these two. LOTR I've never seen the movies (and never will) only read the book and if you have a decent imagination books are always better.
I only saw the movies for Star Wars and Harry Potter and while they were ok movies never live up to what your imagination can come up with when reading a book, so meh on these two.
Gotta say the books are great, they have a lot more detail than any of the movies and, the way J.K. writes she puts you right in the scene.
I've read all of the Hobbit, LOTR books many times over, read all of the Harry Potter books and read most of the Star Wars books (the Timothy Zahn books were awesome). I've seen all the movie franchises several times over (only watched episode 8 once).
I would have to say that from a book perspective, LOTR takes the cake. It's incredibly well written and creates a fantasy world that you can almost smell, hear and touch, with unique flora and fauna, and most fantasy books written since have simply tried to emulate such a masterpiece. The Potter books were enjoyable but for a much younger crowd. The Star Wars books were very enjoyable but didn't have the depth that LOTR's has.
As for the movies, I thought the Peter Jackson movies were quite good, though they strayed from the books in many ways which to me was neither needed nor appreciated.
The Harry Potter books were definitely a more faithful rendition of the books, with some minor exceptions, though I felt the series seemed to thin out at the end to the point of almost becoming a boring push to finish them.
The Star Wars films which I was lucky enough to see all their first releases in theatres, were at first incredible. Seeing Star Wars in the theatre as a youth I was enamored with it which is why I sought out the many book series that were generated after it gained such fame. However, after Episode 1, 2 & 3 were released, which I felt were just marketing vehicles used to generate money, it left me disappointed. Episode 1 & 2 especially were simply terrible and if you re-watch them today you can see nearly every scene was filmed where the actors walk from one edge of a green screen to another. I believe what made the first movie so great was the challenges that the puppeteers, animatronics, engineers and set designers faced when trying to bring such a fantasy to life. With Episodes 1, 2 & 3 they were using CGI for no reason, just to slap you in the face with their new technology which made them clunky and pointless.
As for the last 3 Star Wars installments (Rogue One, Episode 7 & 8) I thought Rogue One was great, it felt like they recaptured some of the first movies pace, drive and grit. Episode 7 was decent though it played like a ham handed reboot of the original. Episode 8 was awful, they went back to the same pointless scenes and broken story lines that went nowhere. What was the point of Rey going in to face her fears in the cave heavy with the dark side? What was the point of the entire mission to disable Snokes ship? Why didn't the first ships that ran out of fuel turn and use their hyperdrives as a weapon as Laura Dern does with the main ship? Why show us Lukes X-wing in the water? There were just so many holes I felt the film makers were just slapping me in the face with my own love for the series repeating "why are you hitting yourself, why are you hitting yourself". I would almost rather watch the old Star Wars Holiday Special (which is gawd awful) with Harvey Korman as bumbling Chef Gormaanda and Bea Arthur singing a horribly bad Cantina song, than watch episode 8 again.
So all in all, I would have to vote LOTR as the winner of franchises with excellent books and decent movies (I even liked the old cartoon movies they made and cartoon Hobbit made for tv special) with Harry Potter coming in as a distant second place. If Lucas had stuck to just the first three movies I might have them in second, but as it is, the rest of the films drag them down to not even finishing the race.
If I'm remembering the right story it's about a man that travels into the past and, ends up in WWII Germany at a prisoner of war camp just before the fire bombing of Dresden.
Plot[edit] The story is told in a nonlinear order, and events become clear through flashbacks (or time travel experiences) from the unreliable narrator. He describes the stories of Billy Pilgrim, who believes he was held in an alien zoo and has experienced time travel. Billy Pilgrim, a chaplain's assistant in the United States Army during World War II, is an ill-trained, disoriented, and fatalistic American soldier who refuses to fight ("Billy wouldn't do anything to save himself").[3] He does not like war and is captured in 1944 by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. Billy approaches death due to a string of events. Before the Germans capture Billy, he meets Roland Weary, a patriot, warmonger, and bully (just out of childhood like Billy), who derides the soldier's cowardice. When Weary is captured, the Germans confiscate everything he has, including his boots, giving him hinged, wooden clogs to wear; Weary eventually dies in Luxembourg of gangrene caused by wounds from the stiff clogs. While dying in a railcar full of prisoners, Weary convinces fellow soldier, Paul Lazzaro, that Billy is to blame for his death. Lazzaro vows to avenge Weary's death by killing Billy, because revenge is "the sweetest thing in life." At this moment, Billy becomes "unstuck in time" and has flashbacks from his former life. Billy and the other prisoners are transported by the Germans to Luxembourg. By 1945, the Germans transport the prisoners to Dresden to work in "contract labor" (forced labor). The Germans hold Billy and his fellow prisoners in an empty Dresden slaughterhouse, "Schlachthof-fünf," "slaughterhouse five." During the extensive bombing by the Allies, German guards hide with the prisoners of war in a deep cellar. This results in their being among the few survivors of the firestorm that raged in the city between 13 and 15 February 1945. After V-E Day in May 1945, Billy is transferred to the United States and receives his honorable discharge in July 1945. Soon, Billy is hospitalized with symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder and placed under psychiatric care. A man named Eliot Rosewater introduces Billy to the novels of an obscure science fiction author named Kilgore Trout. After his release, Billy marries Valencia Merble. Valencia's father owns the Ilium School of Optometry that Billy later attends. In 1947, Billy and Valencia's first child, Robert, is born. Two years later their daughter Barbara is born. On Barbara's wedding night, Billy is captured by an alien space ship and taken to a planet light-years away from Earth called Tralfamadore. The Tralfamadorians are described as seeing in four dimensions, simultaneously observing all points in the space-time continuum. They universally adopt a fatalistic worldview: Death means nothing but "so it goes". On Tralfamadore, Billy is put in a transparent geodesic dome exhibit in a zoo; the dome represents a house on Earth. The Tralfamadorians later abduct a movie star named Montana Wildhack, who had disappeared and was believed to have drowned herself in the Pacific Ocean. They intend to have her mate with Billy. She and Billy fall in love and have a child together. Billy is instantaneously sent back to Earth in a time warp to relive past or future moments of his life. In 1968, Billy and a copilot are the only survivors of a plane crash. Valencia dies of carbon monoxide poisoning while driving to visit Billy in the hospital. Billy shares a hospital room with Bertram Rumfoord, a Harvard history professor. They discuss the bombing of Dresden, which the professor claims was justified, despite the great loss of civilian lives and destruction of the city. Billy's daughter takes him home to Ilium. He escapes and flees to New York City. In Times Square he visits a pornographic book store. Billy discovers books written by Kilgore Trout and reads them. Later in the evening, when he discusses his time-travels to Tralfamadore on a radio talk show, he is evicted from the studio. He returns to his hotel room, falls asleep, and time-travels back to 1945 in Dresden, where the book ends. Due to the non-chronological story telling, other parts of Billy's life are told throughout the book. After being evicted from the radio studio, Barbara treats Billy as a child and often monitors him. Robert becomes starkly anti-Communist and a Green Beret. Billy eventually dies in 1976 after giving a speech in a baseball stadium in which he predicts his own death and claims that "if you think death is a terrible thing, then you have not understood a word I've said." Billy is soon after shot by an assassin with a laser gun, commissioned by the elderly Lazzaro.
I think most of his works that I've read were short stories, so maybe he didn't have time to wander so much.
I think in his bio it said that he fought in WWII at the Battle of the Bulge and, was captured, that's were his idea for Slaughter House five came from.
Gotta go with Lord O The Ring Toss here. In both novels and movies for its scope, breadth, darkness, brutality and its nature of allegory in regard to WWI, the future of mankind and a mechanized world.
Harry Potter was alright and fun. Never read the books and really only enjoyed the movies when the kids got older.
Star Wars is just too dang cute and kid oriented for my taste. I would say the tv series The Expanse is far superior.
Wow, LOTR is the ultimate fantasy of the good versus evil, with good always on the precipice of absolute darkness.....even if evil should win, temporarily.
Tolkien’s ethos is not that good will always triumph over evil. Rather, it is that good is locked in a constant struggle against evil, and that victory is far from inevitable and always temporary. Nonetheless, the fight is still necessary and worthwhile. Even in the face of futility, even if it is all a part of “the long defeat,” as Galadriel describes her ages-long fight against the dark ( The Fellowship of the Ring, “The Mirror of Galadriel”), it is valuable to remember the infinitely wise words of Samwise Gamgee’s song in The Two Towers :
Though here at journey’s end I lie in darkness buried deep, beyond all towers strong and high, beyond all mountains steep, above all shadows rides the Sun and Stars forever dwell: I will not say the Day is done, nor bid the Stars farewell.
Welll, maybe it's my bad. Perhaps that is what religion is always about, convincing people that evil is always at the gate and threatening the innocent...
I have to confess, I have never read a Harry Potter book and have only seen a very few bits and pieces of Harry Potter movies. When Harry Potter came out for the first time I picked up the book in the library and glanced through it. Around that time I was reading the fantasy novels of Jack Vance (Lyonesse was one) . In my opinion, Vance was a better writer than JK Rowling , though I know many many take a different view.
I read Lord Of The Rings trilogy about 40 years ago. Saw all of the movies and loved them. I have also seen 6 or 7 of the Star wars movies, including the three most recent. Never read a Star Wars novel.
Lord Of The Rings is a deeply engrossing work of story telling and pure heroism vs. evil. So many characters are a little hard to follow, but it is a true epic, and the movies even improved on the book in some ways. Has to be Lord Of The Rings for me.
I've never seen Lord of the Rings. It's hard to choose between Harry Potter and Star Wars. I enjoyed them both for different reasons. I haven't seen all of the Harry Potter movies but really enjoyed the ones I have seen, especially the first one and the Half Blood Prince.
You HAVE to watch Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers and Return of the King! I highly recommend it.
Plan a weekend when it's raining or snowing and settle in for a treat. I think you'll really enjoy it.
"The Return of the King" was my Favorite.
I enjoyed both Lord of the Rings and Return of the King best out of the 3.
The "Special Effects" and the Story in ALL of them was awesome !
Here's one of my favorite scenes.
Only a "Women" can kill him.
The ending ending kinda reminds me of what our military guys and gals deserve. "You bow to no one" !
Oliphaunts.
LOL.
If you've never seen the movies you're lucky because you still have the chance to read the books first but make sure you read "The Hobbit" first then "The Lord of the Rings" Trilogy.
I agree
I fell asleep in the movie theater watching the Two Towers
My one issue with this trilogy was that Samwise Gamgee cried ALL THE TIME!
I was like "Is Sam crying?" Then I was like "Why the hell is Sam crying" Finally I just started say "JC he's crying again"!
Man up little dude - STOP crying!
I was embarrassed for him.
I fell asleep watching the first installment of "The Hobbit". I didn't bother watching the rest.
That is the Hobbit version.
There is another name for them too, but I can't remember it.
Actually they are... Hefalumps!
I remember in high school having to read the Trilogy. I could not make sense of any of them. If the teacher had told us about the Hobbit, maybe it would have helped. I have never seen the HP or TLOTR movies. A few weeks ago I did attempt to watch the first HP movie, but changed channels about a half hour into it.
The book "The Hobbit" is also called "There and Back Again" but the one book was turned into three movies and they are called "An Unexpected Journey", "The Desolation of Smaug", and "The Battle of the five Armies. The Book "There and Back Again" is actually the book that Bilbo wrote and gave to Frodo saying he would have to finish it in "The Lord of the Rings" books
I read the first book, "There and, back again" and, refused to read the others, I waited for the movies and, got more out of them than out of the book I had read. I just hate it when they mix up a series like they did when they came out with Lord of the Rings, An Unexpected Journey should have been first.
People tend to either Love The Hobbit and LOTR books or they just can't get into them. As it's been said the Songs and Elvish Poetry can be a little hard to get through but if the books draw you in they become part of you. If you think the LOTR is a hard read you should try "The Silmarillion" it's not the type of book you just read through it's more like the Encyclopedia Britannica of Middle Earth with History, Legends, Family lineages. It's fine to be a LOTR fan but if you find yourself studying the Silmarillion you have gone to far.
I made it through War Peace in the 9th grade but was totally lost with the Trilogy.
For those unfamiliar with this strange beast, they first appeared in the original Winnie the Pooh books.
Excellent suggestion because books were written to exercise the imagination of the literate mind.
Once transferred to the interpretation of a director or a producer's interpretation much is usually lost.
( look at the film adaptation of Catch 22 )
In the case of Lord of the Rings and some other stories, universal love sometimes fuels a universal adaptation which often doesn't live up to our literary imaginations.
Much to the disappointment of those with superior imaginations.
( although among great literary works and trilogies, The Lord of the rings ranks right up there with the Harry Potter series of movies.)
Those with inferior imaginations or who did not bother to red the 1478 pages or the Silmarillion firdt edition of another 365 pages of background and lineage.
And Hefalumps!
I love Harry Potter. We are a family of Potter heads. I enjoyed the fact that this magical world existed within ours and that you got to see how young wizards grew up. The characters were interesting and dynamic and the stories were well told.
I have two nieces who went to Disney World some years ago specifically to attend the opening day of the Harry Potter theme park, or whatever it is there, so I know there are many rabid fans.
Yeah, me, too. I have all the Harry Potter books. I loved how the kids grew from little kids to adults. And I liked how JK Rowling wrote about "life". People die in various ways and she didn't sugar coat it.
And there was a lot of humor in the books
I'm still trying to figure out a "Nargul".
Harry Potter is intriguing in that it ties together all the magical lore we have heard into a single story. It makes it possible to conceive of magic actually coexisting our Muggle world. And I think the books are very well written with great storylines that all tie together well across seven books.
Game of Thrones is just an awesome story with interesting, varied characters and quite believable adventures. It is exciting, unpredictable and really pulls on one's emotions. An extraordinarily good series of books.
Lord of the Rings is masterful. See above regarding GoT. It is just that I like the storylines of GoT better than LoR. GoT is far more complex.
Star Wars is simplistic stories with okay characters. It is creative and fun, but for the most part it is successful due to the special effects in the movies.
There were several reasons I liked it, but that was the main one. The Magic!
(I also liked Bell, Book and candle for the same reason
I agree-- the special effects were awesome! (Especially at the time the series started, I believe they wereadvanced for that time). But other than that,the other stuff was OK-- but nothing special.
Some of the adaptations were fun. This one is by "Improve Anywhere":
Having grown up reading at a young age the fantasy and science fiction pulp magazines handed down by my older brother, I developed a definite affinity to such stories. In some ways I agree with John's opinion of the three choices. I watched the first Potter movie, but only parts of the others, and only because I would watch Alan Rickman in virtually ANY part he had played. Although I never read any of the Potter series, in fact NONE of the novels connected with any of the choices here, I did read and liked a couple other Rowland novels.
As for Star Wars, being the science fiction follower I always was, I did enjoy the first series (IV, V & VI), tolerated the next three (I, II & III) but thought that Mel Brooks' spoof 'Spaceballs' was more repeatedly watchable: "Just what we need, a Druish princess." and "I'm surrounded by Assholes."
My prize goes to the Rings trilogy. Having been a weekend hippie during the 60s and early 70s, I'm ashamed for never having read the hippie bible, Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings', but I was exonerated due to having read Heinlein's 'Stranger in a Strange Land'. The Rings trilogy I could easily watch over and over. After all, not only was I once compared to Gandalf, but I think of myself more like Bilbo Baggins, who considered himself never too old for a new adventure - and isn't that what I'm doing, living now in China?
I finally got to see Star Wars - Episode VII yesterday, and was pretty disappointed. First of all, why did something have to happen to break Chewie's heart, and I guess I was saddened seeing Carrie Fisher's reprise, knowing she passed away not long after acting in the new trilogy.
I liked it. but it was pretty much a retelling of Episode IV: A New Hope. The similarities between the two are numerous.
Never mess with Chewie.
At least she finished her part in Ep. 8. Have you seen that one yet?
Chewie's reaction to Han's death tore me up more than Han's death itself.
Although I don't have program listings for what is shown on Chinese TV stations, I'm hoping to see Episodes VIII and IX, now that they've shown Episode VII. They show movies in series here - like all the James Bond movies, all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, all the Indiana Jones movies, etc. (not necessarily one right after the other, but within the next day or two).
That reaction would be expected - Chewie was always a most loyal friend. Do you remember how Chewie reacted to Han being frozen like a chocolate bar?
I don't know if I'd feel more sorry for Chewie or, for the person who killed Han. Remember what Han said about an angry Wookie?
Although I have not seen the subsequent 2 remaining episodes, and don't know whether Han and Leia's son gets turned around, perhaps even is the one who defeats the evil leader, but it would be just retribution if Chewie were to do him in.
Trust me Buzz, I'm not giving any spoilers here, you'll just have to watch them to find out, I promise, it's worth it.
Ep. IX is supposed to come out in 2019. Hopefully, you'll be able to se Ep. VIII before then.
Han told Luke to lose the game, because Chewie was known to rip a person's arm off if he didn't win.
I read the LOTR and the Hobbit books when I was young. I think they are very spiritual in a way. I give Peter Jackson raves for what he did for the movies. That was no easy task. Very hard to bring to life and he did a great job.
Never read the Potter books. The movies were good, enjoyable, just seemed to be geared to a younger audience. Rowling was brilliant in the way the protagonists and the audience could kind of grow up together.
I was young for the original three star wars movies. Had some of the original action figures. Looking back, I wish I had kept them. I watched all the three originals but I never actually watched the later three. Just have seen parts here and there.
I would have to give it to LOTR.
All three suck equally!
boo!
lol
I was really young when Star Wars came out. My mom took me to see the movie and I remember being absolutely enthralled and mesmerized. What a fantastic world! Me and my siblings went home and played out the scenes.
Harry Potter and LOTR I was blessed to share with my sons. My youngest son would sit for days reading each book until he was finished. I remember we were on our way to the beach one year when one of the HP books was released and we had to stop on the way to pick up the book. He sat under a beach umbrella and read that darn book through our whole vacation. He still is a ferocious reader.
LOTR was another fantastical world. It was amazing to watch it come to life on the screen.
I loved them all for different reasons because they were important to me during different times in my life. They each hold memories that I share with my siblings or my sons.
I choose all 3!
Reading is fundamental to a flexible and, intelligent mind.
Lord of the Rings (trilogy)
This was also 40 odd tears ago. I had recently finished Isaak Azimov's Foundation Trilogy and my girlfriend had gone to visit Europe with her family for a month, or so.
After having read the Foundation Trilogy I enjoyed the Trilogy concept.
Having a little time on my hands I decided to go to the book store. Yep, a real book store, and looked around. Lord of the Rings caught my eye. On the way home I stopped by my favorite deli to get an Italian hoagie and a 6 pack of "English" beer. It would have been John Courage or Harp.
Started reading and thoroughly enjoyed it from page 1. Tolkien did a good job of setting the scenes and bringing the characters and action to life.
Years later when the movie came out I had doubts any movie could do the books justice. But I was wrong. The movies were good.
I appreciated a gift my girlfriend brought me from her stay in London; a first edition, autographed copy of Watership Down by Richard Adams.
LOL, Years.
1. Harry Potter
2. LOTR
3. Star Wars.
HP and LOTR would be tied, except for the fact that, IMO, the LOTR books need to be "skimmed" to be readable. LOTR is one of the few instances of the movies being better than the books. I liked the story in the books, but I LOVED the movies. Tolkien's books had too many fluffy songs that annoyed me on first reading, and which I just skipped altogether on later readings. They were tedious, generally silly, and detracted from the story.
HP, even though it was geared toward kids, never slipped into the trap of being childish. Rowlings doesn't underestimate kids' intelligence or talk down to them. Great storyline (ok, maybe the ending is a bit of a copout), great characters, wonderful attention to detail and research into myth and legend.
I grew up on Star Wars. I loved the original trilogy, but the quality has gone downhill since then.
1. Harry Potter
2. Star Wars
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3. LOTR. I don;t know why but I just can't stand the movies. I fall asleep every time. And I can't read the books. Tried reading "The Hobbit" when I was in 7th grade and gave up because Tolkien uses language that is just too flowery or something.
The flowery language doesn't bother me. It's when characters burst into silly songs. I could happily have strangled Tom Bombadil, and I thought Peter Jackson was brilliant for leaving him out of the movies.
Star Wars
Lord of the Rings
Don't like Harry Potter
I'm not sure we can be friends anymore.
LOL! Just kidding!!!
I only saw the movies for Star Wars and Harry Potter and while they were ok movies never live up to what your imagination can come up with when reading a book, so meh on these two. LOTR I've never seen the movies (and never will) only read the book and if you have a decent imagination books are always better.
Gotta say the books are great, they have a lot more detail than any of the movies and, the way J.K. writes she puts you right in the scene.
I've read all of the Hobbit, LOTR books many times over, read all of the Harry Potter books and read most of the Star Wars books (the Timothy Zahn books were awesome). I've seen all the movie franchises several times over (only watched episode 8 once).
I would have to say that from a book perspective, LOTR takes the cake. It's incredibly well written and creates a fantasy world that you can almost smell, hear and touch, with unique flora and fauna, and most fantasy books written since have simply tried to emulate such a masterpiece. The Potter books were enjoyable but for a much younger crowd. The Star Wars books were very enjoyable but didn't have the depth that LOTR's has.
As for the movies, I thought the Peter Jackson movies were quite good, though they strayed from the books in many ways which to me was neither needed nor appreciated.
The Harry Potter books were definitely a more faithful rendition of the books, with some minor exceptions, though I felt the series seemed to thin out at the end to the point of almost becoming a boring push to finish them.
The Star Wars films which I was lucky enough to see all their first releases in theatres, were at first incredible. Seeing Star Wars in the theatre as a youth I was enamored with it which is why I sought out the many book series that were generated after it gained such fame. However, after Episode 1, 2 & 3 were released, which I felt were just marketing vehicles used to generate money, it left me disappointed. Episode 1 & 2 especially were simply terrible and if you re-watch them today you can see nearly every scene was filmed where the actors walk from one edge of a green screen to another. I believe what made the first movie so great was the challenges that the puppeteers, animatronics, engineers and set designers faced when trying to bring such a fantasy to life. With Episodes 1, 2 & 3 they were using CGI for no reason, just to slap you in the face with their new technology which made them clunky and pointless.
As for the last 3 Star Wars installments (Rogue One, Episode 7 & 8) I thought Rogue One was great, it felt like they recaptured some of the first movies pace, drive and grit. Episode 7 was decent though it played like a ham handed reboot of the original. Episode 8 was awful, they went back to the same pointless scenes and broken story lines that went nowhere. What was the point of Rey going in to face her fears in the cave heavy with the dark side? What was the point of the entire mission to disable Snokes ship? Why didn't the first ships that ran out of fuel turn and use their hyperdrives as a weapon as Laura Dern does with the main ship? Why show us Lukes X-wing in the water? There were just so many holes I felt the film makers were just slapping me in the face with my own love for the series repeating "why are you hitting yourself, why are you hitting yourself". I would almost rather watch the old Star Wars Holiday Special (which is gawd awful) with Harvey Korman as bumbling Chef Gormaanda and Bea Arthur singing a horribly bad Cantina song, than watch episode 8 again.
So all in all, I would have to vote LOTR as the winner of franchises with excellent books and decent movies (I even liked the old cartoon movies they made and cartoon Hobbit made for tv special) with Harry Potter coming in as a distant second place. If Lucas had stuck to just the first three movies I might have them in second, but as it is, the rest of the films drag them down to not even finishing the race.
I loved Zahn's books.
Ray Bradbury.
I like his, too.
How about Kurt Vonnegut?
I haven't read as much Vonnegut, but what I've read, I've liked.
Slaughter House 5 was weird.
I haven't read it.
If I'm remembering the right story it's about a man that travels into the past and, ends up in WWII Germany at a prisoner of war camp just before the fire bombing of Dresden.
Here's the plot,
That sounds...confusing.
It is, most of his writing that I've read is like this.
I think most of his works that I've read were short stories, so maybe he didn't have time to wander so much.
I think in his bio it said that he fought in WWII at the Battle of the Bulge and, was captured, that's were his idea for Slaughter House five came from.
Gotta go with Lord O The Ring Toss here. In both novels and movies for its scope, breadth, darkness, brutality and its nature of allegory in regard to WWI, the future of mankind and a mechanized world.
Harry Potter was alright and fun. Never read the books and really only enjoyed the movies when the kids got older.
Star Wars is just too dang cute and kid oriented for my taste. I would say the tv series The Expanse is far superior.
Love Star Wars but LOTR wins hands down. Plus I have read the books including Hobbit every year since 1968
Wow, LOTR is the ultimate fantasy of the good versus evil, with good always on the precipice of absolute darkness.....even if evil should win, temporarily.
Welll, maybe it's my bad. Perhaps that is what religion is always about, convincing people that evil is always at the gate and threatening the innocent...