Star Wars! At the time the Special Effects were groundbreaking and captivating.
Star Wars! At the time the Special Effects were groundbreaking and captivating.
The three have different followings but my take (I'm 46yo):
- LOTR. By far the best books. Never liked what I saw of the movies.
- Potter. Good, not great, books. Very good movies.
- Star Wars. Love Star Trek but never really took to SW.
So overall scoring the winner is....Harry.
As movies: Star Wars, then Lord of the Rings, then Harry Potter.
Despite additions to the series, Star Wars is DEFINED by the movies (especially the original trilogy).
The Lord of the Rings movies were fantastic. There was just too much left out to give the full LOTR experience, though.
The first few Harry Potter movies kinda sucked. They did improve a lot, and the last few were good.
As books: Star Wars doesn't really count, and anybody comparing Harry Potter to Lord of the Rings (as literature) needs their head examined.
Seriously, Harry Potter is maybe a 6/10, and LOTR is an easy 9/10 (with points deducted for rampant pomposity).
As far as cultural impact? I dunno, but you can't just look at what pre-teens like playing with. Lord of the Rings has a long head start, and has influenced basically every work of fantasy since. It still blows my mind that there are people who haven't heard of Lord of the Rings.
Just read it. Really, it's worth it.
The Lord of the Rings is vastly superior to Harry Potter in both categories, as others have suggested. I like Harry Potter, and I think it has some value, but ultimately it is a semi-decently written children's story that is engaging and fun but lacks any real substance. By the way, when you look at the plot structure in broad terms it is clearly derived from The Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings has its flaws, but the fact is that Tolkien's world is far more expansive and developed than Rowling's, and his story engages some of the oldest and most deeply rooted literary motifs in our culture. It contains deeper meanings, more subtely expressed, than anything you find in Harry Potter. The movies are better too, partially because of the quality of the books, partially because of acting, etc.
I'd put the Star Wars movies in between those two; I'm not a huge Star Wars guy but it's better than Harry Potter, I think.
"Subtly"...hope that was the only one...
about Stat Wars. it's racist. the stars are all jews. the producers hate whites. even carrie fisher is a jew. i think you want more diversity. in those days they could discriminate like that but they can't do that today. most movies have at least one token gay white male today.
Have you ever read Richmal Crompton's "Just William" series? The some of the characters in Harry Potter are lifted almost directly from there.
The whole Potter series is derivative crap for brain-dead morons, cynically created by a cash register of a woman in order to suck money from her audience's pockets, and doesn't deserve even the suggestion that it is in the same class as the other two.
I prefer to read or watch things which the "author" has at least made an honest attempt at originality.
So, for me, (1) Lord of the Rings (as an example of religious allegory - specifically Christian - I don't think there is a better modern example), and (2) Star Wars (which are just bloody good films).
My sister loves harry, she is 26 now but grew up with them. She says all the little lessons of life are contained within. I tried to read one and lasted a few pages so will have to believe her. I think the lessons are tailored to younger people.
Lord of the rings - iconic, it's as simple as that. The movie is mastery of movie making and the book is mastery of writing, and the self exposure Tolkein submits himself to is truly the mark of a great artist in their own right.
Star Wars captivating, Empire great and Jedi good. All up still great but behind LOTR for me.
This girl would argue for Star Wars:
When Empire was in first run, and Vader announced, "I am your father," the world stopped! Audiences gasped. We had to wait 3 years to know the rest. We had no preconceptions going into those first three movies. It was totally new. The special effects were ground-breaking.
My kids grew up on Potter. I liked those, having read the books when released.
And I read LOTR as a kid and found the movies fun, even with their deviations from the books. Great technical movie making, and fine story-telling.
We were so jaded by the time of the SW pre-quel. Expectations were just so high.
I go with the first three SW movies.
I can't believe some of the answers on this board. It's LOTR and it's not even close.
Impossible for me to choose just one, love them all! But if someone held a gun to my head and made me rank this is what it would look like:
Star Wars
Lord of the Rings
Harry Potter
Twilight.
this would have been way more interesting if you had to put down your birthdate
Star Wars for sure. The other two involve too big of a nerd factor, though you could be a casual fan of all three and not be a nerd, and even though Star Wars is the least nerdy of the three, you can for sure get too involved in that so that your nerdiness shows.
For the record, I've never seen any of the Lord of the Rings movies and have only read the first three Harry Potter books...just not that interested.
I was 11 though when Star Wars came out, so that was right up my alley then.
Lord of the Rings.
LOTR is heavily borrowing from other material as well. But it's still my favorite. I love Star Wars but the actual quality of the movies is pretty poor. The dialogue is so bad it hurts at times. The overall plot is pretty great though.
Harry Potter is really good, but for some reason I'm completely uninterested.
I'm 40, FWIW.
Tacoguy wrote:
ALL of the starwars "waahhhh only the first three (really the last three) were good" SHUT UP, They are all good. Youre all idiots.
As a super fan of Star Wars, I will endorse the Prequel Trilogy. Episodes 4, 5, and 6 are the best, but the prequels were pretty good.
Flagpole wrote:
Star Wars for sure. The other two involve too big of a nerd factor, though you could be a casual fan of all three and not be a nerd, and even though Star Wars is the least nerdy of the three, you can for sure get too involved in that so that your nerdiness shows.
News Flash - All three are for nerds.
The Prequels are HORRID. Think about this, IF those were actually the first movies made would anyone care? They sucked b@lls.
I could go on and on about what Lucas should have done, but...
LOTR- #1 Too many reasons to list.
Star Wars- 4&5- the others are total crap.
Harry Potter- My criticism of Potter is that she borrowed from so many other stories, and she suffered from "Lucas Syndrome" That's the need to have every character related, or have crossing back stories.