Harry Potter Vs Lord Of The Rings

Opinions?

Speaking only of the films relationship to the books, I found HarryPotterAndTheMumblesStone? to be a bit forced in pace - the passage of time was marked mostly by 'season shots' - the pumpkins for Halloween, the school in snow for Christmas, etc.

Interestingly, there was a similar thing going on in LotR. Passage of time being marked by 'trudging along' shots.

{Harry potter is a product of this age. In reading it, you find that the images fit pretty directly to a movie. The writer was presumably acquainted with the film language, as we all are, and probably even envisioned from the very start the idea of HP-the-movie. LoTR has a stronger connection to literacy history.

The range of concepts is also different: LOTR abounds more in the abstract, or not readily visual. My thesis is HP is more readily made into a movie (it felt like one wile reading it), while LOTR loses more in the translation (it feels more like a book).}

HarryPotter was more contained since the whole thing happens at Hogwarts. I was in fact quite puzzled that a nice boarding school like that would allow untamed monsters to roam freely just a floor away from where all those innocent kids were bunking.

LordOfTheRings, by contrast, was more of a traditional quest story. Less mystery, more adventure, more breathtaking wilderness.

I think I enjoyed them about the same. -- DanielCohen?

I enjoyed them both, but The FellowshipOfTheRing? far more. HarryPotter was an excellent adaptation of the book to film. Fellowship was also, but seemed to have a deeper message besides being entertaining. Perhaps I'm just more intrigued by its story than by HarryPotter's. I cried during the sequence after Moria -- both times I saw the movie. I fell in love with Arwen. The first time I saw HarryPotter I was distracted by the cuts and discrepancies in the movie (from the book). Fellowship I loved too much to care. Perhaps Fellowship was more concerned with being a great film than with being a great adaptation. -- JoshuaJuran

There's a very huge difference. LOTR has depth that has no equivalence in any other books. LOTR is a piece of Mythological Universe Tolkien created in years of work. (By depth I mean in time-range but also references with other "part" of the Tolkien's universe). Almost real tongues (Tolkien knows about languages...) support the world of LOTR (we expect that a fantasy world has its own languages), and more (plants, animals, calendars, ...). HarryPotter lacks this and more. -- MauroPanigada

I find it hard to compare them at all, and see it much like comparing apples and oranges. I enjoyed both immensely, and always look forward to films of this caliber. Maybe it is the little boy inside of me, but I found it easy to lose myself into both films and felt as though I was a part of the stories taking place. For me, it was a big help to have read the books far in advance of the films. Unlike some people, I felt having read the books actually enhanced my movie viewing experience.

I agree with Joshua - LOTR was, for me, much more personal, given when I first read the books, and the scale of things in the story. --PeteHardie

Consider the scene under Weathertop, when Strider recites to Frodo & his growing fellowship a fragment of the "Lay of Lethian." Strider needs to prepare Frodo for his first real challenge. He knows that Weathertop is immensely symbolic to the Witch King - and well-known - as part of the former border between Cardolan & Rhudaur, which the Witch King held against Arthedain, when he campaigned against Strider's distant ancestors. He knows the Weather Hills are now the Witch King's strongest barrier between Frodo and Rivendell.

Neither Strider nor Tolkien can tell the Hobbits, or us, the full meaning of the "Lay of Leithian". It's about how the founders of Aragorn II's royal line met, during the First Age of the Sun, and how Elf and Human wedded to produce, eventually, Elrond the Half-Elven. The lord of Rivendell, and Strider's distant uncle.

HP is a book for children of all ages. But pointing a wand at some problem and chanting made-up Latin simply does not hold a candle to Tolkien!