While I'm greatful to Tolkien for creating Lord of the Rings, if only for the fact that Dungeons and Dragons resulted from it, it isn't a series that I find particularly good. Quite frankly, I've tried reading the books, I had thirty pages left in the first book, and finally decided that I was done forcing myself to read it. Those who don't know me have claimed that I don't like the series because I'm uneducated and don't know good reading when I come to it. I find this quite funny, as while growing up, reading was what I used to escape from reality. I was reading books for teenagers when I was in Elementary school, and by the time I made it to middleschool, I was reading books suited for the adult reading level.
I didn't like the LoTR series for the sole reason that there was too much description, I just found it to be boring. I'd usually last about five minutes before falling asleep. I have found the movies to be tolerable, though I still fell asleep in the theatre for all three films. The landscape they used was beautiful. However, I found that they cut Tom Bombadil from the movie, and he was my favorite charactor in the first book. Cutting him out is in my mind akin to cutting Fizban out of a Dragonlance movie if they make one. (They had better make a Dragonlance movie!)
While my roommate has found his obsession in LoTR, I have found mine in Harry Potter. I find that the books are much more suited to my style of fantasy. The preview for the fourth movie is out, and you can view it here. The forth movie looks great thus far, and even better, I should be finished with all my basic training by the time it comes out in theater. I'm definately going to catch the IMAX of it if they put it in that format.
