Had Josh only known.
I know.
I ****ing love The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit... not so much. It's weird; this stuff is just reinforcing why Lord of the Rings was so special even as it demotivates me for the final Hobbit movie. Which is kind of nice, as it's the opposite of The Prequels, which made me less interested in the original Star Wars trilogy.
.
Hobbit movies have no impact on LOTR movies.
Prequels have no impact on OT.
For me.
Both were never ever gonna measure up to their predecessors.
I was at a Star Trek Grandslam convention in Pasadena California many years ago and was standing next to William Shatner, who was wearing a mask, and didn't know it.
TABA was pretty good
Damn
I realized who I was standing by when Shatner walked on stage wearing the mask when he was introduced.
Wow, you must REALLY love the Lion King.
Personally, LOTR is such an achievement I find it hard to compare to any other movies. If pushed I might say Star Wars and Empire, or Godfather 1 and 2. But honestly, I never thought I would see it realized on film in a way that didn't make me angry. Not only did it not make me angry, the first trailer actually brought tears to my eyes, as the book was so beloved to me.
Peter Jackson did what I don't believe any other filmmaker could have done.
The Hobbit, while very good (to me, at least) had little chance of recapturing that magic, I am honestly surprised they are as good as they are, as I think Jackson was a bit burned out on Middle Earth.
LOTR and Hobbit are very different books, but PJ (so far) has done an amazing job of tying their moods together.