Er, like the title says. I’m not a HUGE fantasy fan; I very much enjoyed the Narnia and Harry Potter books and movies, and enjoyed the first three books of the Pern series; a couple of Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality books before they started to bore the hell out of me with their repetition. And if the first, or perhaps I should say second, Star Wars trilogy (as in, so-called 4 - 6) counts as fantasy – some say it does – I love that too. Recently I stared reading the webcomic “Order of the Stick,” which is all kinds of awesome and does deal with fantasy tropes, although it’s RPG-based (in particular, Dungeons & Dragons).
I’ve been curious about the LOTR movies because they’re just such major hits and I feel somewhat left out of a cultural milestone. I don’t know who Aragorn or Gollum or Sauron are, well, though I know Gollum apparently uses a lot of “sses,” and I only know Frodo because Matthew Brock on NewsRadio wrote a song calling him a paranoid gnome. Which actually I’m pretty sure isn’t really true. He’s an elf, right?
Anyway. Since I’m not motivated enough to read the books, I figure giving the movie a go might be a good start. But is it? Is it one of those deals where you won’t enjoy it or know what’s going on without the foreknowledge of the book? Do you have to be a big fantasy fan to “get” it?
Are there any folks here who saw the film first before reading the book… or never read the book at all? What are your thoughts? Worth it?