[Kent2010]

This is my first thread attempt, so bear with me, and hopefully this will make some sense.

When I got to thinking about the 'legacy' of the films, my head started hurting, because I think at this stage it's almost impossible to tell the impact of LOTR. My one professor has constantly warned us just because an event follows another, doesn't mean the first event impacted the second, but I think we can come up with some general ideas. I will only be speaking on an individual basis, my own personal thoughts, but I am curious to find out what others have to say.

This current decade has been filled with some type of fantasy or heroic epic. The stories of these movies happen a long, long, time ago or in a galaxy, far, far away. Gladiator (2000), The Last Samurai (2003), Troy (2004), Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy (starting 2003), King Arthur (2004), The Kingdom of Heaven (2005), The Golden Compass (2007), Eragon (2006), The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (2005), Prince Caspian (2008), Beowulf (2007), and of course The Lord of the Rings (starting 2001).

The decade is loaded with films that have swords. I left out Harry Potter and the Star Wars prequels because they were released in 1999, but maybe there's some relevance.

Obviously there were fantasy films and epics before LOTR, like one of my all-time favourite movies The Princess Bride, and you have The Neverending Story, Braveheart...etc, but this decade in particular seems to say forget about guns, lets go sword happy. (However I did love the Bourne trilogy). Why this spurt of heroic, fantasy epics in the decade? And we're poised to end the decade with these films as well - The Hobbit and Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but I see The Hobbit has been pushed back.

Eventhough this decade of heroic epics truly began with Gladiator, it is LOTR that I'm continually drawn to. It is The Lord of the Rings that really kicked my interest. Now on bad weekends, if I want to watch a movie, I just think to myself: "give me a movie with armies, and armor, and swords." And eventhough I will watch movies like Gladiator, and Braveheart, which were released before LOTR, the reason I watch them is because of LOTR. That was the first, stand-out, landmark film of the decade, that has shaped what movies I want to see on a crappy weekend. Sometimes I'll put in The Bourne movies, or a comedy like Charlie Bartlett, but most of time I think just give me a movie with swords. I don't remember when the last time I watched LOTR was, but I know it is because of LOTR, that I watch the films I do.

I think what I'm wondering is, on an individual level, has LOTR shaped the movies you're interested in seeing? Is it a call back to the long gone glory days, an excape from the modern Sarumanic world? Has it impacted the movies of this decade? If so, does that make it a landmark in film history? When people look back on this decade, will LOTR be the standout?