re: How much of a joke is it that Star Wars was ever thought to be equal to Lord of the Rings?

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the Star Wars OT kicks arse.

it’s absolutely as good as the LOTR trilogy.

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You can make a strong point that considering the time, technology and resources available for each, Star Wars is the superior movie.

Mid 70's- pinnacle of Sci Fi at that point is probably 2001. Pinnacle of Space Fantasy is probably Star Trek. The technical achievement that is Star Wars proper (the original movie) shits on those. Your battles aren't static images of space ships with exposition telling you what is happening (occurs a lot in ST as for example), you have things in motion. The tailgunner scene, and the attack on the Death Star. There really was no precursor in space films, the inspiration is the dogfight scenes from war movies. Glowing tracers everywhere.

In LOTR, the only real film achievement is the use of camera angles and tricks to downsize the Hobbits and Dwarves. Everything else is done very well, but not new.

LOTR is THE classic fantasy, while Star Wars (original) was an Errol Flynn adventure with every element it could toss in. Rope swings, dogfights, gunfights, bar fights, sword fights, you even get a desert mugging of Luke. And the underrated brilliance of Artoo and Threepio's Laurel and Hardy comedy- understand that Threepio had to carry the entire bit, Artoo is just beeping, we only get Threepio's responses to follow along. Yet the scenes were so well done that Artoo became beloved.