Rules: explain why
Ready player one.
That has to be one of the cringiest movies I’ve seen, is tries so hard, too hard with it’s “WE LOVE YOU NERD, YOU’RE SO COOL FOR PLAYING GAMES AND GETTING THIS 80S REFERENCE” message and the whole “corporation bad, the people good” narrative seems written for toddlers… The fan service feels cheap and adds nothing to the story.
Finally, they trying to make the people believe that very attractive girl with a barely visible red tint spot on her face is “ugly”… Like wtf?
Yet it received decent reviews plus being one of the most successful movies of that year.
I was a huge fan of last year’s Dungeon & Dragons movie. Just make sure you’re not seeing the terrible ones from 2000–2012!
Unfortunately after that it gets very hard. I know a lot of people like 1998’s Willow, but I’ve never seen it to compare.
I’m seeing a fair few people recommend Pirates of the Caribbean, mainly the first 3 films. Which I agree are very good, but they’re not mediaeval high fantasy and they’re far more comedic in tone than LotR. Nevertheless, there does seem to be something similar. Maybe it’s the relatively low level of relatively soft magic and the fairly adventurous nature of them. And also Orlando Bloom in a starring role in both.
If you’re willing to add TV then Game of Thrones is much grittier but kinda similar (shame the quality drops off gradually after season 4 and then very quickly in the last 1–2 seasons). The Witcher is also good.
But yeah unfortunately there’s really nothing that quite compares in tone, subject matter, and setting to Lord of the Rings that is anywhere near as good as it, IMO.
Yes, I loved Game of Thrones tho. (Last seasons are terrible tho).
I’ll keep your other suggestions somewhere, thanks !