It's interesting that you mention the Bible, because I have the same feeling about the story of Jesus that I do about LOTR - I try to see every version made of it. (Couldn't bring myself to see Gibson's, but that's because I simply don't want those visuals in my head.) And it's not just the complexity of the story itself - the enormous life LOTR has taken on in the world also makes it impossible to capture in one film, because millions of people have their own personal visions of it. LOTR is still part of the pop culture, and will be for a long time, thank goodness. Elitists may raise a hue and cry over the films, but what with reading being on the way out, we should thank the gods for PJ's labor of love, because he's made sure the story will be passed down and remembered, in this latter form of storytelling which is cinema. And cinema, like the book, is just the latest form of sitting and listening to a storyteller tell his tale.

*hug*