Potterheads: Help “Harry Potter” defeat “Lord of the Rings” in moviefone’s Summer Sequel Smackdown!

Potterheads, occasionally we call on you to rise up and do something great for the Harry Potter fandom. Today is one of those days.

The epic conclusions of both the Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings movie franchises (after trumping Twilight and Narnia most easily) are going head to head in moviefone’s “Summer Sequel Smackdown.”

And we need your help to make sure the right fandom brings the smackdown.

As fans ourselves of both, we know it is unfair to make you choose – but we have elected to make you do it anyway! As both of these films (Deathly Hallows – Part 2 and Return of the King) are epic cinematic masterpieces, to judge them based on special effects, directing, acting, or even the sheer amount of Academy Awards is one way to assess these films and come to a logical decision as far as your vote today.

Logic would make sense, right, if fan-hood were logical that is! To be a fan of something is so much more – you feel it – and the kind of fanatical attachment you develop allows you to connect with other people around the world who feel similarly.

At the end of the day, how did each of these movies make you feel? While Harry, Ron and Hermione had their adventures on screen, a whole generation of kids (myself included) felt like we were growing and attending Hogwarts with them. That sort of connection between audience and film in the Harry Potter fandom speaks to a particular kind of magic which I would argue The Lord of the Rings simply does not match.

Then again, The Lord of the Rings comes from a different generation of storytelling that doesn’t include you and engage you the way Harry Potter movies do. So because of this we believe Harry Potter should win in the fantasy category of the Summer Sequel Smackdown – not because it presents a better fantasy, not even because it’s a better fantasy flick, but because each film was made in such a way that the “fantasy” became real for so many simultaneously.

That’s pretty magical. Make Dumbledore proud and vote for Harry today!