Why I didn't like War of the Worlds, part 2

I've been thinking about why I liked the Lord of the Rings series and not the Harry Potter series or War of the Worlds. They're all based on books which I've read, so I know what the plot of the movie is pretty well. I guess the main difference is that Lord of the Rings was magical, while Harry Potter and War of the Worlds was mundane. Allow me to explain.

War of the Worlds deals with the human world, which is in itself mundane. However, it doesn't stop there. It involves cool and complex problems - an alien invasion - but the way the problems play out is also mundane. The aliens, armed with lasers and guarded by force fields, ultimately succumb to the lamest of all killers, disease.

Harry Potter isn't magical because when it comes down to it, it involves children. When I'm reading the book, I can sort of become the character and I forget that he is a child. But in the movie it's painfully and annoying obvious. Kids aren't cool.

Lord of the Rings is awesome because everyone in the movie is a badass. Even Wormwood (is that even his name?), the guy who corrupts the King of Rohan, is a badass pussy. We should have more movies with badasses.