Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter is about intelligent nobility and mostly rich guys doing good things whereas D&D has always been about dirtbags trying to scam a buck. It has more in common with Conan, Jack Vance's Dying Earth, Fafhrd and Grey Mouser, Elric of Melniboné (and outright stolen concepts from everywhere).
Yeah the new one is great, I was afraid they'd water-down any violence or horror too much. Didn't make a lot of money :(