>>64504110
NTA, and the books were always sort of mainstream... but I hate the movies for their aesthetic. The pre-movie art was always much better than the generic slop that was released after the movies -- simultaneously more grounded (the equipment and gear usually wasn't mismatched garbage like OP) and more fantastic. The elves also looked more reasonable, whereas in the movies they were ridiculous.
After the movies, everything became sort of standardized in a way... and IMO much for the worse.