I read the books only when I was older, because I was only 8 year old when the first movie came out, and I didn't like to read novels back then. But I did read the other ones when I became older, and I also saw every movie and I gotta say it deserves the popularity it got. Great novels comes with great movies (except for some)
The movies were awesome, you were transported to a whole new universe of magic.
I really loved the movies, I also plan on getting the Blu-Ray boxset :)