Alright, here's a leap of faith. 

I think that Tolkien's fantasy sucks... unless the writer is J.R.R. Tolkien himself.

I look at the massive success that Tolkien's work has achieved, (much akin to George Lucas' by the way) and I think that, in a lot of ways, the myth has grown larger than the man. Especially now that those godforsaken movies are out, the hype machine has caused Tolkien's world to become a worldwide phenomenon of mass gathering, much like a large-scale bug zapper.

I once sat down and tried to figure out why the Middle-Earth thing became so popular. It hit me quite suddenly, that it was not the characters (who were largely forgettable, stock characters) or the story itself (which was also largely unoriginal if one has ever read norse mythology)... it was the setting. Not the elves and treefolk and various taken-from-mythology races, but the detailed social system existing on Midgard, I mean, Middle-earth. It was the political heirarchies, the history behind something as insignificant as a group of hairy short people who liked maps. The setting was rich with background on just about everything, which allowed a person to sink into that world. That is the true magic of fantasy.

Now, I told you that to tell you this. Standard fantasy stories that rely largely on the magical characters and their powers and interaction, while moving them around in a standard setting, just don't have that pizzazz. This is why Tolkien elves irritate me so much... because they're his, not yours. I think that the way to make a good story, is to base it in a good place.

Moral: Don't just borrow someone else's fantasy world.