Census Rank the Middle-Earth Movies

Now that the on-screen adaptation of Tolkien's legendarium is finished (for now), how do you rank the films?

 

Hilarious opening post to read in Christopher Lee's Saruman voice.

 

1. Return of the King
2. Fellowship of the Ring

42. The Two Towers

666. The Hobbit: An Unnecessary Journey


I still haven't seen The Masturbation of Smaug, nor The Battle of the Five Hours.

 

1. Return of the King - it's got like twelve endings but I still really enjoy it.
2. The Fellowship of the Ring
3. The Stuff from the First Third of the Two Towers

I have no desire to see how bloated and unwieldily Jackson has made my favorite childhood book, so **** the Hobbit trilogy.

 

I haven't seen the final Hobbit film either (my hopes aren't very high), but here is how the other five rank for me at present:
1. Return of the King
2. Fellowship of the Ring
3. The Two Towers
4. An Unexpected Journey
5. The Desolation of Smaug

 

1. King
2. Fellowship
3. Towers
4. Journey
5. Desolation

Cushy highly unlikely to see Armies as the Hobbits are overlong and *dull*

 

Cushing's Admirer: I daresay you have impeccable taste in the Middle-earth film 'verse.

 

still managed to avoid the last of the third hobbit, with any luck the sproglet will hold off until its on Netflix or somesuch

 

First film in the series is more precise, concise, and elegant than any other entry.

 

Thanks. I see we match on this, Rew.

 

I've only seen the LotR films but they're all just awful. I understand why stuff was cut out but why on earth did they feel the need to change everything? It was a perfectly good story and one of the most read books in the English language.

 

I likewise didn't care for all the blatant changes once I became aware of them but I did enjoy some of the visuals of the world.

 

1. Fellowship Of The Ring is still #1 in my book. Gandalf vs The Balrog is just about the best example of fantasy in film there has ever been.
2. The Two Towers, mostly because it does nto suffer from too many endings.
3. Return Of The King.
4. The Hobbit and Unexpected Journey, and I saw in in 48 FPS in 3d and just goddamed loved it and wish the LOTR trilogy had been done in 48 FPS.
5. The Battle Of The Five Armies; the Smaug over Lake Town is just a prologue but turned out to be what i wanted with Smaug which I did not get in....
6. The Desolation of Smaug.

None of these movies suck.

 

The theatrical release of Fellowship of the Rings is a timeless cinematic masterpiece.

Two Towers and Return of the King are enjoyable fantasy action adventures.

The Hobbit movies are less enjoyable fantasy action adventures.

 

1. Return of the King
2. Fellowship of the Ring
3. Two Towers
4. Battle of the Five Armies
5. Desolation of Smaug
6. An Unexpected Journey

 

The Lord of the Rings (1978).

 

1. Fellowship of the Ring
2. Unexpected Journey
3. Battle of Five Armies
4. Desolation of Smaug
5. Return of the King
6. Two Towers

 

I don't know it off the top of my head, but this dude's voice is also used in a Thundarr episode.

Oops, almost forgot:

 

No, it's not. The on-screen milking of the Tolkien cash cow is, for now, complete. Like the original Star Wars trilogy, there's still some magic in the LOTR trilogy but the prequels are lifeless, soulless abortions designed to appeal to those with little critical capacity but a love of visual spectacle.

 

1. Fellowship of the Ring (Extended)
2. Fellowship of the Ring (Theatrical)
3. Two Towers (Extended)
4. Return of the King (Theatrical)
5. Two Towers (Theatrical)
6. Return of the King (Extended)

*major gap*

7. An Unexpected Journey
8. The Desolation of Smaug.

 

Nothing can compare to the experience my 13 year old self had when seeing the theatrical cut of Fellowship in theaters with no other LOTR knowledge but what I had seen in the trailer. It was incredible, and I could not believe the three hour monstrosity of a movie was over when the credits started rolling. I didn't want it to end.

The next two movies, sadly, as good as they were, could not live up to that first experience. The first movie was better done regardless, in my opinion.

 

And here I thought ROTK would just dominate votes.

 

1 Two Towers
2 Fellowship of the Ring
3 Desolation of Smaug
4 Battle of the Five Armies
5 Return of the King
6 Unexpected Journey

 

1. The Return of the King
2. The Two Towers
3. The Fellowship of the Ring

4. The Desolation of Smaug
5. The Battle of the Five Armies
6. An Unexpected Journey

The LOTR trilogy was clearly more suited to the tone and scale of what Peter Jackson likes in his Middle-earth films. That said, I do enjoy all six films, acknowledging the fact that the Hobbit trilogy is less an adaptation and more a complete retelling for the film universe.

 

FOTR
ROTK
TTT
TBOTFA
TDOS
AUJ