Census Rank the Middle-Earth Movies

Armies could top Fellowship if the extended cut is a big improvement which I think it will be.

 

Why? Because it spoils the "reveal"? Doesn't bother me. By the time the EE came out people had already seen the theatrical release anyway. And for me the resolution of that plot point was already spoiled back in 1982.

 

No, it's just that the scenes don't carry any dramatic weight on their own, so they're boring. And I think it does have a larger impact on the tone/mood of the middle act, lessening the tension, which isn't so much dependent on an audience's prior knowledge of the material as it is about effective cutting.

 

Hah I had the same thoughts after I saw BOFA. Not so sure now I'm still thinking about it.

 

Why not? Why is their dramatic weight supposedly any less than any other scene?

 

Because Elrond has already confirmed that they will serve a King with a sword, and no amount of skull avalanches or melodrama convinced this viewer that the ghosts would not give in, nor did the writing do a good job of establishing why they wouldn't once we are introduced to them. I tend to think PJ thought similar given that he cut the majority of the subplot.

 

That doesn't make any sense. If you already knew the ending how were you expecting to be convinced that the ghosts would not give in? Do you often convince yourself that movies you've already seen will end differently next time? The Elrond material is in either version of the film. If the writing in the extended version didn't establish why the ghosts wouldn't give in, then certainly that must also hold true in the theatrical version - so it becomes a complaint against both versions, not something specific to the extended cut.

 

You're right. It's something of a problem in the theatrical cut as well, but brevity and brief cutting allows for cheap suspense as to their allegiance. But you're aggressively presuming I watched the theatrical cut first. Calm down.

 

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

 

It's interesting, but it's also kind of inevitable, because a poll naturally requires people to choose one specific favorite. Rankings, on the other hand, reveal that people may have multiple movies of a franchise pretty close to each other in their order of preference. Obviously, some in here have noted that they have a huge gap between LOTR and The Hobbit, but others have them pretty close and just rank them in order. Like my order, where I may have all the LOTR movies first, but without any big gap between the trilogies; TBOTFA is simply next in line right after TTT:

FOTR
ROTK
TTT
TBOTFA
TDOS
AUJ

If I were choosing my favorite SW movie, it would be a hard choice between ANH and TESB. But that vote shouldn't necessarily imply that I dislike the others or hate the PT; I like them all, but I like the OT movies better. 'Tis the nature of polls, I guess.

 

One already exists, which has some excellent stats produced by Alienware on the last page.