Ranking Peter Jackson's Middle Earth Movie Saga

[BatMike90]

As much as I love Star Wars and Batman, it is always good to have more interests! I figured that I would start an UPDATED thread of ranking the movies that make up the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit franchise.

Keep in mind, I am also ranking these as the extended version of the films and not the standard theatrical version of each film.

6.) The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
5.) The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
4.) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
3.) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2.) The Lord of the Rings: The Followship of the Ring
1.) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

[Infinit01]

As much as I love Star Wars and Batman, it is always good to have more interests! I figured that I would start an UPDATED thread of ranking the movies that make up the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit franchise.

Keep in mind, I am also ranking these as the extended version of the films and not the standard theatrical version of each film.

6.) The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
5.) The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
4.) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
3.) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2.) The Lord of the Rings: The Followship of the Ring
1.) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Return of the King is my number one and I agree for the most part except that the Two Towers are my number 2 and Fellowship is my number 3

[Taegin Roan]

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

Two Towers and Fellowship are tied IMO. If I had to chose which one I like better, I'd probably go with Towers.

[scifidude79]

I think I'd put Fellowship #1, but that's about all I'd change. LOTR is definitely superior to his Hobbit trilogy, but I don't hate the Hobbit films like some people do. Are they a bit bloated? Of course. Also, I wish LOTR had gotten two films per book, but I guess they didn't want them to drag on forever. (maybe in hindsight he'd want to, since he doesn't seem able to move on )

[Taegin Roan]

I don't hate any of the movies, and the Hobbit trilogy was actually really good. I just have to take myself out of Tolkien Fan-mode in order to see them as good. If I were to rank them in order of book accuracy, Fellowship would be #1, Towers and King would be #2, then the Hobbits would be ranked the same as they currently are.

[Darth Knox]

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

I know I'm strange, but I've always preferred TTT as my fav LotR movie. However, I agree that the Hobbit trilogy are not of the same calibre as the Rings movies. Plus the dwarves didn't look like dwarves in The Hobbit. Too tall and very obvious wigs (unlike Jonathan Rhys-Davies in LotR).

[Darth Tepes]

I don't hate any of the movies, and the Hobbit trilogy was actually really good. I just have to take myself out of Tolkien Fan-mode in order to see them as good. If I were to rank them in order of book accuracy, Fellowship would be #1, Towers and King would be #2, then the Hobbits would be ranked the same as they currently are.

Same.  As films they are masterpieces, as adaptations capturing Tolkien's world...eh.   

[Infinit01]

I don't hate any of the movies, and the Hobbit trilogy was actually really good. I just have to take myself out of Tolkien Fan-mode in order to see them as good. If I were to rank them in order of book accuracy, Fellowship would be #1, Towers and King would be #2, then the Hobbits would be ranked the same as they currently are.

Same.  As films they are masterpieces

So true, I do it for quite a bit of movies especially the MCU, DCEU, Percy Jackson series and any other franchise that were derived from books, comics, games, etc.  I'm a fan but I also keep an opened mind otherwise, with the huge differences between the original and the cinematic adaptation, I would of hate it.  Nothing has to be exact for me, in fact, I think it would of been boring if it was exactly like the original since I've already know the stories.

[Taegin Roan]

Same.  As films they are masterpieces, as adaptations capturing Tolkien's world...eh.   

So true, I do it for quite a bit of movies especially the MCU, DCEU, Percy Jackson series and any other franchise that were derived from books, comics, games, etc.  I'm a fan but I also keep an opened mind otherwise, with the huge differences between the original and the cinematic adaptation, I would of hate it.  Nothing has to be exact for me, in fact, I think it would of been boring if it was exactly like the original since I've already know the stories.

Exactly. I understand MCU not being exactly like the comic books (and it works just fine for them because they are on a different "earth" (Earth 199999 I believe), and it even works okay with the DCEU. Percy Jackson was a bit of a let down (those books could have easily been adapted to movies and been extremely close to the books), but I still enjoyed watching them.

[Darth Tepes]

Exactly. I understand MCU not being exactly like the comic books (and it works just fine for them because they are on a different "earth" (Earth 199999 I believe), and it even works okay with the DCEU. Percy Jackson was a bit of a let down (those books could have easily been adapted to movies and been extremely close to the books), but I still enjoyed watching them.

To me, there are two types of Stories...Living and Stone.     Living stories are things like comics where the stories are constantly being changed and updated.  The Core stays the same (Batman=parents murdered etc) but things around them can be tweeked.  Then Stone, stories like Harry potter, LOTR etc.  The authors had things they wanted to say and they said them.  To outright change things to say what someone else wants to say irks me.  I'm a bit of a purist and stickler when it comes to things like that.  Adaptations are going to have things tweeked and cut, this is without question.  But too often now things are cut and extra stuff added in.  For instance, the Idea Gandalf would have been captured in the Hobbit by The Necromancer (Sauron)  HA! 

[Taegin Roan]

To me, there are two types of Stories...Living and Stone.     Living stories are things like comics where the stories are constantly being changed and updated.  The Core stays the same (Batman=parents murdered etc) but things around them can be tweeked.  Then Stone, stories like Harry potter, LOTR etc.  The authors had things they wanted to say and they said them.  To outright change things to say what someone else wants to say irks me.  I'm a bit of a purist and stickler when it comes to things like that.  Adaptations are going to have things tweeked and cut, this is without question.  But too often now things are cut and extra stuff added in.  For instance, the Idea Gandalf would have been captured in the Hobbit by The Necromancer (Sauron)  HA! 

I like your two types of stories. Makes sense to me. I do get the feeling that Fantasy (especially High Fantasy) is far more set in "Stone" that Sci-Fi (i.e. LOTR vs. Marvel) Of course there will be things that have to be cut (or even tweaked a little), but for the vast majority of it, it needs to stay the same. Examples from LOTR, I can see why (and don't even have that big a problem with) they would cut the whole Tom Bombadil portion out of Fellowship (I actually really like it in the book, but for a movie it isn't as necessary). But I don't like that they cut out the whole Retaking the Shire part of Return of the King. That part to me is absolutely essential to the overall story. Anyways, I could talk all day about the things I like or don't like about the movies in comparison to the books. I still enjoy them both, but the books are better.

[imgumby001dammit]

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

Two Towers and Fellowship are tied IMO. If I had to chose which one I like better, I'd probably go with Towers.

I’m with you kid. This is the proper order.