Ranking the LotR and Hobbit movies

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

Recently there was a thread here for discussing how TFA compares to the other Star Wars movies and someone suggested doing something similar for the Middle-earth movies. I watched The Two Towers and The Return of the King again recently and decided I preferred the former and was wondering what everyone else here thinks.

To be clear, I'm talking about the extended editions of LotR, but  haven't scene the Hobbit EEs.

 

The Fellowship of the Ring - 9/10 - excellent

The Two Towers - 8/10 - great

The Return of the King - 8/10 - great

An Unexpected Journey - 5/10 - OK, wouldn't recommend but you could do a lot worse

The Desolation of Smaug - 4/10 - quite bad

The Battle of the Five Armies - 4/10 - quite bad 3/10 - bad

FotR is excellent and I love it. TT and RotK have the same score, but I put TT ahead because RotK has too much silliness, what with the washing up liquid Army of the Dead and crazy Denethor.

I think I'm probably being a little hard on DoS here, and fully expect some people at least to put it above AUJ, but every time I remember the random elf/dwarf relationship I shudder and AUJ has the riddles in the dark scene, which is easily the best scene in the trilogy. The only reason I'm not giving BotFA a worse score is because I think the performances are mostly OK and sometimes pretty good. No movie has ever made me so angry and I don't really like to talk about it.

 

Have at it.

Edit: Fuck it, I'm knocking BotFA down a point.

[DanteGabriel]

I couldn't even make it through Battle of the Five Armies. No points.

The whole trilogy got worse and worse as it went along, as it deviated farther and farther from the single-volume children's story it was purportedly based on, and Jackson trowelled on even more and more shit to make it more blockbustery. I don't care that there wasn't a script or he had no preproduction or whatever other excuses he made after the fact. Was it the lack of preproduction that made him cram a Mirkwood Fever romance plot in there? He put his name on those atrocious hackjobs.

[HexMachina]

From an awful book snob who struggles to accept any change/omission from these book; 

Fellowship - 8/10. By far the best of the trilogy, great introduction to middle earth, beautiful settings used. The essential story is there, and while there are a few changes its more about omitting stuff, which I can understand more even if I don't like it. 

Two towers - 6/10. Big decline from FotR. Thought Rohan was completely botched and the Elves at Helms Deep irritated me to no end. Fangorn I could at least understand the change, to make the finale more action-based and suitable for film audiences. I enjoyed Sam and Frodo in the marshes the most. Oh, also deduct points for Legilas and Gimli. And the Arwen/Aragorn bits. And the stupid warg over the cliff thing.

Return of the King - 3/10. Hated it, from the Washing up liquid of the dead, to crazy Denethor, "Go home Sam" (WTF? Way to destroy the Frodo/Sam relationship), trunk surfing elves, more Aragorn/Arwen annoyance...so much annoyed me about it. Also, the omission of the Scouring of the Shire is one thing I can't overlook.

 

the Hobbit films were all atrocious films, orgies of CGI that dragged on for far too long and failed to even conclude the story in any sort of satisfactory way. I wouldn't even rate them, though I will add that Five Armies is by far the worst. And we don't even get beautiful New Zealand scenery this time. Terrible films. 

[Fat Mac]

Fellowship of the Ring- 10/10. One of my favorite movies of all time. I was six when I first saw it and it blew me away then, as it does now. Because of it I totally got immersed in Middle Earth, and was my first true introduction into fantasy as a genre. 

Two Towers- 9/10. Also great. Unfortunately it introduces Legolas' ridiculousness when he shieldboards down the flight of stairs. Otherwise a great movie.

Return of the King- 8/10. The grandest but also worst of the three. I hate the ghosts the most out of anything in the trilogy. However, this movie contains my favorite scene from the movies (the Rohirrim arrival at Minas Tirith).

 

An Unexpected Journey- 5/10. Totally average and unfortunately the Hobbit doesn't get better. I've seen it once and have forgotten most of it.

Desolation of Smaug- 4/10. I've forgotten most of this one too, but I remember it being worse than the first.

Battle of Five Armies- 2/10. By far the worst of the three, and unfortunately the one I remember best. 

Side note: Jackson really should have made one film for the Hobbit, maybe two (though I don't think that would be necessary). He prequel'd himself.

[Which Tyler]

I think it'd be more fun to rank the Middle Earth AND Star Wards movies; with good battles at both ends of the scale. I'll do this, and for those who aren't interested in comparing apples to oranges can just filter out the star wars entries themselves

Empire Strikes Back - 10/10 - The odd minor quibble, but as near as damn it the perfect movie

Fellowship of the Ring - 9/10 - Perfect introduction to Middle Earth and some real character moments

Return of the Jedi - 9/10 - I know I'm pretty much on my own ranking it this highly, even above Star Wards; but it's the first film I ever saw at a cinema, and shall ever have a special place in my heart; I just can't be unbiased about it.

Star Wars - 8/10 - All the magic; but none of the polish.

The Two Towers - 8/10 - A genuinely good film, but showing PJ up as being not as clever as he thought he was.

Return Of The King - 7/10 - He just put so much off he had too much to cover in 1 film; should have been more ruthless with the pacing earlier on; or, dare I say it, split this one into 2 films.

Revenge of the Sith - 5/10 - Just about worth watching.

The Force Awakens - 5/10 - It showed promise, but then I fell asleep; this will probably get a higher score once I've watched it right through.

The Hobbit Movies, and Phantom Clones - 1/10 - If you go up to 10, you have to start at 1, not 0. I will leave the room if someone is watching these, for the sake of my blood pressure (they're too really noisy to sleep through). Yes, yes, I'm sure Journey is better than Desolation, and that Clones is better than Menace; but none of them deserve to go as high as 2/10.

ETA - Battle Of The Five Armies - 0/10 - No such thing as 0/10? Fuck it, I'll find a way.

[dooog]

Recently there was a thread here for discussing how TFA compares to the other Star Wars movies and someone suggested doing something similar for the Middle-earth movies. I watched The Two Towers and The Return of the King again recently and decided I preferred the former and was wondering what everyone else here thinks.

To be clear, I'm talking about the extended editions of LotR, but  haven't scene the Hobbit EEs.

 

The Fellowship of the Ring - 9/10 - excellent

The Two Towers - 8/10 - great

The Return of the King - 8/10 - great

An Unexpected Journey - 5/10 - OK, wouldn't recommend but you could do a lot worse

The Desolation of Smaug - 4/10 - quite bad

The Battle of the Five Armies - 4/10 - quite bad 3/10 - bad

I'd rank them in the same order. Return of the King i'd only give 7/10. I think 3/10 for Battle of the Five Armies is being generous, it was a dreadful mess and felt more like a video game interlude than a movie.

 

 

[Veltigar]

I have never seen the extended editions of LoTR 

On the upside, after Desolation of Smaug I was smart enough to just walk away, so I never had to sit through Battle of the Five Armies. Probably one of my finest decisions that year, because I hear from everyone that it was the shittiest film in that whole shitty trilogy. 

Personally, my favourite has always been the Two Towers. I know that's not a very common choice, but I'm less enarmoured with the LoTR novels than most. I have always preferred Tolkien's other works strangely enough. 

1) Two Towers - excellent - 5/5 stars
2) The Fellowship of the Ring - excellent - 4/5 stars - I actually prefer RotK, because I can easily avoid Frodo and Sam (aside from those  hilarious must watch moment on Mount Doom), but Fellowship is undoubtedly the better film.
3) RotK  - very good - 4/5 stars - I really feel torn apart when I can't weasly myself out of conundrums like this with half stars.
4) An Unexpected Journey - 2/5 stars - I feel generous giving it two stars. I actually really liked the slow beginning and when they sang 'Far Over the Misty Mountains' I was really on board. After that, everything went downhill really. The Hobbit peaked right then and there for me
5) Desolation of Smaug - 1/5 - this gets no credit at all.

I think it'd be more fun to rank the Middle Earth AND Star Wards movies

If you want a real challenge, try asking yourself whether you'd rather sit through the prequels or the Hobbit trilogy  

I think that personally, I'd rather rewatch the prequels, if I have to rewatch all of them. If I have to pick a trilogy to watch some individual scenes from, I'd take the Hobbit though. It would just be 'Far Over the Misty Mountains' on repeat, but still  

[Durckad]

1) Fellowship - 9/10 - Best pacing and the fewest needless changes or dwarf-related humor. Also has some of the best action sequences in the films.

2) Two Towers - 8/10 - Helm's Deep is the best battle in the Hobbit and LotR movies and is a fantastic climax. The rest of the film has some clunky pacing and silly moments, but overall I quite like it. Also, the elves being at Helm's Deep don't bother me one bit.

3) Return of the King - 7/10 - Some fucking strange choices (Denethor, the army of the dead, the utter uselessness of the Gondorians) mixed with a few epic moments (the charge of the Rohirrim for one). It's a... very flawed film but I still remember it fondly. Definitely suffers from an extreme bout of 'Return of the Jedi-itis.'

4) Desolation of Smaug - 5/10 - The barrel sequence is way too long, the fight with Smaug stupidly pointless, but I kinda like everything else.

5) The Battle of the Five Armies - 4/10 - Too long, too much shitty CGI shit. Some decent action and the short sequence with Smaug at the start is pretty good, but overall, the film needs some major editing.

6) An Unexpected Journey - 2/10 - God this film sucks. This is prequel level bad, full of terrible CGI, pointless action sequences, bad characters, and dumb humor. I enjoy the beginning when it more ably mixes the humor with some seriousness, but after the trolls sequence the film just falls apart. Riddles in the dark is the best sequence in the Hobbit films but its more disappointing than gratifying as it shows that somewhere in these movies, there is some quality lurking just out of sight.

Personally, I'd rather watch the Hobbit films again than watch the prequels. At least the Hobbit movies have pretty good acting and the dialogue and writing isn't completely atrocious.

[Spring Bass]

1)Fellowship of the Ring - nothing more really needs to be said. It's simply the best - the best paced, the best characterized, the best emotional beats, the most memorable scenes, and so forth. 

2) An Unexpected Journey - I may take some heat for this, but it's my second favorite. It's a bit overlong, but it most captures some of the silliness of the source material, and I've found it's an incredibly rewatchable film. Moreover, the reasons for the rewatchability are the character beats, especially Martin Freeman's superb performance as Bilbo Baggins. 

3)Desolation of Smaug - This one definitely suffers from being a tad overlong, and while I still think the conversation about the night sky between Tauriel and Kili is very good, overall the romance subplot is just a drag. But aside from that, I watched this one recently and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it - it's got tons of intense scenes and some good humor, everything with Smaug in it is good (and I've found the battle in Erebor ages very well), and it doesn't feel self-indulgent in the way that Two Towers and Return of the King feel. 

4)Two Towers - as much as I really just don't care for most of this movie, especially the parts involving Faramir, the battle at Helm's Deep is great stuff. It redeems just about everything else in this film. 

5)Return of the King - honestly, I find this film almost unwatchable. It's the longest, and it just feels fucking endless.- I've never been able to get through it since seeing it in the theater without some fast forwarding. I'd put it at the bottom, except, well . . . 

6)Battle of the Five Armies - I'm not in the camp that thinks a good Hobbit adaptation could be done in a single movie, and only maybe in two long movies. But this is the weakest out of the six films, and it's all because there's just not enough there - they've got an hour's content stretched across 144 minutes, so the film feels incredibly overlong even though it's the shortest out of the six movies. The Tauriel subplot feels wasted, the ending somehow feels rushed after everything that goes down at Erebor, and Alfrid . . . there's a term for a running gag that falls flat the first time and then just clunks along being awful as it comes up over and over again, but I've forgotten. 

I will give it one thing, though - I love the scene at Dol Goldur. If anything, it's actually underplaying Galadriel's power - in the back-story of the novels, Sauron flees, and then Galadriel uses her ring to destroy the fortress right back down to its foundation herself IIRC. Plus, the Silmarillion has all these scenes written in it where great elves fight and defeat Balrogs, dragons, etc. That's the closest they've come to actually showing that on screen. 

 

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

Seems to be a bit of a consensus here and I won't be going against the crowd at all:

 

1) Fellowship - 10/10. Literally the best blockbuster of the past 20 years. I doubt I'll have get that feeling from a movie again in my lifetime, it was such a perfect blend of adventure and drama. It was like an old fashioned hero story done in an over the top cinematic style that worked brilliantly. I still love it to this day

2) Two Towers - 6.5 /10. Still love many parts of it, but as a movie it is a little messy and disjointed. The extended edition fixes a few of its problems but it understandably wasn't as smooth as the first movie, partly due to the nature of the books.

3) Return - 7.5 / 10 . Again a little disjointed and had a few silly elements that didn't quite work for me, mainly to do with those damn ghosts! I loved the overlong ending btw. Should have been longer.

4) AUJ - 5/10 - Actually didn't mind this movie all that much, mainly because its got a lot of elements that feel a bit more fairy tale and 'Hobbity' rather than dark and serious like the later movies. I actually liked the breakfast scene and maybe even the troll scene. It has so many issues however and over use of CGI and getting the tone all completly wrong.

5) DOS - 4.5 / 10  Funnily I thought this was a massive improvement when I first saw it. In the cinema it seemed a lot better paced and I totally bought into all the crazy action. I think because the Mirkwood stuff with the spiders seemed like my idea of what happened in the books I overlooked a lot of stuff. But on rewatch I was utterly bored and couldn't sit through any of it, I hated it. The ending was just bizarre that they cut it there.

6) The Big Battle one - 2/10. I honestly cannot understand why this movie exists or what its purpose was. It was all build up to.. something.. for some reason. But I still don't understand why they would base the whole movie about one battle that really had very little emotional impact. Terrible pacing, hugely overblown and absolutely pointless. 


I gave the Hobbit movies some slack when I first saw them, thinking that the next one would fix the mess I just saw, or would explain why it was so bad. But instead they just got worse as they went on, making me realise they were a shambles from day one. Interestingly if you read a lot about the behind the scenes of The Hobbit movies, you can see how they managed to be so bad. There is a Youtube video out there of Peter Jackson discussing his desperation during filming, how it had to be all so rushed and how he just didn't have the time to prepare or do things properly, unlike the LOTR trilogy. 

It makes me feel quite sad. He was forced onto the movie at the last minute, so many things went against him and bad choices were made. From that point you end up with a bad product.

[Crixus]

FoTR: 9/10

TT: 8/10

R: 7/10 (8 for extended)

H1: 6/10

2: 5

3: didn't bother

[Kindly Old Man]

Fellowship of the Ring - 9/10

The Two Towers - 8/10

The Return of the King - 7/10

The Hobbit (1977, animated) - 8/10 I loved this movie as a kid. Still know all the songs

The Hobbit Trilogy - 3/10 maybe? who cares

 

[3CityApache]

1. Fellowship of the Ring 10/10

2. Two Towers 9,5/10

3. The Return of the King 8,5/10

4. An Unexpected Journey 7/10

5. Desolation of Smaug 6/10

6. The Battle of Five Armies 4/10

I rated extended editions of LotR movies and regular ones of Hobbit.

[HexMachina]

1)Fellowship of the Ring - nothing more really needs to be said. It's simply the best - the best paced, the best characterized, the best emotional beats, the most memorable scenes, and so forth. 

2) An Unexpected Journey - I may take some heat for this, but it's my second favorite. It's a bit overlong, but it most captures some of the silliness of the source material, and I've found it's an incredibly rewatchable film. Moreover, the reasons for the rewatchability are the character beats, especially Martin Freeman's superb performance as Bilbo Baggins. 

3)Desolation of Smaug - This one definitely suffers from being a tad overlong, and while I still think the conversation about the night sky between Tauriel and Kili is very good, overall the romance subplot is just a drag. But aside from that, I watched this one recently and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it - it's got tons of intense scenes and some good humor, everything with Smaug in it is good (and I've found the battle in Erebor ages very well), and it doesn't feel self-indulgent in the way that Two Towers and Return of the King feel. 

4)Two Towers - as much as I really just don't care for most of this movie, especially the parts involving Faramir, the battle at Helm's Deep is great stuff. It redeems just about everything else in this film. 

5)Return of the King - honestly, I find this film almost unwatchable. It's the longest, and it just feels fucking endless.- I've never been able to get through it since seeing it in the theater without some fast forwarding. I'd put it at the bottom, except, well . . . 

6)Battle of the Five Armies - I'm not in the camp that thinks a good Hobbit adaptation could be done in a single movie, and only maybe in two long movies. But this is the weakest out of the six films, and it's all because there's just not enough there - they've got an hour's content stretched across 144 minutes, so the film feels incredibly overlong even though it's the shortest out of the six movies. The Tauriel subplot feels wasted, the ending somehow feels rushed after everything that goes down at Erebor, and Alfrid . . . there's a term for a running gag that falls flat the first time and then just clunks along being awful as it comes up over and over again, but I've forgotten. 

I will give it one thing, though - I love the scene at Dol Goldur. If anything, it's actually underplaying Galadriel's power - in the back-story of the novels, Sauron flees, and then Galadriel uses her ring to destroy the fortress right back down to its foundation herself IIRC. Plus, the Silmarillion has all these scenes written in it where great elves fight and defeat Balrogs, dragons, etc. That's the closest they've come to actually showing that on screen.

That is at the end of LotR actually - she breaks open Dol Guldur and lays it's pits bare, or something along those lines. And I didn't like that scene at all. I have to admit it's one of the reasons I convinced myself to watch Bot5A, because it's (the White Council driving Sauron from Dol Guldur) something I was always interested in. But it was just more boring nonesense, with weird Ringwraith fights and Galadriel becoming the Creature of the Black Lagoon, because reasons.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

It was "by the arts of Saurman the enemy was driven from Dol Guldur".  Apparently those "arts" are bo staff fighting per Peter Jackson.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-hobbit/37907/the-hobbit-peter-jackson-lifts-lid-on-behind-the-scenes-problems

Its hard to really throw abuse at Jackson after seeing this. I think he was put between a rock and a hard place.

[Veltigar]

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-hobbit/37907/the-hobbit-peter-jackson-lifts-lid-on-behind-the-scenes-problems

Its hard to really throw abuse at Jackson after seeing this. I think he was put between a rock and a hard place.

I read the article, but... he could have just walked away right? I mean, perhaps the video gave some more background, but as far as I can tell from the article no-one forced him to do such a half-assed job. If he wanted more preptime he shouldn't have split this one tiny book into three huge films. 

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

I read the article, but... he could have just walked away right? I mean, perhaps the video gave some more background, but as far as I can tell from the article no-one forced him to do such a half-assed job. If he wanted more preptime he shouldn't have split this one tiny book into three huge films. 

Well as far as I'm aware he was basically forced into doing it in some way. He as already exec producer or something at the point where Del Toro was directing, then a year in, Del toro pulls out. Jackson is convinced to step in and take over, but says that he can't make another guys movie and so they'd have to basically start again, but still with the same time frame. Plus there were numerous issues with strikes and production problems.

Without that breathing space and time to really think about what you want to do its very difficult to create quality. Yes he clearly made a lot of mistakes, but its understandable given the events surrounding the movie.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

I read the article, but... he could have just walked away right? I mean, perhaps the video gave some more background, but as far as I can tell from the article no-one forced him to do such a half-assed job. If he wanted more preptime he shouldn't have split this one tiny book into three huge films. 

Well as far as I'm aware he was basically forced into doing it in some way. He as already exec producer or something at the point where Del Toro was directing, then a year in, Del toro pulls out. Jackson is convinced to step in and take over, but says that he can't make another guys movie and so they'd have to basically start again, but still with the same time frame. Plus there were numerous issues with strikes and production problems.

Without that breathing space and time to really think about what you want to do its very difficult to create quality. Yes he clearly made a lot of mistakes, but its understandable given the events surrounding the movie.

[DanteGabriel]

Well as far as I'm aware he was basically forced into doing it in some way. He as already exec producer or something at the point where Del Toro was directing, then a year in, Del toro pulls out. Jackson is convinced to step in and take over, but says that he can't make another guys movie and so they'd have to basically start again, but still with the same time frame. Plus there were numerous issues with strikes and production problems.
Without that breathing space and time to really think about what you want to do its very difficult to create quality. Yes he clearly made a lot of mistakes, but its understandable given the events surrounding the movie.

Again I say, did the shortened schedule force him to give us the stupid elf-dwarf romance? I have no sympathy.