Looking back, how do you think the trilogy holds up? Has your opinion changed since you first saw the movies?
I think the trilogy holds up. I’ve watched the extended BR version several times now and my opinion hasn’t changed a bit: FOTR was good but not great, but stands as an achievement because of very high production values and because the script, acting and directing were solid. TT was great but the music and other elements began to be grating. ROTK was good but not as good as FOTR.
There’s lots of nits to pick in a sweeping, 12 hour film(s) (or whatever the actual run time of all the extended cuts is) but overall it’s a worthy set of films for an epic tale.
The Two Towers is my favorite of the three but they still hold up. The passion for the project is clear in the movies even if some of the details have aged a bit.
I think they’ve held up mostly well. The Hobbit unfortunately causes a little reassessment of a few things in LOTR – some of the slo-mo in LOTR seems cheesier now and Legolas isn’t as cool – but not enough to ruin LOTR for me. As Bo said, there are plenty of flaws, but overall Jackson did a good job of capturing the magic and creating a story with characters you cared about. LOTR could have been better, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse.
Wait, 15TH ?! What the, no. No. That can’t be right.
Combined, they are the best movie ever made and I think that they stand up very well.
It is hard for me to believe that I saw that in the theater 15 years ago. Feels like 7-8 tops. I think viewing Fellowship in the theater is one of my top theater going experiences, if not my very best. The crowd roared when the Cave Troll battle happened, and downright cheered/gasped when the Balrog burst through the flame and roared. When Gandalf faced him down and said, “You shall not pass!”, I think everyone was just thrilled. It may seem aged to some, but all of the Mines of Moria remains my favorite series of sequences in movies.
I remember when Aragorn cut off the Uruk-Hai’s head near the end. The crowd cheered again. Loudly cheered. Like, people applauded and cheered like it was happening live.
It was a great experience, beginning to end.
Two Towers actually improved vastly in the extended cut. Return of the King was excellent in both theatrical and extended. Fellowship remains my favorite theatrical, though. Having said that, I think in the end The Two Towers is the best individual movie.
I did like the Hobbit movies a lot as well, but not on the level of Lord of the Rings. Nothing beats Lord of the Rings.
This thread got me to thinking - I’ve read the books more times than I can count, but I only watched the movies once, in the theater when they came out. I enjoyed them and I thought they were pretty true to the books. But I’ve had no desire to watch them again.
Weird…
I couldn’t even get thru the first of the Hobbit films, so I can’t talk to them.
Treat yourself to the Blu Ray Extended Edition, fire up your projector and enjoy. The EE films are all better than the cinema. You’ll come back and thank us.
I got thru the 1st Hobbit movie only because my GF and I saw it in the theatre and it takes a lot for me to walk out on a $50 investment for an evening’s entertainment. I had no desire to see it again and declined to watch the other 2 Hobbit movies.
Wow, 15 years!
I didn’t like TT as much mostly due to the treatment of Faramir (and Brego the wonder horse) but I still liked it.
All the LOTR movies have flaws, but in general they were very well done and will wtach again and again (I usually watch one Exteneded edition disc a night for a 6 night experience)
Brian
Actually, use the extended DVD for Fellowship of the Ring, not the Blu-Ray. The color tinting is massively screwed up for Fellowship, turning everything green. It has not, as of yet, been fixed. No one knows why. The DVD does not have this error. Two Towers and Return of the King are fine.
I believe Peter Jackson acknowledged it only once in an interview, saying he supported the Blu-ray release as is. It’s insane. The DVD looks the way it is supposed to and the way it did in the theater. It’s like they turned on the Shire green tint and left it on the entire movie. No proper Fellowship Blu-ray exists, yet. 
My wife and I saw The Fellowship of the Ring at Chicago’s long gone and much missed *McClurg Court *theater. I had read the books multiple times, but she never had. As soon as the screen went black, and we heard Galadrial’s voice “The world has changed…” we were both goners. We ultimately wound up attending Trilogy Tuesday to see The Return of the King after the extended versions of the first two. Nothing can compare to seeing a film in a theater filled with huge fans.
I remember going to an opening night showing of Fellowship on an IMAX screen. When the screen went black and Galadriel started with her Prologue, I thought I was going to pee in my pants I was so excited. The movie just blew me away with the amazing production values and surprisingly faithful adherence to the book (not perfect, but pretty damn good). It was incredible.
I haven’t watched the EEs in a couple of years. Time to pull them out again.
I usually watch my Extended Edition blu rays of the trilogy around this time of year.
The Two Towers EE is my favorite and, as others have mentioned, it probably benefits the most from the added scenes. What really makes the movie for me is Treebeard and the storming of Isengard by the Ents. That scene just always amazes me.
I came to Lord of the Rings somewhat later in life than most folks. I started reading it in my late 20s… though the first 100 pages of Fellowship bored me so much I almost stopped reading then and there, but I soldiered on and after the Council part was hooked and enjoyed the rest of the story very much. That is all to say that I didn’t harbor youthful nostalgia for the series. I just liked it. So I came to the movies with expectation, but not as much as life long fans. Anyways, Fellowship (interestingly enough) was my favorite of the films. The dullness I found in reading the beginning turned out to be fascinating on film. I actually rated The Two Towers relatively low, though, because I absolutely loved how the book basically turned the stories of Frodo and Sam & the rest of the fellowship into two separate books. Merging those stories tended to make it not as interesting, IMO… and Helms Deep took up too much screentime (I know I’m in a minority on that one). I enjoyed Return of the King, but probably equal to TT, though I found the ending(s) to be a bit ridiculous in the amount of them. And then, with all those endings and you don’t do a Scouring of the Shire? Pfft.
Anyways, I bought the Blu-Ray Extended Edition, but I don’t think I’ve ever watched them. I believe I’ve seen the films only in bits and spurts throughout the years when they’ve been on tv.
And I saw the first Hobbit film (in IMAX). I was… underwhelmed (I also came to the Hobbit later in life, but even then, I realized that life long fans would not have been all that pleased as to what Jackson did to that tale).
Saw the originals on opening day in the theater, saw the EE versions in the theater at special showings, own the Blue Ray special editions, have watched all the features on them over the years. But it’s now been a few years since I watched any of them.
They were very remarkable and they’ve held up well, IMHO.
Now I know what I want to binge on again . . .
I first read the Lord of the Rings in 1969.
I was so moved I wrote to Professor Tolkien and received a reply. 
I bought the Extended DVD of Jackson’s LotR and have watched it several times. It still comes over as a work of genius.
I also think the DVD extras (covering much including casting, costumes and clay models) are a fine addition.
I still enjoy them tremendously. I’ve been a Tolkien geek since I first read the books, in the late '70s, at age 12 or so. For me, so much of what was done in the films captured the spirit of the books so very well. I try to re-watch them every year or so (just as I re-read the novels every few years).
The Hobbit project disappointed me, just as tremendously as the LotR films thrilled me. I was unhappy with An Unexpected Journey, and abhorred Desolation of Smaug, so much so that I’ve never seen Battle of the Five Armies, and don’t care to. However, those haven’t spoiled my love for the LotR films.
The opening where they finally kill Smaug is pretty good. Changed quite a bit from the book, but very well done. Definitely the most thrilling stuff in the movies. Yes, Bard still kills him. I half-wondered if Bilbo or Thorin would do it.
Yeah, there are some good things about the Hobbit movies. But there’s just so much excess. You could probably make a decent 3 hour edit from them. I imagine someone has already done it.