Which one of those 3 do you enjoy the most?
Me: LOTR (what a surprise to you all).
The richness of the backstory, and the care that PJ took to put a lot of that backstory into the movies (as imperfectly as he did it at times) makes me hold them in much higher regard than even the best Star Trek pics (and I’m a fan of TOS) or those 3 nice Star War movies I enjoyed so much.
SW finished on a poor down note, and Trek has been wildly uneven (of course, they’ve had umpteen chances to have some real stinkers, V & Nemesis, for example). Even if you look just in terms of highs hit, LOTR blows the other 2 away. Generally more depth as well (“depth” and Star Wars don’t belong in the same sentence, and I’ve always suspected that Trek dumbed down their theatrical scripts vis a vis those from the various series). Probably should wait for the Hobbit movies tho to make a final comparison (2nd reboot Trek film likely will be out by then too).
As a youngster I saw the first Star Wars film opening day at the Coronet in SF and it remains a touchstone from my youth. I was also a Trekkie from way back in the same time period, dedicated to TOS. I’m still fond ( too varying degrees ) of both franchises.
But as movies even the weakest of the Jackson LOtR films consistently blows even the strongest of the above two franchises away. They’re certainly flawed, particularly the latter two. But even at that, they are still stunning artistic achievements.
I would take The Empire Strikes Back easily over any other installment of any of the other franchises listed.
But since we’re discussing them as a whole, and since Jedi brings the average of the trilogy way down (and that’s even ignoring the prequels), LOTR has the most consistent quality and vision.
LOTR by a fairly wide distance. I had some misgivings about some of the plot and the ending but overall it was a magnificent achievement which will probably be a film for the ages. The general quality of acting is high and probably its greatest achievement is to fuse locations, sets, costumes and special effects into a vivid and memorable universe.
Star Wars: Too uneven in quality compared to LOTR and the acting is sub-standard (this goes for the two of the three films in the original trilogy as well). Like most I enjoy ESB the most and I like ANH and ROTS quite a bit as well. ROTJ and AOTC are average films which have their moments while TPM is a complete turkey.
Star Trek: I am a mild fan of the show particularly TNG but have never gotten into the movies. I watched Wrath of Khan and didn’t really get what the fuss was about. Since that was generally considered the best of the films I didn’t bother with any of the rest till the latest one which I enjoyed quite a lot. I am looking forward to more movies in the rebooted universe.
Loved them all, but gotta side with Trek just because there’s so much more of it than the other ones (at least in terms of movies/TV).
Not sure what LOTR has to do with Star Wars/Star Trek. I wouldn’t even consider it a franchise, since it’s unlikely it will ever be expanded beyond the orignal work.
Well, there are two Hobbit movies coming out soon…
And it will be interesting to see just how deeply they mine the appendices of LOTR for source material.
Entire movies could be made from appendix material, frankly. The tale of Eorl the Young, and his ride to save Gondor from the Wainriders, for one. Or the Kinstrife in Gondor, which resulted in the longstanding conflict with the Corsairs of Umbar. Or the fall of Arnor to the Witch-King of Angmar (aka lord of the Nazgul).
Frankly, a dozen movies could be spun out from just LOTR & Hobbit. And perhaps one day the JRRT estate will decide to allow the rights to Sil and UT to be sold.
Come to think of it…
Star Trek: Started as TV-series, later turned into movies and books
Star Wars: Started as movies, later turned into books and TV-series
LOTR: Started as books, later turned into movies and… uh oh
Ladies and gentlemen I think we have a loser.
There were TV shows based on LotR, but they weren’t that good.
Anyways, you made this hard. On the one hand, Star Trek is an old favorite. On the other, I’ve only scratched the surface of TLotR.
But, as I was writing that, I realized that, technically, I only have three books to read of TLotR. The rest is just Middle Earth/Tolkien stuff that didn’t make it into the trilogy for whatever reason. But, when it comes to Star Trek, I’ve got tons of books I’ve never read, and more may be on the way. And even more movies. Once I finally read TLotR, I’m technically finished.
So, I was about to vote Star Trek, but then I noticed you were only counting the movies. Both ST and TLotR are so good as to be exceptions to my “only watch a movie once” policy. But Star Trek had some sucky movies, while TLotR did not. But there are going to be new Star Trek movies. There is no more TLotR. Like I said at the beginning: you made this hard. While it’s technically a tie, I’ll cheat and vote for Star Trek, since there are so many TLotR voters.
Notes: The T is there because I hate it when people forget the “The”. Star Wars doesn’t get a mention because I’ve (gasp) never seen any of them. I don’t think it’s fair in this thread for me to judge by cultural osmosis alone.
BTW, can you tell that my OCD is acting up? 
God, I hope not. As much as I’d love to see more of Middle Earth on the big screen, let’s face it - Hollywood sucks at series.
Oh, I agree. But let’s face it. There’s tons of stuff out there that could be spun into more moves than you could shake a Silmaril at.
STAR WARS!!! Seriously, I’m surprised so few people like Star Wars. 
LOTR can be considered as a franchise as it has spawned collectible card games, video games and (additional) books. In term of movies, LOTR wins. But for games, most of the LOTR games are lackluster, sans Lord of the Rings Online and The Return of the King (PS2 hack and slash). It is still quite young in terms of movies and honestly, I don’t really expect PJ to handle the prequel well (Aragorn didn’t appear anywhere in the Hobbit…I think Tolkien would be turning cartwheels in his graves if PJ tried to plot-twist it so that a younger Aragorn would appear).
Star Wars succeed quite well at games - KOTOR, Jedi Knights and etc.
Star Trek seems to be the biggest loser here. Games after the 25th Anniversary title sucks, its movies sucks (excluding the reboot) and Voyager could have a better ending.
It’d be interesting to see how a poll would pan out if all 20 feature films from the 3 franchises were listed separately. Then, I’d think you’d see SW giving LOTR a run for its money, if not in the lead.
I’m a Trekkie, so I went with Trek even though I only genuinely enjoy about five of its eleven films. I don’t care at all about anything Star Wars did, though, and LotR, while great, just doesn’t have the same resonance with me.
The Lord of the Rings are easily the best movies of the three choices, no question. And I was heavily into Star Wars when I was 8, and I recognize the cultural impact of the first movie and the superior quality of the second, but all in all it hasn’t aged all that well. But good or bad, I’ve always looked forward to whatever Star Trek movie was next. It might not be the best of the three, but it’s my favourite. Things Blowing Up To Symphonic Music are always fun.
If we were going by individual movies, it would be
at the moment. Tomorrow I might feel differently. I rated “Empire” and “Two Towers” lower than most because I like movies to have beginnings, middles, and ends. (Yes, “Fellowship” does tell a complete story, no matter what you say.)
“Khan” was a lot of fun and “Star Wars” deserves credit (blame? credit? blame?) for pioneering whole new kinds of film-making/marketing, but “Fellowship” is simply a fantastic film with stellar performances.
ETA: The third Star Trek movie left very little impression on me, except I thought it was an awful cheat, even in terms of sci-fi/fantasy cheats, and I stopped watching the original-cast movies after the one with the whales, which I figured was a good place to end. I did see the first couple of Next Generation movies and the Star Wars prequels, and they don’t belong on the list.
The two Star Wars movies are tops with me.