rank the 3 LOTR movies

Cafe Society
1

Which of the 3 LOTR movies did you like best? Which one did you think was weakest? Give explanations!

For me (haven’t read the books and don’t want to, but loved the movies) it went like this:

  1. My favorite was TTT. The look was fabulous. And the characters became more real and in-depth to me.

  2. Fellowship was 2nd. The first time I saw it I wan’t too entranced, but when I re-watched it after TTT, it all made more sense to me.

  3. ROTK. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely enjoyed this movie, but so much of it was battle scenes, and I don’t like battle scenes. I’m just a total wimp about violence and there was an awful lot of orcs stabbing, crushing, and otherwise doing mean things to people.

2

Best to less:

  1. RoTK
  2. FoTR
  3. TTT
3

Same here, at least for now. Mind you, this is based on multiple (and I do mean multiple) viewings of TTT and FotR, but only one of RotK. But still, I think this will hold true.

4

Come to think of it, that’s also the order I’d rank the books.

5

I would rank FoTR first, but that is in part based on the fact it made the biggest impression - after that, we know a lot about the way the others are going to be filmed.

After that, it is difficult - probably RoTK and then TTT.

6

Fellowship of the Ring- “The best of all three, any changes I accepted with almost no thought.”

The Two Towers- “Greatly annoyed be some of the changes but having heard Pete Jackson and the writers explination I can see why they did what they did.” (see Faramir’s temptation by the ring, and the Elves at Helm’s Deep)

Return of the King- “all I can say is Lucy you got some splainin to do. Hopefully the Extended Editions can flesh out some of the character points and actions that were sorely lacking”

7
  1. FOTR
  2. TTT
  3. ROTK
8

I’m going to go with RotK, at least based on my first impression, which combined all the best aspects of both films. Then FotR, and finally TTT (which I liked, but it didn’t move me quite as much as the other two).

I’d really like to see how they all work end-to-end, though (not having been able to get tickets for Trilogy Tuesday)…

9

I’m not sure I can. The third film in the trilogy makes clear the entire arc of the piece and unifies the effort, cementing the whole thing as one long work. It’s not like the Star Wars trilogy, where different people wrote and directed the various chapters years and years apart. LOTR was made by one creative team at one time.

ROTK illuminates the intent of the preceding two films, and improves both. TTT suffers because it’s the middle segment and must be a bridge between (ahem) two towers with no beginning or ending of its own. FOTR benefits for having caught all of us totally off-guard with how amazingly good it was.

Rank them if you want, but I cannot.

10

It’s one movie, just spread into 3 parts!

11

ROTK
FOTR
TTT

12

I rank them in release order, with Fellowship at the top and RotK several steps down from the other two.

13

You must work for the BCS…

14

What Quagdop said!

It’s all one long story, just divided into parts because the normal moviegoing public wouldn’t want to go see a 12-hour-long movie. Long-time LOTR fanatics like me, OTOH, thought seeing them all back to back to back was cooler than cool, and well worth the effort (and it wasn’t even that much of an effort since the movies were so engrossing!). It really emphasized how it was just one long story divided into smaller pieces for public viewing.

What I want to see now is the trilogy of all three extended versions!!

15

Thinking outside the box… I like it!

But keeping with the premise of the OP:

1, 2, 3. As they were all real good, what it came down to for me was:

  1. No big battle scenes.
  2. A really good, big battle scene.
  3. An even bigger and better battle scene (plus the Nazgul screaches)

Now, if Arwen had appeared naked in any of them, that would’ve outranked any battle scene.:slight_smile:

16

It’s difficult to rank them not having seen the extended ROTK. But I’m fairly sure that FOTR will always be my favorite. I had zero expectations going into the movie. The scale and spectacle of it all was overwhelming. But TTT is a close second–I agree that the characters were most fully realized in that one.

17

You obviously don’t have the Super Extend-O Mack Daddy editions.

18

FOTR and ROTK have the greater emotional ties to those that don’t already eat, sleep, drink, and breath the story already. Fellowship has the happy, peaceful, content opening, which makes the despair, terror and doom of the quest all the more significant. ROTK has the finale, as well as the emotional strength associated with a climax.

TTT, however, starts right where FOTR left off, so if you ignore the emotional dichotomy 'twixt the opening of FOTR and the end, you don’t have as much in the second film.

So I stand by how I rank them.

19

Interesting that there is no clear consensus. Each movie was ranked 1st by someone, and each was ranked last by someone.

20

Yeah, I noticed that, too.

I can’t decide. The only thing I can really nail down is that TT seemed a bit thin… but, I suspect, that’s because it suffers from “middle movie in a trilogy” syndrome.

I’m not really gonna be able to make an informed decision until I can finally sit down and watch all three on DVD, back to back…