The original Star Wars trilogy is a beloved icon for many. The Lord of the Rings movies were surprisingly successful adaptations, winning praise from critics and book fans alike. Both their prequel series are generally seen as, if not unmitigated disasters, at least not living up to the originals. Which prequel movies do you guys think sucked more? I know many of you find both to be tolerable, even enjoyable. Still interested in which series of movies you think was more of a failure (artistically, not financially).
Nothing is worse than the Star Wars prequels.
I disagree with the premise of the thread. Neither of these trilogies are “artistic failures” in any sense of the term.
I’d vote for the Hobbit being worse.
Both trilogies have terrible dialog, so that’s a wash. They both do a terrible job with love stories. The Hobbit wins in two areas - Jackson is a better director who got more from his actors than Lucas, and the underlying conflict is more interesting than trade agreements.
But the Hobbit suffers from unbelievable bloat, which overwhelms its (small) good points. I get bored watching it. The Hobbit movies also got progressively worse with each one, so you’re left with a bad feeling by the end. The Star Wars prequels got better with each one, and the last one was almost a decent movie.
Star Wars Prequels, hands down.
Another vote for SW. The Hobbit movies’ primary sin was bloat and redundancy. With some judicious editing, it might have been possible to salvage them into an interesting series of smaller episodes or anecdotes. No such luck with Eps 1-3. They are so bad on so many levels that they are an unmitigated mess from ground zero. Collectively, they run shorter than the Hobbit movies, but they feel unbearably longer.
I want to say Star Wars, but at the same time I don’t want to give the impression that I think the Hobbit movies were anything but dreck. Its a dilemma to be sure.
Huh…I must be the only person that liked the Hobbit movies (I did find them bloated but still enjoyed them) AND, aside from Episode I (which I cut out in the Machete viewing) I actually enjoyed the prequels, though not as much as the original series. If we are just looking at which is the worst, well, it’s hard to compare since they are so different, but since I think that Episode I is pretty universally disliked I’d go with the prequels overall.
Star Wars: Gave up after the first prequel movie.
The Hobbit: Watched all three and enjoyed them, although not nearly as much as the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
I’m going to have to go with the Star Wars prequels for worst.
It’s kind of a tie, and the answer is that both would benefit by dropping one movie.
The Star Wars prequels start with one total stinker of a movie (TPM) and then provide reasonably OK movies. Still not as good as the originals, but worth watching once.
The Hobbit shouldn’t lose a single movie in such a neat excision… rather they should be edited down into two 90-minute movies. (OK, two 120-minute movies if you insist.) Still not as good as the original LOTR movies, but the result would be better than the Star Wars prequels.
If you made me pick from the original releases, though: I would rather re-watch the SW prequels than the Hobbit. No question there.
The Star Wars prequels hands down. They are original stories, and there are basic problems with many of the premises, the impossibility of reconciling the backstory of the characters that’s shown with what appears in the original movies, and basically a lot of stuff that just doesn’t make any sense in relation to the original movies. There’s really no good way to fix them.
The Hobbit movies, on the other hand, are telling a story that isn’t bad in itself. Their main problem is absurd bloat. Yeah, they screw up some characterizations but you could edit them down to a couple of reasonable movies. They aren’t nearly as unfixable as the Star Wars prequels.
I can’t watch a minute of a Hobbit or Lord of the Rings movie. I watched the first one in the theater and fell asleep after a few minutes.
Star Wars prequels were massive failures on every level.
Star Wars. I actually don’t think the Hobbit movies were all that bloated, although I actually liked the Dol Goldur side plot so there is that. I just think the camera was either not focused enough or moved too fast compared to the originals, which really added blurriness to the experience of seeing it on the big screen (contrast: the Dol Goldur side plot which except for the climactic scene did not have a lot of fast motion and was completely beautiful). Especially in 3-d, and I saw the first one in both 3-d and 2-d to see if 2-d looked better, but it didn’t.
ETA: still, it is prettier than anything but LOTR, because even if you take out the side plot you still have the Shire.
The Hobbit trilogy was an incompetent telling of a good story, while the Star Wars prequels were more watchable but the rot went deeper. The Hobbit is unwatchable as-is, but you could probably salvage the story with a competent editor to remove all the bloated and/or stupid bits. I think it would be more difficult to cut the bullshit out of the Star Wars prequels - things like the slave army fighting on the side of the Republic.
I’ve only seen the first HOBBIT movie, as i was too disgusted to give Peter Jackson anything other than a slap in the face after watching it–certainly not any more of my money.
I saw all three STAR WARS prequels, but only because my favorite niece wanted me to take her and I can deny her nothing.
So I’ll compare the AN UNEXPECTED JURNEY and THE PHANTOM MENACE.
AUE was worse. TPE at least had Portman and Liam and McGregor.
Nonsense.
Of the 6 relevant films, there is one watchable* one: SW episode III, so SW wins 1-0
*Watchable, not great.
I have to agree. McGregor did a much better job than the material he was given would seem to make likely; so did Neesom. Portman was defeated by the bad direction but was nevertheless fun to look at. The young man who played the adult Vader was also defeated by the bad direction but at least we got to see him suffer for his sins. And while there has never been a good reason not to melt down Threepio, Artoo was always awesome.
Star Wars prequels by a mile.
Wow, this is no contest. Maybe Star Wars Prequels vs Matrix 3.