Which Is Better: Harry Potter Vs The Lord of the Rings

Two of arguably the best book-to-film franchises ever clash swords and wands as they fight for the top spot. Though these series had books before they were adapted to the screen, they will not be included into this fight. I'll be sticking to what is strictly seen on screen. This will be a five round battle. Themes and Ideals, Heroes and Villains, Universes, Score, Action, Effects, and Better Films. There will be SPOILERS in this feud so "CONTINUE AT SPOILER RISK." By The Lord of the Rings, I'm not including The Hobbit. If you're wondering how a measly three films can take on a mass of eight films, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. If my end result displeases any of you, feel free to write down your own winner in the comments section below. So without further ado, lets start round one.

1. Themes and Ideals

Let's start with Harry Potter. In the wizarding world, there were many problems with their society. They were split into classes like most fictional societies are. The upper class, pure bloods, laughed and mocked at the lower class's state, half-blood and mud blood, of living and fortunes. There was little respect for others. The villains sought strength and lacked love and compassion for others and underestimated that power. There's a Huey Lewis reference for you. Our heroes united and used love and found strength in such a cause, which worked to great effect for them. For the ideals in the Lord of the Rings, somewhat similar situations apply here. Nobody liked each other. Everyone sticked to their own kind and little friendship was found outside that. Everything was like that, until the big baddie came around and everyone came together and fought for the same common goal, which is an admirable one. If we can all get along and help each other, and there was no fighting with one another, our world would be better off. Both themes are awesome, yet admittedly not new, so picking the winner here is a coin toss. I'm gonna go with Harry Potter. I have to say it was really hard, but Harry Potter is the one to draw first blood.

2. Heroes and Villains

Wow! What a treasure trove of characters to be found in both franchises. Again, let's start with Harry Potter. Our heroes include Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hagrid, Slughorn, Snape, the Weasley's, Luna, Dobby, Lupin, Made-Eye Moody, Sirius, and more. A lot of villains are in this too. Bellatrix, Pettigrew, Greyback, the Malfoy's, and of course the main villain of the series, Lord Voldemort, played greatly by Ralph Fiennes. A lot of great characters are found here. Let's go list the characters in the Lord of the Rings. Frodo, Samwise, Merry, and Pippin are our four main Hobbits of the entire series. Our main fellowship include Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf, and short lived member, Boromir. Supporting characters include, Bilbo, Arwen, Elrond, Galadriel, Theoden, Eomer, Ewoyn, and more. Our villains are mighty with Gollum/Smeagol, the legions of Orcs, Goblins, Urukhai, the evil wizard Saruman, and the main big baddie Sauron. So what a cast of many characters we have for both franchises. Picking a winner is difficult to do. I'm gonna go with Lord of the Rings. I have to be honest in saying that I like the heroes and villains there better. No disrespect to the Harry Potter cast of characters.

3. Universes

Once again both these franchises have incredible worlds. Since Lord of the Rings won the previous round, I'll start with that. I'll say this. Both authors created their character's worlds with incredible detail. They had fantastic imaginations on what they wanted to have in their respected worlds. Author J.R.R Tolkien didn't take the easy path when it came to creating the world Middle Earth. He went the distance in making his world with incredible detail. The Shire, Rivendell, Mordor, Helms Deep, Rohan, Minas Tirtith, and Osgiliath, came from the mind of Tolkien.  He made this world by hand and created his own maps of the world. When brought to film, a lot of the things that were created by him were adapted faithfully to the screen and was used to great effect in making the world more immersive. When on the road, Jackson went New Zealand and stayed there for the three films, plus The Hobbit films, which I'm not including, but just to mention. Same thing goes for Harry Potter. Author J.K Rowling kept the franchise on a tight, but healthy, leash. The fictitious Wizarding World is a world parallel to our own, and few regular peopler, or what she called them Muggles, knew that it had existed. Most of the franchise was filmed in London, which is the setting for the books. Both of them were faithful to their respected series. So for choosing a winner, I'm gonna go with Lord of the Rings for the winner, because the world that Tolkien created was greatly adapted to the screen, and the effort that Tolkien put into making this world should be respected.

4. Music

The music for both franchises is well done. On the Lord of the Rings side, it only needed one composer for it's three films. Howard Shore is the name in question, and side note he came back for the Hobbit films as well. It hits every theme that the story introduces. Sure it has the adventurous, grand themes that the story has, but also has the great quieter moments in the story, which equal the grander moments, and even at some points surpasses the adventurous moments in the score. For good measure, great new themes were created so that every place the characters traveled to felt different. But something that gives the Lord of the Rings a boost is the Annie Lennox song, Into The West. That was a great song. Harry Potter had quite a number of composers. In the first three films, John Williams composed the score and did a terrific job. In movie four, Patrick Doyle composed and it is probably my least favorite, and the least prominent composer out of all the Potter composers. Nicholas Hooper did five and six and did great for what he did with the score. But in the last two films, Alexandre Desplat almost equals John Williams's score. While the various composers and scores help Harry Potter in quantity, Lord of the Rings's scores were simple, and always is constant, which may or may not be a good thing. So while it's hard to top a John Williams score, the combination of Howard Shore's grand score and the Annie Lennox song ensure that Lord of the Rings get the win.

5. Action

Lord of the Rings. Harry Potter had great action, but it's nothing compared to the scale of action that the Lord of the Rings has. Easy win there. Although Harry Potter did have a lot of exciting action.

6. Effects

The effects of the Lord of the Rings films are great. The best thing they did in the entire series, in terms of effects, is turn a now world famous motion capture actor into a cave dwelling creature named Gollum. That and they put together amazing battles using good old fashioned practical effects, with a healthy dose of CG as well. The ents, while used great in the films, looked a bit weird at points. That was the only downside, and it's not even a downside, because they worked to great effect. For making the Harry Potter films, they used an assortment of miniatures, green screen for an assortment of scenes, shooting on soundstages, and real filming on location for most of the franchises settings. I mean I should know. I was able to see the places where it was filmed. So I'm gonna chose the Harry Potter franchise to take this point. Being able to go and see where it was filmed, made me appreciate what Rowling and company did.

7. Better Films

Eight films against three films. How am I gonna make a winner here? Simple. I select three films from the Harry Potter films to combat the three Lord of the Rings films. I choose from the Harry Potter clan, Prisoner of Azkaban to combat Fellowship of the Ring. Order of the Phoenix to combat the Two Towers, and Deathly Hallows Part 2 to combat Return of the King. If you have a better matchup, let me know in the comments section below. I'd be curious to know. I, personally, think that this is a fair matchup, although some of you hard core Harry Potter film fans think that these three films are a terrible matchup.

7.1 Slower Film That Builds Its Story With A Low Amount Of Action

Ladies and Gentlemen, on the left we have the best of the Harry Potter films, Prisoner of Azkaban. What's this? On the right we have the slow, but mighty, Fellowship of the Ring. That's enough boxing voice for now. Both these films have a slower and long pace to them, with some action scenes sprinkled in with them. Let's start with Fellowship. Though probably the weakest of the trio, Fellowship is still a ten out of ten. It has an overall slow pace that starts a story nicely. By slow, let me clarify. Slow is not a bad thing. You can't have action scene after action scene. You need to have those slower and smaller moments, which are the best things in this one film. But compared to its two sequels, this is a slower film. Two Towers has a bit of that, but we're not there yet. It still has great action scenes though, but not as many as two and three. Jackson knows how to make a great action scenes though. He proved that thought his work on the trilogy. He chose the right actors to portray these characters. Ian McKellen was a fantastic choice as Gandalf. He fit the role perfectly. He even got a Best Supporting Actor nomination for this film at the Oscars. Sadly though, he didn't get the win. Another Oscar snub that I didn't like. I gotta make a post about Oscar snubs I didn't like. There are so many. Anyways, I gotta get back on track. Splitting the Fellowship up  was great. They did it so well in the films. As for the Prisoner of Azkaban, it is by far in a way the best of the eight Harry Potter films. It layers the entire plot, it deepens the personalities of the main characters. A lot of great actors are added such as David Thewlis as Remus Lupin, and Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon er Sirius Black, who is well cast as the character. Time Travel is introduced in the film with Hermione's time turner, but strangely never brought back again. Werewolves, Dementors, and more creatures are added to this great series and they were balanced really well. There was great drama, action, and very funny dialogue. As much as I like the Fellowship of the Ring, Prisoner of Azkaban is the best of the Potter films, whereas if you saw my ranking of the Middle Earth films, Hobbit included, Fellowship (SPOILER ALERT) ranked at number three. So with that, Harry Potter takes the point.

7.2 Faster Paced And More Action Packed Sequel

I was torn between having Goblet of Fire or Order of the Phoenix go here and compete against Two Towers. I chose Order of the Phoenix to compete, and it is a medium level Harry Potter film. It's far from the best, but it's far from the worst of them though. So much happens in the film from the prophecy being told to Umbridge taking over all of Hogwarts. But the film is much more faster paced than the previous film that I mentioned. Loads more action is added from Broomstick flights, students training for battle, Dumbledore vs Voldemort, and then Harry and his entourage/Order of the Phoenix vs Voldemort's entourage, which was awesome. Those ending fights were awesome. Harry than confronts Voldemort with the knowledge that no matter what Voldemort does, he cannot and will never know love. That was fantastic. Now if that's great, that ain't nothing compared to what Two Towers has. We see the Fellowship split up with Frodo and Sam following Gollum onwards to Mount Doom, and Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli hunting a pack of orcs that took Merry and Pippin captive back to go  to Isengard for further information about the whereabouts of the Ring. On their hunt, Gandalf, reincarnated and now white, returns to the trio to only go to Rohan and save their king from being poisoned by Saruman. They then retreat to Rohan's great fortress, Helms Deep, as an army of ten thousand orcs, carrying midivil bombs to assist them in taking down the place. The entire battle runs a long time. In fact, it lasts more than an hour and a half, and sure there were cuts back to Fordo and Sam to Marry and Pippin with the ents headed to take down Isengard, which I found tedious a bit, but when they got back to the action I was smiling from ear to ear. So yeah with the quality of Two Towers, there is no way Harry Potter is winning round.

7.3 The End Of All Things

I couldn't have picked a better name for the final round. Seven books! Eight movies! Everything has led to this film. It could've been better, but I wasn't disappointed with the finished films. Though there were some odd decisions made like having Harry fight Voldemort alone instead of in front of their piers was questionable. Though a few bad decisions don't ruin the overall experience for me. I was satisfied with what I got and what I got was still fantastic. The action was superb and the franchise was tied up in a neat little bow. We even got a peek at what our three main heroes look like nineteen years later with their own kids leaving for their first year of school. What a great conclusion. Return of the King was an even greater conclusion. Watching Frodo finally destroying the Ring brought a tear or two to my eye, like everyone in the film did. But before that there was astounding action scenes and crowd pleasing moments that were great to watch. Return to the King is one of my favorite films of all time. Plus, you can't argue with success as it made over a billion dollars worldwide. Deathly Hallows Part 2 did that too, but one thing it failed to do is get Oscar recognition. Where it only managed to get only three nominations, winning none of them, Return of the King won all ELEVEN nominations it got including Best Picture and Director. So with that, Return of the King wins the final point.

With a score of six to three, Lord of the Rings wins. What did you think of the winner? Do you agree with the winner of this epic battle, or do you think that the Harry Potter film series is the superior franchise? Write your thoughts down below in the comments section below as well as what you'd like to see be done on this blog. What series do you want ranked? What top ten lists do you want to see? What are some verses battles do you want to see? Please go and share your ideas below. Thanks for reading, I'm the film fanatic, bye-bye.