Middle-Earth: Least Favorite to Epic

To me, The Lord of the Rings is one of the few series to crack the book-to-film adaption curse that plaques other adaptions. Though it may take a few liberties with its source material, I find it enjoyable all the same. For some reason, people would liken The Hobbit trilogy to that of the Star Wars Prequels. While I say good comparison for the most part, The Hobbit suffers from different problems than that trilogy, but I still watch it a lot more than I do with the Star Wars Prequels. Because I recently had a marathon of all the extended editions for both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, I thought I'd come back and re-rank this awesome franchise. Feel free to disagree with my ranking in the comments below, or you may actually agree my ranking. There may be a few SLIGHT SPOILERS here and there, but I don't think you should worry about it. I will bring the extended editions into account when it comes to which place I give each film.

6. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

When deciding what film would be at the bottom, it was between An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug. I ended up putting Smaug here because I found it too boring and the extended edition didn't help. Adding more wandering through Mirkwood, more Lake-town sub-plot, and other scenes that made the film drag on even more. The film starts out with a bang, but after the barrel chase, the film slogs until the company reach the mountain. Even after that, there were still some more parts here and there that made it slow even more. Remember how I said that the series takes a few liberties with the source material? This was one of those times. Though it was great to see Orlando Bloom back as Legolas, his personality isn't as fun as when he was in Lord of the Rings. Evangeline Lilly joins the cast as an elf, because I mean what's better than one necksnaping elf? Two, that's what. She was basically there for a love story that shouldn't have existed because they don't go anywhere with it and it ends up being wasted screen time. "Why is there a romance," you ask? I don't know why exactly. Smaug also introduces us to probably the worst character in the whole series, which is Alfred, the sneaky coward. There are a few things why this film is good. Mainly because of Smaug. Let's all agree right now that Benedict Cumberbatch is spectacular. Bard is good at some points, but I find him better in Battle of the Five Armies than I do here. I'll give Smaug this, it certainly left me wanting more.

5. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Like the film succeeding it, An Unexpected Journey does have a few slow points here and there. For me, it still kept me engaged due to its nostalgic feel of seeing Middle-Earth again. Ian Holm is back as Bilbo who tells the story and they get some people into their positions to where we see them in Fellowship of the Ring. While Ian Holm was great as Bilbo, I do believe that, in my own opinion, Martian Freeman is the better actor to portray the character. As I said previously, nostalgia is bliss as we get Lord of the Rings easter eggs, a return to Rivendell, and Gollum. Yes Gollum, Andy Serkis is back as the cave dwelling creature and he reminds us how awesome Gollum was and still is. While it doesn't get me as invested as the previous quest did, the company,  which is full of forgettable names, does get you to follow them around for their quest to reclaim the home. Ian McKellen does return for this second trilogy as Gandalf and as always, Peter Jackson does a great job with the cinematography. There was certainly a lot of beautiful shots of New Zealand, err Middle-Earth that gave me a certain wow factor. There are not as many action sequences here, but that's a small sacrifice considering the problem is fixed in the next two films.

4. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

I thought the the film was good, until I saw the extended cut and I loved it even more. As far as I'm concerned, the only problem this film has is that at points, it feels like it should have been a two film adventure instead of three. That and the overdone and underdone CGI in it. In my opinion, the extended cut is the best of the three Hobbit films. Half of the film is changed and I love it. It paves the way for a lot more action sequences, which is this movies strongest point. There isn't a lot of character development to be had, but I don't think that's a flaw really, considering you know all the characters and their motivations. The characters get their storylines all wrapped up and other characters get into their Lord of the Rings positions. I applaud the extended cut of this film for bringing more of the worlds mythology into the fray such as mentioning the Gandalf is in possession of one of the three elven rings. I'm not gonna mention what else os done, but if you're a fan of the books, you won't be disappointed. Martian Freeman continues to be one of the great things about the trilogy. The runtime is the shortest of the Middle-Earth films, coming in at a total runtime of two hours and twenty-four minuets, with the extended edition twenty minutes longer. Yes, that's considered short when the five other films in the series vary from three to four and a half hours long. Critic opinions aside, I quite enjoyed the final chapter to this immersive saga.

3. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

It's very impressive when likely the weakest of the trilogy is still a ten out of ten. I almost put this at the four spot, thus allowing a Hobbit film into the top ten, but after remembering how great this film truly is, I allowed it to take the three spot. This film is a great example of a film having a great cast playing great characters. Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Galadriel, Merry Pippin, Agent Smith with robes and long hair, Saruman, Sauron, the list goes on and on till the crack of dawn. It's no secret that Fellowship has a star-studed cast. With great villains too. Sauron is simply one of the best villains ever. Peter Jackson knows how to craft great action sequences and he certainly starts to prove that throughout the film itself. He also knows what locations to film at and New Zealand was the perfect choice for this series. As someone who has been there, it's beautiful and the movies capture that same beauty spectacularly. You gotta applaud Peter Jackson and company did a wonderful job designing the look of all these fictional locations in Middle-Earth. The score is phenomenal. Howard Shore created a score that I could listen to all day. By far, it's one of the best scores of all time. The CGI is impressive, especially since it came out fifteen years ago. More importantly, it holds up to this day. CGI is seamlessly mixed with real life cinematography. Though it remains the least successful film of all the Middle-Earth films, it just means that the following films surpassed each other because of how good they were.

2. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

I can honestly say that there was never a time where I considered this for the top spot. In my own opinion, the top spot is film on a whole new level. That doesn't mean that this isn't a good film, it fact, it's a spectacular film and certainly counts as one of the great followups to the original film. Things take a great turn for the worse as Frodo and Sam grow closer to the Mount Doom. Aragon, Legolas, and Gimli seek out Merry and Pippin, but are redirected to Rohan to save their king. Gandalf returns from the dead and assists them in their task, or rather they assist him in his task, because that's why he's back,"Until my task is done" is what I believe he said. One of the best things about the film for me is Gollum. I'm gonna say this now: Andy Serkis is a motion-capture wizard. I mean that guy is a genius and he does Gollum, or Smeagol if you prefer that, in such a tragic way, which is the nature for the character. He really sells this split personality really well. The CGI is impressive on him and overall. The action sequences are a huge step up from the original. Like really big improvement. The battle of Helms Deep is EPIC. There is literally no other word to describe it. One of the great things about these films and their action sequences is that the characters, mainly Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, are able to make hilarious banter amongst the violence and death that's going on in the background. The Two Towers managed to surpass its predecessor, both critically and financially, and also managed to score two Oscars, not too shabby. The only reason why this doesn't make the top spot are the ents. While they're great, they often tend to interrupt all the excitement from the other two plot lines going on and if it hadn't done that, it would've had more of a shot of making the top spot. Plus, it's Return of the King, so c'mon.

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1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

It's just so darn good. The action, the music, the scenery, the spectacle, it's all here. Everyone here gets their final moments to shine and I do mean everyone. There're many great moments that are executed beautifully. The action sequences here go all out and they are a sight to behold. The smaller, more character-driven moments are just as good. There's still humor here and it's hilarious and allows for a great moments of levity, when the story's such at a serious point. The CGI is done perfectly and still holds up. The emotional moments are very powerful. One of them comes from when Frodo and Sam manage to destroy the ring. After which, we get to see everyone else's reaction as they go from happy to sad in just a short time. Even the ending credits can bring a tear to your with Annie Lenox' song, Into the West playing in the background. The ending brings tears to my eyes almost every time I watch it. Speaking of endings, there's about thirty to forty minutes of endings that for some reason, people don't seem to like. But I say that that is one of the great things about the film which is a rare treat that one does not simply get these days. O man, in house joke. I honestly didn't plan on making that joke. It just happened to, well happen. The film managed to become one of the first films to make over a billion dollars and this was in the early 2000s mind you. Remember how I said that The Two Towers winning two Oscars was not too shabby? At the 76th Academy Awards, Return of the King put that to shame by winning all the eleven awards it was nominated for which included, Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Original Score, and Song to name a few. This is truly a masterpiece of a series.

So that's my ranking of all the six Middle-Earth films. I'd be curious to hear what your ranking is of this series. Let me know in the comments section below as well as what film series you want me to rank next. Thanks for reading, I'm the Film Fanatic, bye-bye.