Every Lord of the Rings & Hobbit Movie Ranked Worst to Best
Every Lord of the Rings & Hobbit Movie Ranked, Worst to Best
Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies comprise one of cinema’s most famous franchises, but how does each Middle-earth movie rank?
You Are Reading :[thien_display_title]
Of all the movies adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books, which are hotter than Mount Doom in summer, and which should be consigned to the Void alongside Morgoth? Released in 1937 to immediate popularity, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit introduced Middle-earth – the literary fantasy realm to rule them all. In 1954, Tolkien began expanding his mythology with The Fellowship of the Ring – the first part of his Lord of the Rings trilogy, finding even greater acclaim and enshrining the series as a culturally-defining body of work.
The Lord of the Rings has enraptured one generation after another for almost a century, but compared to most timeless novels, relatively few attempts have been made to translate Middle-earth onto the silver screen. Filmmakers struggled to conceptualize the sheer scale of Tolkien’s words onscreen, and even The Beatles – as high as they were – ultimately decided against filming a live-action Lord of the Rings. Though a handful of lesser-known releases came before, Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring marked a first earnest endeavor to turn The Lord of the Rings into a movie. Releasing in December 2001, The Fellowship of the Ring would change the landscape of cinema forever.
Jackson followed up with The Two Towers and The Return of the King, and the entire trilogy was met with loud cheers, bundles of cash, and award ceremony recognition. Slightly more than decade later, the director returned to Middle-earth for The Hobbit, which was also turned into a trilogy (not without controversy). As the Lord of the Rings movie franchise reaches the ripe age of 20, how does every adaptation rank against the others?
9. The Return Of The King (1980)
After the filmmaking fraternity collectively deemed The Lord of the Rings impossible to adapt, animators tried their hand at bringing Tolkien’s world to life in cartoon form… with limited success. 1980’s The Return of the King represents the absolute worst of the bunch. After previously adapting The Hobbit, Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass decided to turn Tolkien’s climactic final book into a 2-hour animated adventure. Rankin himself would later describe the effort as “not a very good film,” which reveals all you need to know about this early Return of the King retelling. The tone is all wrong, the production leaves much to be desired, and the plot is far too condensed, resulting in a cartoon that doesn’t even come close to honoring the source material.
8. The Lord Of The Rings
Believe it or not, Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings was the definitive Tolkien adaptation before Peter Jackson came along. Covering The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers (but oddly disconnected from Rankin & Bass’ The Return of the King), 1978’s The Lord of the Rings cartoon suffers from inferior animation, utilizing the rotoscope technique of tracing photographs of live-action actors. If other Middle-earth cartoons fell into the trap of catering toward children, Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings took the opposite route, widely considered a cheerless drug trip let down by obvious production flaws and lackluster performances. An impressive achievement for its time, perhaps, but Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings is best described as a curiosity within the wider Tolkien tapestry. Worth a dabble, but handle with caution.
7. The Hobbit
Before butchering The Return of the King, Rankin & Bass fared somewhat better animating The Hobbit in 1977. Tolkien’s more child-friendly novel lent itself to their format, and with considerably less material to cram in, The Hobbit didn’t struggle uphill as hopelessly as its eventual sequel. Nevertheless, many of the same flaws apply. Tonally, The Hobbit is stuck peddling almost exclusively to youngsters, and the scattered plot leaves far too many glaring gaps, diluting what made J.R.R. Tolkien’s first jaunt through Middle-earth so special. The voice cast (which includes Orson Bean, John Huston, and Theodore Gottlieb) give admirable performances, but the visuals and dialogue possess a juvenile quaintness that undermines any attempt to authentically recapture The Hobbit’s book magic.
6. The Battle Of Five Armies
Peter Jackson’s quest to turn Middle-earth into a cinematic behemoth redefined the fantasy genre, but the director didn’t go out on a high note. The final part of his The Hobbit trilogy, 2015’s The Battle of Five Armies indulges in lengthy battles, but having already spun a single book into two lengthy movies, runs out of steam in the plot department. The Battle of Five Armies’ true strength lies in its quieter moments – the resolution to Bilbo Baggins’ journey and the conclusion of Thorin Oakenshield’s attempt to reclaim Erebor. Those relationships between Hobbit and dwarf give The Battle of Five Armies its emotional core, but the lack of focus too often draws attention elsewhere. Meanwhile, conspicuous CGI padding weighs Peter Jackson’s final chapter down, yet again highlighting the folly of extending The Hobbit into a trilogy.
Whereas Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings additions helped smooth the path from page to screen, The Hobbit’s movie-original elements don’t play as nicely, and this is especially evident in The Battle of Five Armies. Legolas looks out of place, Tauriel and Kili’s romance comes across desperately forced, and Alfrid proves a superfluous villain that adds to the bloat. There’s real conflict between the gargantuan titular battle for the fate of Erebor, and the arcs of The Hobbit’s central characters. Nevertheless, Richard Armitage’s outgoing Thorin performance has enough gravity for all 13 dwarves, and Peter Jackson still puts on the most spectacular battle sequences in town.
5. The Desolation Of Smaug
The Hobbit trilogy’s middle child, The Desolation of Smaug is the entry most affected by Peter Jackson’s three-movie plan. Neither a beginning nor an end, The Desolation of Smaug lacks The Two Towers’ luxury of being crafted as a bridging chapter, creating a hesitancy that never goes away. The gem in The Desolation of Smaug’s crown is the dragon himself, portrayed in all of Tolkien’s fearsome grandeur by Benedict Cumberbatch. As a fully-CG character, Smaug rivals The Lord of the Rings’ Gollum for presence and personality, and his sequence with Martin Freeman’s Bilbo (not the Sherlock reunion we expected, but still…) justifies The Hobbit’s movie treatment by itself. Bilbo matching wits with his fire-breathing foe is Peter Jackson at his dizzying, playful best – a seamless marriage between action and character.
It just takes so long to get there. Thrown back into the action with Thorin’s company of dwarves, there are detours into elven territory, Sauron setup from Tolkien’s wider writings, and an overly-long exploration of Lake Town – all before Smaug has properly reared his shimmering head. And yet, weirdly, other opportunities for expansion go begging, such as Mikael Persbrandt’s Beorn, who gets a woefully short live-action shrift. The Desolation of Smaug also tests audience appetite for CGI. Despite (mostly) replicating the high-quality expected from WETA, The Desolation of Smaug’s sheer volume of digital effects removes the tactile earthiness that grounded The Lord of the Rings.
4. An Unexpected Journey
Though An Unexpected Journey attracted a mixed response upon release, its fortunes were hampered by the unenviable task of directly following Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, whereas expectations were duly lowered ahead of The Hobbit’s two sequels. In retrospect, there’s arguably more to love in Bilbo Baggins’ first foray. Martin Freeman gets his best opportunity to shine as Frodo’s Ring-bearing uncle, and early interactions between the disgruntled Hobbit and 13 equally-disgruntled dwarfs (with Gandalf as referee) rank among the best scenes in the entire Hobbit trilogy. The Shire material is only outdone by Bilbo’s fateful encounter with Gollum in the Misty Mountains, in which the Hobbit acquires the One Ring and plays a game of riddles with his perma-crouching pal. Their exchange is one of precious few scenes in The Hobbit that draws close to emulating Tolkien’s tone and spirit.
Though Bilbo Baggins’ journey might’ve been unexpected, the awfully large gulf between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings’ back catalog was very much expected. The high frame rate and overcompensation of CGI drown away any realism from Middle-earth, and it’s obvious from the outset that Peter Jackson is reserving his best cards for the sequels. Azog isn’t especially compelling or authentic as a villain, and there’s an overwhelming sense The Hobbit is conforming to Hollywood convention far more than The Lord of the Rings. Even so, An Unexpected Journey is where the central tale of Bilbo and Thorin is given opportunity to breathe.
3. The Two Towers
It’ll come as no surprise that Lord of the Rings’ movie ranking top spots are dominated by Peter Jackson’s 2000s trilogy. The era-defining spectacles might’ve upset Tolkien purists but, for many, they successfully balance literary fidelity and cinematic practicality to produce a mainstream trilogy that doesn’t shy away from intricate details or fantasy splendor. Neither the 1970s/1980s animations nor Jackson’s Hobbit movies come anywhere close. In truth, there’s little separating The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Each entry is wondrous and groundbreaking in its own right, with only minute details lifting one above another. As a middle chapter, The Two Towers works infinitely better than The Desolation of Smaug, and even though the ending feels inevitably incomplete, the lack of resolution is countered by the 2002 film’s many strengths.
Chief among those is the Battle of Helm’s Deep – the likes of which had never been glimpsed onscreen previously. For its scale and ambition, the rain-soaked battle between Saruman’s Uruk-hai and the forces of Rohan (complimented by elves, oddly) is worth the price of admission alone, and makes a strong case for being the greatest scrap in the franchise. Elsewhere, the glorious, otherworldly debut of Gandalf the White loses no impact in its predictability, while Saruman, Merry and Pippin are all afforded more time in the spotlight. Christopher Lee’s presence is especially vital to The Two Towers’ winning formula.
2. The Return Of The King (2003)
If box office and Oscar wins are anything to go by, 2003’s The Return of the King marks the pinnacle of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth triumph. Realizing his concluding chapter would require a step-up in order to match the ambition of Tolkien’s ending, Jackson turned every knob to 11 for Return of the King. The procession of heart-stopping battles are littered with more than enough character moments to ensure the narrative substance doesn’t get lost in the melee of steel (can the same be said of The Battle of Five Armies?), and Jackson saves the best for last in terms of spectacle, with giant elephants, zombie ghosts, and Witch-kings all melding into a boiling cauldron of adrenaline and heart. Elsewhere, Frodo and Sam’s more intimate journey through Mordor brings an emotional balance to the combat – again, something the Hobbit trilogy’s ending desperately lacked.
The Return of the King is a true feat of film that, arguably, hasn’t yet been matched. The 200-minute trek finds a satisfying destination (albeit one that’s uncomfortable on the buttocks), and every single character is given an appropriate send-off. Jackson may cut large chunks of material from Tolkien’s finale (the Scouring of the Shire, for example), but the director’s reasons for doing so are both obvious and understandable. Technically speaking, The Return of the King might just be the best The Lord of the Rings adventure put to film.
1. The Fellowship Of The Ring
2001’s The Fellowship of the Ring may not be Peter Jackson’s grandest Lord of the Rings movie, nor his most technically accomplished or groundbreaking. For our money, however, The Fellowship of the Ring is a Hobbit – deceptively humble in appearance, but hiding great heart and courage inside. Relatively low-key in comparison to later installments, The Fellowship of the Ring is light on battles, but heavier on drama, taking its time introducing the Fellowship and other key players, while simultaneously building live-action Middle-earth brick by Kiwi brick. Slower-paced and considerably more rural than The Two Towers and Return of the King, The Fellowship of the Ring is why the entire world fell in love with Elijah Wood’s Frodo, Ian McKellen’s Gandalf, Viggo Mortensen’s Aragorn and, most important of all, J.R.R. Tolkien’s world.
The Fellowship of the Ring’s only proper flaw is ending on such an open, unresolved note. That’s by design, of course, and a quality inherited from Tolkien’s original novels. As an adaptation, it’s difficult to see where The Fellowship of the Ring could do better. Perfect casting, balanced tone and tempo, Howard Shore’s soundtrack, expert visuals… The Lord of the Rings was considered unfilmable for so long, but The Fellowship of the Ring crafts a fantasy world that not only feels tangible and whole, but avoids the stereotypes so often associated with the genre. Of all the movie adaptations forged in The Lord of the Rings’ image, The Fellowship of the Ring is the one to rule them all.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/lord-rings-hobbit-movies-ranked-worst-best/
Movies -Dune 10 Things Only Book Readers Know About Reverend Mother
Every Key & Peele Sketch Is Now Available to Watch Online
Death Note Sequel Comic Shades Donald Trump (Seriously)
Every Far Cry 6 Faction Confirmed So Far
Call Of Duty 20 Unanswered Questions We Just Can’t Get Over
Every Person Who Played Ghostface In Scream
Batwoman Why Only [SPOILER] Figured Out Hushs Secret
