It seems like more of these films are on the way. I will update the list as they do.
While you are here, check out our semi-extensive Lord of the Rings coverage:
Top 10 Performances in the Lord of the Rings Films
4 Takeaways from The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
4 Best Things in The Hobbit Misguided Trilogy
7 Worst Things in The Hobbit Misguided Trilogy
Pantheon Plus: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Pantheon Plus: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Pantheon Plus: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Jerome’s 100 Favorite Movies Ever: The Lord of the Ring: The Return of the King
Jerome’s 100 Favorite Movies: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Jerome’s 100 Favorite Movies Ever: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Hobbit (1966) Review
10. The Desolation of Smaug [2013]
The whole experience of all Hobbit films is so miserable that it becomes hard to actually rank them and decide which one is the worst. All three “films” have their low points that deserve consideration. The undoubtedly worst part of this film is the infamous barrel river escape sequence. Peter Jackson reflected on the horrid dinosaur chase sequence in King Kong and thought, “How can we make it even worse?”
9. The Battle of the Five Armies [2014]
I must confess that I am not 100% confident in my decision to say this film is less bad than Desolation of Smaug. I mean, just look at that clip above. Look at it. It is as humiliating as anything any film has ever done. But consider this. The Battle of the Five Armies is twenty minutes shorter than the first two Hobbit films. That is simply invaluable when it comes to separating these wretched adaptations.
8. An Unexpected Journey [2012]
The first Hobbit movie is almost quaint for being more profoundly mediocre than truly wretched like what was to come. It is possible it is just as bad or worse (though I suspect not) compared to the next two films. But when I think back to this film I recall the feeling of “underwhelming” more than the outright embarrassing. I don’t know. There’s a lot of Gandalf the Grey. There’s a Smeagol scene. Radagast was pretty great. Of the three, this is almost undoubtedly the least shameful.
7. The Hobbit [1977]
As discussed above and elsewhere on the site, Peter Jackson’s trilogy really was a terrible adaptation of Tolkien’s children fairy tale. The Hobbit is not The Lord of the Rings. Approaching it in the same manner was insane. While this film was not great, it was far better suited for the task of adapting the book. The animation itself is really beautiful to look at, and the filmmakers wisely remove lots of materials that do not make sense for a feature film. It is a pretty pleasant film to let wash over you. It is however yet more evidence that this book is a natural text to turn into a movie.
6. The Return of the King [1980]
This film is kind of insane. There is so much music. They tell the story in the form of a flashback. Aaragon, the titular king who returns, is essentially not in it at all. Samwise Gamgee is arguably the protagonist for a very significant portion of the film. And once again, there is just so much music. I did not have strong feelings about it, but I was never bored. In fact, my eyes were often glued to the screen. Much like all the other animated Lord of the Rings films, this is undeniably interesting and worth watching.
5. The Lord of the Rings [1978]
The most immediate thing to discuss on this film is the very glaringly obvious impact it had on Peter Jackson’s trilogy. As you can see in the image above, this film had a profound visual influence on Jackson (which he has acknowledged repeatedly over the years I later found out). It is a beautiful film to look at and just let it wash over you. It is like putting on a warm blanket. The decision to turn the first two books into a two-and-a-half hour movie is rather insane though. The only part that fully lands is the first hour which is the build up to the Council of Elrond. That feels like the bare minimum of length required to make this sequence work, and the rest of the film just feels extremely rushed in comparison. And ultimately less satisfying.
4. The War of the Rohirrim [2024]
I went into this film with incredibly low expectations. It did not seem like a film that needed to exist nor one that had any buzz or any sense of belief from the studio behind it. Then I was pleasantly surprised to discover just how fun it was. They took a simple story that felt like like some LOTR genuine mythology, hired some good voice actors, and kept the Rogue One core-ness of it if not to a minimum than at least less than I expected. It is just a warm world to visit to on occasion, and the decision to do animation with a story not about any of the LOTR characters prevented them from doing stupid shit with de-aging and AI. Thumbs (mildly) up.
3. The Return of the King [2003]
As I get older, I become very certain in my belief that Return of the King is distinctly the weakest LOTR film. As the films got bigger they got less and less intimate. The spectacle of the battle scenes were less impressive than the spectacle aspect of Two Towers and missing the human factor that makes Fellowship so beautiful. ROTK does a lot of things so well, and it was a worthy conclusion to one of the most significant series of films ever. It just was not as good as what came before it.
Two Towers bridges the gap between Fellowship and Return in more than just the story. It’s the transition film from a more intimate human story to that of a bigger and broader spectacle story. Appropriately, I have Two Towers ranked between those two simply because Peter Jackson is BETTER at the human stuff than the epic spectacle stuff. In fact, the infamous and excellent Helms Deep war sequence in this film is so successful because of the human factor. While the battle sequence is undoubtedly structured better than what was to come, all of that would be meaningless if the character work was not so spot on during the sequence and during the build-up.
1. The Fellowship of the Ring [2001]
Fellowship is one of my favorite films ever and something I sincerely consider to be one of the best ever made. It is a magical experience and one of my defining examples of why art makes life worth living. I am just going to let Viggo take over for this one.
The Reel World 