Best Lord of the Rings film

[S.Peelman]

These movies are monumental. Definitely the greatest movie trilogy of all time. Each of the three is exceptional with so many outstanding sequences, many already named here in this thread; Moria, Boromir’s death at the shores of the Anduin, Gollum’s character development, Helm’s Deep, Sam’s speech, Theoden’s speech, the Battle of the Pelennor Fields and the destruction of the Ring in Mount Doom. Maybe I should even name the prologue, which explains the history of Middle Earth and the rings of power in an amazing mystical tone.

The ending at Mount Doom is probably the most epic ending ever written. Sam is the biggest hero in the story. Andy Serkis’s performance as Gollem is amazing. The costumes, set design, locations and cinematography are exceptional. So much so that on Youtube a lot of the newer comments on videos of the Helm’s Deep battle and the cavalry charge at the start of the Pelennor Fields battle are along the lines of “came here to see a good night battle” and “came here to watch a good cavalry charge” after Game of Thrones botched them.

As for my favorite of these; I’d say cinematically Return of the King is the best, like I said an achievement that probably won’t be matches in cinema for a very long time. It just oozes epicness. Narratively I think The Two Towers, because I love the Helm’s Deep battle and Gollem. So since that is a more personal reason, I pock The Two Towers. “This way little Hobbits.” “Ffollow me...”

Note I do feel the Extended Editions are a necessity. I never watch the Theatrical Editions because you miss too much stuff that’s too important, especially in Return of the King.

I would like to mention that I also like The Hobbit trilogy, its a worthy prequel to Lord of the Rings. Obviously it took many many liberties to spread it out to three movies, but it’s well done. I like the story of the wizards and what’s basically the start of the return of Sauron leading up to Fellowship of the Ring. I also like the Riddles in the Dark sequence a lot. Desolation of Smaug is clearly the best here, and Battle of the Five Armies the least, but still good. Here as well the Extended Editions are mandatory, and the added storyline of the dwarven rings of power actually explains quite some context. What I don’t like is that contrary to Lord of the Rings they relied so much on CGI. Costumes and make-up just looks better, more menacing and more real. The Orks and Uruk-hai from Lord of the Rings look much better than the Goblins from the Hobbit. Just compare Lurtz, the Uruk-hai chief from Fellowship of the Ring, the one that kills Boromir, to Azog the Defiler from the Hobbit.

These movies made me actually read the books. All four of them, which remain the only four narrative books I’ve ever read, because I don’t like books, which says something. They’re quite close to the books actually, there just a bit more that happens, except The Hobbit which is completely different. I glad they omitted some part of the Lord of the Rings books though, like the part about Tom Bombadil, which is dreadfully boring and doesn’t make much sense.

But, long story short; I vote The Two Towers.