Return of the King vs Return of the Jedi

[Illusion]

It is tough but I would vote for Return of the King.

(warning spoilers below)

I love the OG Star Wars trilogy and I think that it is a timeless pop culture masterpiece that defines not only the Boomer generation but Gen X and most of the Miliennial generation. The LOTR was a movie-making masterpiece that in my view told a story that was deeper, technically better written and likely even more timeless than the OG Star Wars trilogy. I think that Star Wars had a more transformative effect on culture and society at large compared to LOTR especially in terms of pop culture references and lasting love of the franchise (which didn't start waning until the prequels came out and were met with disappointment). That said, LOTR did have a transformative effect as well especially in terms of the shift away from sci-fi towards the fantasy genre that occurred in mainstream pop-culture in the mid 2000's.

If this was a debate of the OG Star Wars trilogy vs LOTR trilogy, I would vote for Star Wars by a small but definite margin. IV and V were just unbelievable movies, especially if you can get away from the Special Edition and watch the original theatrical releases (which most people have never seen). That being said, as has been said repeatedly on this thread, RotJ was the weakest of the OG Star Wars movies. It was clear that the creative well that Lucas was drawing ideas were starting to run dry in this movie which only got worse in the subsequent prequels. RotJ is still a very strong movie that gave a really nice conclusion to the trilogy, but it was obvious that the tank was sputtering a bit at times during the movie. RotK, on the other hand, carried seemlessly on from Two Towers with very little loss of momentum right up to the end of the movie. You can maybe argue that the army of the dead wiping out Sauron's massive invasion force in RotK was a bit of an anticlimatic conclusion to the biggest battle in the trilogy and, in my view, wasn't quite as strong as the conclusion of the battle in Two Towers, but this is minor. The battle was still very epic, overall. The whole Ewok arc in RotJ felt underwhelming and even the death-star battle felt a lot less intense than in episode IV. What really saved the climax in RotJ was the arc between Luke, Vader and Palpatine, which was incredible. That said, RotK didn't have any parts that "needed saving": the whole movie ranged between strong and masterful. RotJ had some bigger dips which hurt it overall.