lol is this even a fair question?

lord of the rings wins by miles!!!

only good thing about star wars is natalie portman 

I dont know if I can decide on these two.   The Harry Potter one was easy for obvious reasons,  but these 2 trilogies are both masterpieces. 

LotR > HP > SW

Even though it this doesn't include 1,2,3 they still make me sour towards star wars. So they are even with the sourness...

I'd say Star Wars (original series) is the best. It was an original story not adapted from anything else, it created the summer blockbuster culture, its influence was and it's still spread over all fantasy movies/sagas including LOTR movies, it revolutionized the industry with its amazing special effects of its time, etc, etc etc.

LOTR was huge (and it's my favorite over SW), but it had some clear advantages:

#1 Funding. George Lucas financed each SW movie, sure he had help from his friend Coppola and others but it was mainly his wallet taking the hit. LOTR movies in this modern age were concieved and planned to be guaranteed blockbusters

#2 Over 4 Decades of fandom and mass popularity. This is self-explanatory. The movie was going to sell well even if it was a sub-par production, but this also helped the production greatly since they had all this "Middle Earth Lore" at their disposal not to mention priceless colaborations from long-time lotr fans and artists like Alan Lee and John Howe, and counteless nerds  LOTR experts ranging from critics to teachers and philosophers. Even some important actors like Christopher Lee had a deep understading of the material and shared valuable input with the filmmakers.

#3 Peter Jackson. Seriously, NOBODY (movie director) would invest 6-7 years of his life making a project with so many SACRIFICES, specially when that project are back-to-back-to-back movies you don't have complete control over like Lucas did with his movies.

For a long time, I've been wanting to make a "best trilogy/series" thread where Harry potter, Star Wars, Lord of thr Rings, Toy Story, Bourne Identity, Back to the Future, etc. would battle it out for the crown.  The only criteria is that every movie in the franchise had to be good.  I didn't know how to go about it but I would LOVE it if somebody made such a thread.

I read all the LOTR books and saw the extended edition of all the movies earlier this year and I admit I just don't "get it"... so Star Wars IMO.

Did you just suggest that Episodes 1-3 actually make the series better? You no longer exist in my mind.

why are the star wars prequel so bad to so many people?

Lord Of The Rings!