As someone who considers the LOTR films god-tier movies, the Hobbit films didn't do much for me, I found them too padded out; really should have been one or two movies, not three. 

It made sense for LOTR to be three films as it's three "books" combined into one very long novel, but the Hobbit is one relatively short book, and the attempts to make it LOTR length felt artificial and forced.

That's a fair point, even as someone who didn't love them, the Hobbit films definitely have some strong qualities. I just can't help but compare them to the films they share a universe with, and Jackson's Lucas-esque tendencies in the latter trilogy rubbed me the wrong way.

This pretty much nails it, they all have their distinct characteristics that make them excellent in their own way. Though I would say that Return is ALSO a great war film in addition to its strong story, with some insanely epic battles that I still can't help but return to today. I did love the Helms Deep battle, but the Minas Tirith battle absolutely dwarfed it in terms of visuals and grandiosity.

Aside from a bloated ending (which is partly understandable given all the loose ends they had to tie in such a grand tale), Return is near perfection and my overall favorite. Though I also love the sense of adventure and escalation of Fellowship. It's a close second, but for a very different reason. It's also similar to the first Hobbit film in this regard, which is why I enjoyed that film even though I didn't much care for the Hobbit sequels.

I find that when I return to rewatch Two Towers these days it's mainly for that awesome, goosebump-inducing battle scene at Helms Deep (and maybe the warg rider fight scene), whereas the rest of the film, while still great, is a bit less interesting to me and feels like I'm just watching it to GET to those awesome moments.

I'll tag this as it will address both comments.

Agree underrated, and I also agree probably should have been 2 movies hence why I felt the first one was great and then it went down from there.

I don't really wanna consider them as separate movies. Usually when I start watching the Fellowship I watch the others within a week or two.

From the theater versions I like the Return of the King the most. The first movie is an adventurie movie, the second one is a war movie and the third one has the most epic moments.

But if I can choose the extended versions as well, I prefer the Two Towers by far. The extra scenes in the first movie do not add a lot, and the third movie especially adds bad CGI scenes. But the extra scenes from the Two Towers give the movie a lot more depth and and makes it a lot more than just a war movie.

I do not understand the love for the Hobbit movies. The pacing was off, the dwarfs look ridiculous (compare them with Gimli) and the movie doesn't really know what kind of movie it wants to be. And of course, making 3 movies was only a good choice because of the $$$, but besides that, it was a terrible idea.

The Lord of the Rings is epic filmmaking at its finest

The Hobbit is light-hearted popcorn fare.

Both have their values and I'm fond of both, but they're very different in scope, style, and goal. That said, I agree with pretty much everybody that The Hobbit could have and should have been one movie. I liked it, and I was completely okay with the added content, but I definitely feel that being edited down to one three-hour movie would have been plenty. hell, two and a half hours would be enough for The Hobbit. Regardless, I still quite enjoyed the movies, all six of them. I just acknowledge that each trilogy was made with vastly different tones and goals in mind. I think that's what people need to understand; the hobbit was never going to be an epic, Lord of the Rings style masterwork, it was always going to be light and fluffy, just like its source material.

I'm the same. if I watch any one movie, I watch its entire respective trilogy. nothing quite like a weekend with The Hobbit on Saturday and Lord of the Rings on sunday. Sometimes I like to invite friends over and just host an LOTR weekend. I cook for them, I make snacks, etc. Mostly people just sort of sit around on their laptops or computers or phones with the movie in the background and one time we even just did board games with the movies on, but still! Lots of love to be had. 

I also host Potter weekends, and Marvel Phase Days. (Phase 1 on one day, Phase 2 on another day, Phase 3 over a weekend since that's like 8 or 9 movies with just Infinity War/Endgame being nearly 6 hours between them)

Possibly unpopular opinion; I prefer the theatrical cuts of LOTR.

I feel the extended editions run too long and most of the added scenes feel unpolished and were cut for a reason.

You still see them together and happy at Aragorn's coronation, it's just the one courtship scene before the black gate that's missing and frankly I'm fine to fill in the gaps to keep the runtime reasonable.