All the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies, ranked

The Lord of the Rings is one of the most influential movie trilogies in cinematic history while The Hobbit is one of the most controversial. If there’s one thing they have in common, it’s that they were both created by folks who were extremely passionate about J.R.R. Tolkien’s expansive legendarium. They toiled with their blood and sweat to bring Middle-earth to life in a way that remains unrivaled among live-action speculative adaptations, even after two decades.

Neither Game of Thrones, once the most popular TV show in the world, nor The Rings of Power, the most expensive production in the history of entertainment, have managed to come even close to Peter Jackson’s timeless masterpiece. Even after all these years, folks still talk about The Lord of the Rings with a sense of reverent awe. They don’t exactly extend that sentiment toward The Hobbit, mind you, but the story of Bilbo Baggins has found a small corner in our hearts nevertheless, if for nothing besides the fact that it takes place in the same Middle-earth. 

Any attempt at ranking the six movies is bound to spawn a heated debate, so note that much like everyone else, our opinion is as subjective as it is open to interpretation. Besides, the first trilogy is so nearly flawless that it would be all but impossible to rank it from an objective standpoint, though we’re giving it our best.

6. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Peter Jackson’s Hobbit saga was originally supposed to be two movies, ending with The Desolation of Smaug. Having tasted that sweet Middle-earth box office potential again, the production company pushed to extend The Hobbit into a trilogy. So it was that The Battle of the Five Armies was announced, stretching a 300-page book another two and a half hours. What’s more, the distributor expected Jackson to deliver the movie in the same timeframe as the previous two, an all but impossible undertaking for any other team.

With The Lord of the Rings, the Kiwi director had years to prepare and pre-produce most aspects of his epic trilogy. He ultimately ended up shooting the three movies back to back, having all the footage ready by the time post-production had begun on The Fellowship of the Ring. With The Hobbit, everything had to happen spontaneously or not at all. The result was essentially a movie that’s as visually off-putting as narratively unsatisfactory. But hey, at least it was still Middle-earth, and there was Ian McKellen as Gandalf, and Thorin Oakenshield had an amazing sendoff. Frankly, besides these admittedly praiseworthy elements, you’d be wasting your time trying to find the same qualities in The Battle of the Five Armies as in the original trilogy.

5. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

When The Hobbit first came out, no one could contain their excitement at the prospects of returning to Middle-earth, and a return that shared the same continuity with the 2001-2003 trilogy, no less. The unassuming Bilbo Baggins was to be swept off into an adventure with a company of unlikely dwarves, led by the wizard known as Gandalf. There was adventure to be had, foes to be slain, and songs to be written. All of that hinted at a triumphant retelling of J.R.R. Tolkien’s imaginary world, as if not a day had passed since The Return of the King bade us farewell all those years ago. 

Yet, An Unexpected Journey hardly moved in the same rhythm as The Fellowship of the Ring, neither turning out to be as engrossing as the story of the One Ring nor setting the same well-thought-out pace. It’s not a bad flick by any means, but the first Hobbit movie could certainly do with a little bit of the care and passion poured into its predecessors. The 2012 film still managed to hit some high notes, though, namely the “Riddles in the Dark” sequence with Bilbo and Gollum, once again portrayed by the endlessly talented Andy Serkis.

4. The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

Who knows how this movie would have turned out if Peter Jackson had enough of the source material at his behest to deliver a truly satisfying flick, narrative-wise? Instead, the director had to fill up the movie’s unambitious runtime—at least compared to The Lord of the Rings trilogy—with unnecessary story arcs and drawn-out fight sequences. (That is, if like us, you actually mind watching Legolas slaughtering Orcs in the most aesthetically pleasing, if not quite realistic, ways imaginable. At some point, it just starts to feel like you’re watching the same scene play out in alternate realities, and that’s not counting Tauriel and her near-perfect imitation of the elven princeling.)

Ultimately, what makes the second Hobbit installment more bearable than An Unexpected Journey is the introduction of Smaug, portrayed in all of his terrifying villainy by Benedict Cumberbatch. For those who know Martin Freeman and Cumberbatch from Sherlock, watching this flick will feel like going on an acid trip, but it will nevertheless be worth every moment of it. Even if not for that, Desolation of Smaug is surer in its footing than the other two, ending on a cliffhanger that works out well as a setup for the final entry.

3. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Now we’re getting into really touchy territory. For a lot of fans, Fellowship remains the best Lord of the Rings experience out of all three. Frankly, whatever argument we may present for putting it in the third spot will ultimately boil down to a matter of taste. Remember, there’s really no distinguishing the three Lord of the Rings movies from a technical standpoint as they were all filmed back-to-back, but even if we love the introduction of hobbits, their flight from the Black Riders, the forming of the Fellowship, the bridge of Khazad-dum, and the passing of Boromir, Fellowship will have to make way for the two sequels that succeeded it.

From the unforgettable score of the Shire and its breathtaking landscapes to the Fellowship’s leitmotif and its breaking apart, there’s something magical about the first movie that turns it into one of the most unforgettable experiences in the history of cinema. More than two decades later, we still find it easy to sit down and watch The Fellowship of the Ring through to the end for four hours and feel as if only one has passed.

2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Before you go off on a rant about how The Return of the King is one of the best movies ever made and almost certainly the best Lord of the Rings movie out there, we have to think about how we define great Lord of the Rings adaptations. Does it have to do with how cinematic it is? Is it about the action and the adrenaline? Tolkien’s son, Christopher, famously trashed Peter Jackson’s lauded attempt as a complete annihilation of what the book was supposed to stand for. “They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25,” he commented.

Since the majority of the fandom doesn’t seem to agree with that sentiment, perhaps it boils down to the old saying of “to each their own,” even if you happen to be Tolkien’s own son and the editor of his work for more than four decades. That being said, there’s a lot of that mindless Hollywood blockbuster action to go around in The Return of the King to make it the most compelling experience out of all three. Not that we don’t enjoy those scenes, or believe that Peter Jackson overdid it in the context of his own narrative, but the fact remains that a Lord of the Rings adaptation should be more nuanced in its beats. That brings us to The Two Towers.

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

As is the case with many sequels in cinema, most folks had predicted that Jackson would drop the ball with The Two Towers. Not only is the middle chapter of this story the most developed, it also features the director in his most confident strides, highlighting everything that made people fall in love with Tolkien in the first place. From the iconic Battle of Helm’s Deep, which retains its place as the most epic siege battle in the history of cinema (sorry, Long Night), to the relationship between Arwen and Aragorn, as well as the worldbuilding and portrayal of Rohirric culture, The Two Towers has no shortage of things to love.

Even after so many years, the middle act in the trilogy hasn’t lost so much as an ounce of its rewatchability. Most importantly of all, Samwise Gamgee’s speech at the end of this movie perfectly sums up the ultimate message sitting at the heart of this timeless tale, one that has lost none of its potency in the last 70 years, nor will it for many years still to come.

“It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it’ll shine out the clearer.”

When all is said and done, each and every one of us is in need of being reminded of those words every now and again, if for nothing besides the hope that they inspire. It’s a hope that reverberates through the entirety of The Two Towers and the world that Tolkien created all those decades ago.