Last night, my wife and I finished watching LotR again (extended cuts). I'm glad my wife likes them (she likes them more than Star Wars). I enjoyed them so much (again), that I've started The Silmarillion and plan on reading The Hobbit and LotR.

Anyway, on to the point: I like all three films, but for some reason, Fellowship seems more special to me than the others. I don't know if it's because of the cool monsters or the introduction of the characters or what, but I like it better than the last 2.

Vote. Go.

I don't know, it's between Fellowship and Return of the King for me

I don't know if I liked any of them enough to warrant choosing a favourite, although I enjoyed watching them.

I might like Fellowship the most, as well. It's a bit more coherent than Return of the King because it's not nearly as packed so they can take it more easy and the pace is thus more suitable for longer cuts and scenes that can be built more meaningfully.

And also, the scene that has the most impact for me in all three films is the death of Boromir. Interestingly enough the later films (EEs) only make that scene even more powerful as Boromir's better sides are revealed in more detail.

TTT simply for the Forth Eorlingas sequence (incluidng the coming of Gandalf) and opening with the Balrog. Oh yeah, and Sam's little monologue.

Ya know, I think the "deaths" were part of it too. Even though I read the books, you still had the feeling of "Wow, they're screwed" at the end - Gandalf was gone, Boromir died, Frodo and Sam left on their own... I think that was a big part of it for me.

Fellowship of the Ring is my favorite, although the Extended Edition of The Two Towers was a big improvement over its theatrical release (I haven't seen RotK's EE).

They were all really boring.

Two Towers, by far.

It begins in darkness, Gandalf dead, Boromir dead, Merry and Pippin captured, Sam and Frodo escape, the "fellowship of the ring" is broken, their numbers are dwindling, it appears all hope is lost for our heroes.

The story continues through darkness, the trip through the Dead Marshes, the broken king of Minas Tirith, the introduction of Gollum (To the Hobbits), the little hope of Faramir's men, the fear of Minas Morgal.

The actual writing of The Two Towers exudes isolationism, everything they do is being done alone, as opposed to the more group oriented dialogue in the other two books. The speech is sparse, there is always an air of uncertainty. It's such a juxtaposition from the first book.

The book is left in darkness, as well. Frodo is feared dead, and then captured by the orcs, gollum has left Sam. And it's left to Sam, the most helpless character in the book up until this point, to save Frodo, the ring, and the world.

All the events up to this point, rely on him, and everything seems hopeless. It's the feeling that has always stuck with me after reading the entire series, it's one of the greatest situations in any novel I've read.

And Ents rock \m/

It's a close one between Fellowship and 2towers.
But I voted Fellowship. However, at the time I had forgotten about the ents, so I dunno, probably a tie between teh first two.

I'm going to take the "LotR was actually one really long book" route and say that the movies are actually one really long movie so I don't have to pick a favorite.

Ditto. But I lurves Return of the King. Mostly just for the battles.



You fail at life.

I saw the first one and developed haemorrhoids because it was just that long.

Or at least, it felt like it.

The extended cut of Return of the King is one of the greatest pieces of filmmaking in existence.

I really loved the Fellowship of the Ring. I had never read the books prior to seeing the movies, and the first movie was really just plain awesome. I loved every bit of it.

Ewww, sick poll results. Fellowship was by far the best movie... The sense of newfound adventure, excitement, and wonderment, the discovery, the mystery, and the fear, etc, were all so great.

The second two were awesome, but just not quite there.

Fellowship.

TTT raped my memories and don't get me started on Searchlight Sauron from RotK.

FotR was by far the easiest to endure.

I can't choose, so I'm going for the 4th option.

I think the Order of the Phoenix will be the best movie in the series.

So much hate.

The worst part of the RotK was the extended presence of the ghosts. It had the feeling of the police showing up at the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail to get the movie finished up.

You're joking about that, right?

Possibly the most awesome comedy ending ever.

...Jesus Christ Obi, do you have a sense of humour? Or is it too british for you?

RotK could have used the policemen showing up to end the movie. It ended like five times! And all the endings were boring!

It ended once you backward crude human, you know... when the credits rolled.

After an 11 hour film it takes more than a AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER to effectively tie everything up.

Everything everyone's said about TTT is why it's my favorite. It's a lot more artistic, and appeals to the writers I think. It's very very well done depressing work. Very few authors/film makers can nail depressing and dark.

That's why one doesn't make 11-hour movies.

Though I love them all, whenever I want to watch one on DVD, I choose RotK. Probably because I love a good ending. Also, I really love the line, "... here, at the end of all things." For a second there, I actually thought they might die.

I agree. I voted RotK but when I think about it, Fellowship is better.

i never got much tension from the plot itself... i read this massive 1000 page spoiler before the films came out.

Right. The exact opposite of an Epic movie ending, which is why it didn't work with lotr.

Or were you joking?

Does anybody else dislike the Extended Cut of Return of the King? Many of the added scenes just don't fit well...

I voted RotK anyway.

It's been so long since I've seen it in the theaters, I don't remember what scenes were added. There were some things I didn't like though, like the Mouth of Sauron. He looked... odd... His helmet looked retarded and he acted silly. Didn't like the Spotlight of Sauron either. Can't think of what else off the top of my head right now...

I liked the mouth of sauron... but I hated the scene where Aragorn uses the palantir... it just didn't really fit. And the Houses of Healing scenes too...

i wasnt even talking about lord of the rings. (also, that wasnt the ending).

What was the ending? Was it when Aragorn was crowned king? Or when the Hobbits were reunited? Or when they left on the boat? You'll probably say when Sam said "Well, I'm back" (they did that right?) but each of the other scenes too effectively ended the movie. Somehow having those scenes worked in the book, but not in the movie.

I know, but the way it wrapped that battle up so quickly sort of felt like the end of the the Holy Grail, which, while hilarious, doesn't work with lotr. Got it?

Yeah i got you but what did you want, another 30 minutes of fighting to punctuate the previous 30 minutes of fighting? I can't fully remember how it was done in the book but I thought it worked well to move the story along instead of just having more mindless cg violence.

It worked fine. Those other scenes wrapped things up and told us how the world went back to normal, and how some things were even better. It's just like Sam said: "... 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 will shine out the clearer." This had to be shown.