Star Wars vs Lord of the Rings Reddit

Me and my friend were having this conversation earlier and I’d really love to hear other people’s opinions on the matter. Both great films (originals anyway) in their own right, but would like to hear more people’s opinions.

I personally prefer LOTR, they’re my all time favourite films, watched them countless times. The lore to it all is outstanding, massive fan of the other books The Silmarillion and the children of Hurin. I think the films had an absolutely stellar cast, legendary stage and film actors, and the story is so captivating.

What are your thoughts?

So i have two friends one suggested me LOTR and other Star wars when i asked them about some good Hollywood movie franchises to watch. I am mostly talking about the original trilogy of both here. So i want to watch any one trilogy. So which is a better trilogy. I am not American so i don't really understand the star wars obsession there and don't know much about Lord of the rings either. So can you people give me a brief introduction to both the franchises and are they worth the time. Also why one is better than the other.

The original star wars trilogy is also far older than the LOTR ones so do they feel dated when compared to LOTR.

I’m curious, did you actually read the LotR trilogy, or are you referring exclusively to the movies.

Is it really surprising though? New Line Cinema gave them 10 years to film the series as a whole. That’s practically unheard of in the history of cinema.

Conversely, Star Wars and it’s sequels were some of the original summer blockbusters. Their future as a series was entirely dependent on how successful the preceding film was, and they had significant obligations to reach.

You’re comparing apples with bananas here to be honest. A more appropriate comparison would be LotR against the Chronicles of Narnia.

Definitely Middle Earth.

It has greater unity, with all six films produced, written and directed by Sir Peter Jackson and with the same creative team co-writing, assisting him, lensing, building sets, etecetra. For Star Wars, Lucas only directed four out of six, was the prinicpal writer on five, executive producer on (a different) five, with the creative team changing wildly across the various entries.

Also, the Middle Earth films essentially constitute two films in three parts each. Lucas can bullshit about how he wrote it all in advance, but the fact of the matter is he was writing and shooting them one by one, and created large disjoints (Anakin grows ten years and changes considerably as a character offscreen, for instance) in the process.

And its just the better filmed series. I don't just mean the flourishes that Jackson pulls with his very lively camerawork and camera effect - oh, the way the camera flies over Isengard and plunges into the pits! - as compared to Lucas' (and Marquand's) rathe bland, low-budget style of photography; its also do to with performances. The Empire Strikes Back and parts of Revenge of the Sith notwithstanding, the Star Wars characters are much less emphatic than their Lord of the Rings counterparts.

Jackson is also the superior director in the way he photographs landscapes. Just the other day I was thinking back fondly to the original Star Wars and its Tatooine section as a fun, outdoor, David Lean-esque adventure, and being greatly disappointed in revisiting it: the Tunisia landscape photography is staggeringly unimpressive: it doesn't have those impossible huge vistas: most of it is shot within shouting distance from the camera, and some of the shots of C3PO, a yellow figure against a yellow desert, are rather flat.

I also like the fact that, commercially, Middle Earth (in its live-action incarnation, at least) had stayed at six movies and is now getting a TV series; compared to an onslaught of films and TV shows from Star Wars. Makes Middle Earth feel a bit more boutique.

I also - and this is more of an aside - give kudos to Jackson and his co-writers for letting it go - "fresh eyes on that story is such a good thing" - as compared to Lucas who's still grumbling about having sold Star Wars, in spite of the fact that he volutarilly sold it himself. There's more of a pretense there, again with Lucas saying he wrote the whole thing - including a version of the sequel trilogy - in advance; whereas Jackson fully admits his creation of the films was "organic and unexpected."

All that being said, its not really a competition. I find the two series complement each other and I enjoy each for what it is: Star Wars has all the Samurai-flavoured stuff and all the spaceships and things to set it apart, for instance. I've grown into the habit of doing a double feature: watching a Star Wars film as a B-feature before watching the corresponding Middle Earth film, the A-picture.

What is the difference between Star Wars and Lord of the Rings?

Which Lord of the Rings movie won more Oscars than Star Wars?

Why is the Lord of the Rings series so popular?

Why do people like Star Wars so much?

Is the Lord of the Rings better than Star Wars?

What is more popular Star Wars or Lord of the Rings?