Ranking LOTR and the Hobbit films and then doing a ranking of the main casts of both.

KTT - Keith's Television Talks, episode 2: Ranking the Middle Earth films I love Middle Earth movies, from the lord of the rings to the hobbit trilogies and even the original animated Ralph Bakshi Lord of the Rings. I wanted to spend today talking about them and give you some long but well explained thoughts. Ranking will include both trilogies directed by Peter Jackson alongside the Ralph Bakshi film, I will not be including rings of power because it'd be last place regardless. I will also be using the EXTENDED EDITIONS to talk about every film, because I find them to be a more compelling version of the narrative. 7th (Disappointment in the game of life): The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - I find this movie near unwatchable in how bad it is, there's 3 scenes in particular that I think save this movie from being terrible. Those scenes are first: The scene when Bofur lets Bilbo leave, knowing him too well, and after seeing him stop Bilbo from leaving in the first film, it's a really nice full circle moment. Beyond that, the scene when Dwalin finally says to Thorin that he "cannot follow a madman" resulting in Thorin reconsidering his life, is one of the best moments in all of the films and one of the main reasons I think Dwalin is a top tier character. And finally, we have Dale's crowning as king under the mountain, a near perfect scene. There is one scene cut out of both the extended and theatrical editions of Dwalin mowing through a group of orcs to try to save Thorin as he's about to die and as soon as Thorin is stabbed, Dwalin just breaks down and it's one of those scenes that's so genuinely fantastic and beautifully acted by McTavish that really annoys me that they didn't use it in the movie. The rest of the film is jokes that don't really land, a lot of the drama feels manufactured, and I usually wouldn't mind having stories do something different from the books, it's why I think Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the best film in that series because it condenses everything well, but in the case of the Hobbit, they just pad it out with stuff nobody cares about like a stupid love triangle. This movie is bad, it's got bad CGI, video game level design for a film doesn't work, a lot of the characters aren't particularly strong but do get at least some development. Final Rating: 3/10 6th (It's alright, just alright): The Lord of the Rings (Ralph Bakshi) - Very strong film, but due to the limitations of the time in animation, it's quite hard to go back to these early animated attempts at J.R.R. Tolkien's work, I think this is the best of those attempts, but still has far too many problems with it's animation and writing for me to put it any higher than 6th. Overall rating: 5/10 5th (In a Hole in the Ground, there lived a Hobbit...): The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - I think this movie does a lot of little things I like and a lot of stuff I really really don't like. I think a lot of the dwarves get a lot more to do, notably we get to see an angrier side of Dori, we get to see that Oin is a medic which is another huge missed opportunity for the third film to have Oin help the injured peoples of Lake Town. Beyond that, I think the film suffers from most of the action being CGI, it just doesn't look as good as the practical battles of the Lord of the Rings. I think Beorn is a decent character and the start of the movie is quite strong but then it really loses steam until the confrontation with Smaug the terrible and Bilbo, which is the best scene in the entire trilogy. So a lot of the film has interesting ideas, but gets bogged down by feeling bloated, especially in the Necromancer plotline which is just insane. I do not like how that side of the narrative makes Gandalf look incredibly foolish and ruins the fact he had no idea that the ring was in existence during LOTR. Honestly, this film is almost worse than Battle of the Five Armies and Ralph Bakshi in the fact that a lot of the best moments in the film aren't even that good compared to the others, but the small subtle character work really works for me. Final rating: 6/10 4th (Po-ta-toes!): The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - This film is by far the best of the Hobbit films, it has good subtle character work, incredibly strong writing with Bilbo and the second-best scene of the trilogy with the Riddles in the Dark sequence. I love how even small lines come back into the narrative without needing to spell it out to you, the cast is fantastic, a lot of the dwarves are unfortunately lacking in character, but a few of them really stand out, notably Dori despite having the least screentime of any Dwarf has a really interesting relationship to Ori as his like, caretaker. And also has a really interesting bipolar characterization that I hope was intentional where he can go from being well spoken and charming to a violence fueled crazy person in the flip of a coin, which I found interesting. Overall, I think this film is well written, my biggest problem with it is that the Azog plotline takes up so much screentime for no reason, they set up the necromancer plot which as I explained is not my cup of tea, but it also has the problem that Bilbo has his entire character arc in just this first film, it works in this film, but the fact a movie series called THE HOBBIT basically has THE HOBBIT go through his entire arc as a character in this first film is such a bad writing decision, spread the arc out a bit. Anyhow, the film is pretty solid, but not amazing. Final rating: 7.5/10 3rd (Second Breakfast): The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - It's fantastic, the writing, the characters, notably Faramir is EXCELLENT, but so are the soldiers of Rohan and their king. The setup to the Steward of Gondor hating Faramir and loving Boromir sets up the 3rd film's Minas Tirith plotline perfectly and my god, the extended scene at the start of this film of Faramir and Boromir clearly looking out for each other is one of the most tragic parts of the whole series, they clearly had that sibling bond and for Faramir to lose his brother and have his father basically send him to die is horrible, but such fantastic character writing. Beyond that, the Battle of Helms Deep is a fan favorite sequence for a reason, Saruman is a super threatening antagonist, etc. It's the weakest of the three films just in the fact it's only the middle of the trilogy and doesn't get to pay off a lot of the strong writing as it's mostly a setup film for The Return of the King. As a movie, I think it's the perfect middle chapter. Final Rating: 10/10 2nd (The King): The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - It is also fantastic, but I feel like it's a bit too long, even in the theatrical release, that's not to say the film is bad because it's too long, it's still the 2nd best film of the entire middle earth franchise, but the reason it's not #1 is because of that length. It's a long movie, and it's the perfect ending to the trilogy, especially bumping up the horror with scenes like the Aragog confrontation, Minas Morgul: The City of the Dead is such a great location. Saruman's demise in the extended edition is very interesting and informs a lot of the characters. I love the film, I think it's fantastic, and I severely hope this stays the last Lord of the Rings film because if they ever remake these, I have no idea how they'll do it better. Final Rating: 10/10 1st (GANDALF!): The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Perfectly sets up the world and the cast, Boromir is a top 3 character of this franchise to me, I love the cast in general, I think everyone fits their role perfectly. The action is fantastic, the suspense is real, there's real danger throughout despite just being part 1 of the franchise, they're happy to let main characters go off the bat. I love the writing, I love the direction, the cinematography, the score, oh my god the score is beautiful in all 3 films but it's so perfect in this first film. The extended edition adds a lot of good scenes to it as well and is practically necessary in my mind if you want to fully experience the films (I'd recommend watching the theatrical versions first for every film, then watch the extended editions of the lord of the rings in particular if you enjoy them.) Overall, a perfect film trilogy in my mind and the best of the three is the first of the three, especially the opening, which perfectly sets up everything in less than 10 minutes, which is a huge bonus. Final Rating: 11/10 Ranking the main characters: 13 dwarves + bilbo for the hobbit, the 4 hobbits: Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin, Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn, Gandalf, Boromir, Faramir and Gollum. 25th: Gloin - Serves pretty much no plot relevance in the hobbit. 24th: Bifur - Only speaks Dwarvish and has one good joke about him in the hobbit films but nothing else. 23rd: Nori - A thief who constantly steals from everyone, even the elves who take them in and help them, which is kind of decent characterization, but he gets next to no screentime. 22nd: Bombur - Used for fat jokes, but some of the jokes with him like him running faster than the rest of the cast are genuinely kind of funny, so I guess he's here at 22. 21st: Kili - Has a love triangle plot, but I don't like it. 20th: Fili - Has really funny jokes about him, like him always having more knives on him during the Desolation of Smaug but he's not developed enough for his demise to hit hard in the third film. 19th: Ori - Really interesting but acts like a child for all of the films and the most interesting part about him is that he's the skeleton in the mines of Moria that Gandalf takes the book from. 18th: Dori - Dori could have been fantastic but has the least minutes of screentime of any Dwarven character total in the entire series. 17th: Oin - Consistently characterized by him being deaf but is also interesting in the fact he believes in the prophecy during the first film alongside Gloin and is a medic, which is interesting. 16th: Thorin Oakenshield - Inconsistently written but Thorin is one of the best characters of the hobbit films. 15th: Bofur - A bit inconsistent across the films, but gets two of the best scenes in the entire hobbit trilogy. 14th: Dwalin - The most consistently written of the dwarves, he never feels out of character in the entire trilogy. 13th: Balin - The oldest and wisest of the dwarves, the best council to bilbo and thorin and probably the single best written character in the hobbit outside of bilbo himself. 12th: Legolas - Kinda just exists in both movies to be cool and have cool action scenes, but he works for me. 11th: Gimli - A bit inconsistent, but a very strong character who just doesn't get enough actual plot relevance in the series for me to rank him higher. 10th: Merry - Doesn't have a lot to do in the series but is consistently a strong character. 9th: Bilbo Baggins - A bit inconsistent but by far the best character of The Hobbit films and has a lot of really good subtle buildup to him getting the ring and becoming like Gollum in the hobbit films. 8th: Pippin - Really strong character in the Return of the King but is mostly just a side character like Merry for the first 2 films, but unlike Merry, gets a lot to do in the third film which elevates him on the ranking. 7th: Gandalf - A mixed bag in the hobbit trilogy which bogs him down on the rankings but his run in LOTR brings him back up again to 7th. 6th: Boromir - Probably the most tragic character in the entirety of the Lord of the Rings, he is fascinating to watch as he sets up his own downfall. 5th: Faramir - Gets far more to do than his brother and is equally tragic but is also a fascinating character throughout his run and just has more to do in the films than Boromir does. 4th: Frodo - Very well characterized, but my problem is that especially in the third film, he's usually just a borderline damsel in distress for Sam to save, which makes Sam a just more interesting character than Frodo by the end of it, I really do like Frodo though, I think he's fantastic, but I think the top 3 are better. 3rd: Aragorn - The rider turned into the king of Gondor. The best character arc of all of the films, the best scenes, the best acting honestly is between him, Gollum and Sam. I just find Sam and Gollum more interesting. 2nd: Gollum - The most interesting character in both The Hobbit and LOTR, he's a fascinating creature. I really do wish the video game for him was actually any good, but nonetheless, he's one of the best of the entire middle earth series. 1st: Sam - The best friend anyone could ask for, Sam carries the trilogy for a lot of it, he's not perfect but my god is he consistent. And that's all, please enjoy this huge probably thousands of words long review of the films and ranking.