Star Wars 4-6, Star Wars 1-3 or Lord of the Rings?

jaykhunter

Star Wars must be the most talked about film franchise in the history of cinema. He can keep releasing these movies in slightly altered format because people will discuss and (be more likely to) see the new one.

I wish Lucas would move on to making another film & so hopefully it'd stop him tinkering with his old ones, but in general I don't mind the new additions (unless it's a terrible new song by a singing CGI character at the screen) and since i've seen them many times, the alterations make it slightly more interesting to re-watch.

I gotta also mention that I hate how Jedi is lumped in with IV and V, and Sith is lumped in with I and II. The original trilogy isn't perfect, and the new trilogy has some merit. I thought RotS was brilliant, especially the closing 40 minutes; and thought everything outside of Luke/Vader/Emperor in Jedi was damned awful time-fill.

In this topic I'd say classic Star Wars, as it covers a wider breadth of emotions/is more exciting to me, rather than the (also excellent) LOTR, which is very grand, but is a bit slow and is a bit more boring.

bnt

The thing that puts me off, about the Star Wars films, is that they were written for the screen, with fairly standard 3-act structures, borrowing heavily from the work of Joseph Campbell (esp. The Hero with a Thousand Faces). They are tailor-made to appeal to popular audiences - not that there's anything wrong with that.

The LotR books were written to be books, without compromise, and it took a helluva lot of work to make the story filmable, never mind as good as the films turned out. (I'm one of those film-watchers who cares about the process of film-making, and doesn't judge a film solely by what makes it to the screen.) But don't bother with the cinema versions - the Extended Editions are the only ones to watch, in my opinion. The story is more than big enough to justify the length.

frogcheese

I think they are both amazing and too difficult to judge which one is "better".

BopNiblets

johnnysmack wrote: »

LOTR is very childish, everything turned out too perfectly in the end.

I have an issue with this: Friggin' Ewoks!
That kill hundreds of trained and armored stromtroopers with frickin' lasers and walking tanks.

Several countries/armies were decimated in the Battle of Pelannor.
The Empire wiped out possibly countless billions only to be ultimately defeated by a gang of furry midgets, that's childish!

Bipolar Joe

LotR bores me to tears. I'm a Star Wars (OT) kind of guy.

Ridley

jaykhunter wrote: »

... The original trilogy isn't perfect, and the new trilogy has some merit. I thought RotS was brilliant, especially the closing 40 minutes ...

Yoda dueling Sidious as they rise up into the centre of the Senate building is one of the best moments of the entire saga for me. Great visual.

ricero

nolans batman trilogy will soon become the greatest trilogy of all time. for me though star wars 4 - 6 just shades lord of the rings

me-skywalker

A New Hope, The Empire Strikes back and Return of the Jedi. As a caveat I would add Revenge of the Sith; its darker and more intense, the drama and tension knowing where it leads but how they get there for me made it equal with the original Trilogy.

Draupnir

BopNiblets wrote: »

I have an issue with this: Friggin' Ewoks!
That kill hundreds of trained and armored stromtroopers with frickin' lasers and walking tanks.

Several countries/armies were decimated in the Battle of Pelannor.
The Empire wiped out possibly countless billions only to be ultimately defeated by a gang of furry midgets, that's childish!

The idea is that the Emperor has gotten a bit egotistical (the Dark Side of the force). He has ruled the galaxy pretty exclusively for 20+ years having wiped out the Jedi for all intents and purposes.

You can't defeat him with a traditional army, but the Dark Side has weakened him, he can't see the danger coming because he doesn't consider it worthy of his attention.

He underestimates Luke, Han et. al and he underestimates the Ewoks. The dark side of the force ultimately leads to his defeat really. That's my take on the storyline anyway. It rounds out the series very nicely in my opinion.

Zubeneschamali

Draupnir wrote: »

The idea is that the Emperor has gotten a bit egotistical (the Dark Side of the force).

No, I think the idea is that by RotJ, Lucas has gotten control of the movies, and he thinks the saga needs more teddy bears.

Renn

bullvine wrote: »

Am I the only person finding it hard to believe when posters are saying they haven't seen Star Wars?

Guess what, I've seen some films you haven't seen :eek:

Only saw the first Star Wars film a couple of years back, fine but not enough there to want me watching the rest.

saintsaltynuts

I prefer The Phantom Menace to the first two Lord of the Rings films could not stomach to watch the 3rd one as the first two bored me to tears.

WatchWolf

saintsaltynuts wrote: »

I prefer The Phantom Menace to the first two Lord of the Rings films could not stomach to watch the 3rd one as the first two bored me to tears.

CharAdriel

Star Wars the Original Trilogy was definitely the best trilogy of the 3.

Handsome Bob

For some reason I decided to go see TPM in 3D yesterday...I forgot about how shit it was. I wouldn't even mind if it weren't for the fact that I felt the 3D was pretty crap. :pac::pac::pac:

DazMarz

For me, the Original Trilogy by a clear, country mile. Superb and inspired stuff.

Was never a big LOTR fan, so I don't like them much at all, but that's just me.

Plus, I love all the classic lines from Star Wars, but my favourite being:

"I love you!"

"I know."

Brilliant... and Harrison Ford apparently ad-libbed it!

Arabella

I still remember the first time I saw the original Star Wars trilogy. I was 9 years old and it was on television over Christmas. It completely captured my imagination and quickly became my favourite series of films. It reminds me of my childhood and everytime I see it I have a huge emotional response to it. For this reason, Star Wars is my favourite.

I was in college when I first saw The Lord of the Rings and I loved it. I had read Tolkien's books when I was younger and Jackson's films successfully managed to depict the things I loved about the books.

While my brain is saying that the Lord of the Rings is the better trilogy, my heart says Star Wars purely because of the nostagic feeling I still get when I watch it.

Dermighty

Star wars 4-6 is a childhood thing for me, Star wars 1-3 were just ****e (especially the and and 3rd movies) and Lord Of The Rings was excellent all round.