4. The Lord Of The Rings
New Line Cinema
Best film: Fellowship of the Ring
Most enjoyable: Return of the King Comparing the three films in the Lord of the Rings trilogy is picking at hairs because they really work as one long story rather than three separate installments. Yet there are differences between them. Fellowship is the best of the lot. It sets up the world beautifully and feels much more like a self-contained adventure in Middle Earth than the other two, which lose narrative focus by splitting up the cast. By contrast Return of the King is much more of a crowd pleaser. In part this is down to the fact that its the conclusion of a trilogy, and therefore inherently more satisfying than the other two that stop in the middle of the story. It is also much more about spectacle. The battles in Return of the King are just huge. In post-production Jackson even inserted the scene where Legolas takes down the giant elephant, all because of audiences positive response to Legolas previous acrobatic scenes. While it may look cool and works as good entertainment, anything that gives Orlando Bloom more screen time has an adverse effect on the films quality.