VideoDome! Jackson's Middle Earth vs Lucas' Star Wars

Total nerd fest here.

Both have 6 films behind them. Which saga came off better?

Obviously, I think Jackson's film version of Middle Earth crushes Star Wars. The acting is mostly pretty good, the sets and effects are consistent amongst all the films, the characters are more interesting, and yeah....I like the scores better.

Star Wars....ugh. The unnecessary fan service of dropping characters in scenes where they don't belong, the terrible prequel acting of anyone not named Liam Nesson, and the fact that there's no good way to watch the star wars trilogies (spoil anakin is vader, or spoil vader is luke's father?) adds up to a bad time to me. In fact, beyond watching A New Hope (the only good film) I find thinking about Star Wars is a more rewarding activity than actually watching Star Wars. Didn't you imagine the Clone Wars to be cooler than they turned out?

VOTE: Jackson's Middle Earth

Unfortunately, the Middle Earth films won't have nearly as much pop culture traction. I don't think I saw half the Hobbit merchandise that I saw for LotR. Heck, don't even think I saw a single Hobbit action figure. That and the line of films is pretty much done. Star Wars is going to keep getting crapped out forever...

Star Wars OT >>>>>>>>> LOTR >>>>>>>>>> HOBBIT >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> that other shit


Darth Vader >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Everything

Illegal Procedure!

Votes only count when comparing one set of 6 films as a whole against the other.

you've weasled quite the conundrum there Mister White. It's hard for me to express just how horrendously I view the travesty of the new star wars films, but the highs of the OT still mean that SW > LotR. It's all about Vader, baby!

Lucas didn't direct all the Star Wars films ie. the best one The Empire Strikes Back. Although I think that Star Wars has an incomparable deeper resonance, gotta give it to Jackson.

If it were the original 3 on both sides, Star Wars kicks Lotrs ass all over the place.

Actually, fuck it: Star Wars has Harrison Ford, R2D2, VADER, Boba Fett, Leia's slave outfit (which was great when i was 13) the litte bue elephant playing the keyboards, Mos Eisley.

lotr has admittedly a great Gandalf, Viggo, the Witch King, an angry lighthouse and a bunch of whiny hobbits and a heroin-addict gollum who irritates on repeat viewings.


Star Wars - even with the abomination that were episodes 1-3.

Star Wars OT is better and more iconic than the LOTR trilogy. The 3 prequels for each set are almost equally bad so that's a wash.

Vote: Star Wars

Vote: Middle Earth.

When I have to put the prequels into the Star Wars bundle I find it hard to give them any kind of positive spin. Here's hoping Disney gets the next episodes right.

There's simply no forgiving Lucas for Jar Jar Binks so my vote is for the extended, extended, director's version of the Jackson's Middle Earth tripe-ology which is soon to be purchased by the Disney Leviathan and then converted into a children's animated cartoon world with cross-over appearances from Star Wars.

I'm with Barney for once in that the prequels of both series kind of suck and nullify one another.

I think when looking at the original trilogies, they both have a consistent and interesting universe. Which looks better? Well, LotR has 30 years of scientific advancement to make it's visuals a bit more stunning but that Star Wars, with the exception of muppets, still looks fantastic after all these years is to its credit.

Story wise I'm going to give it to Lord of the Rings. They both have strong messages, the original Star Wars trilogy is largely about redemption. It may not have started out that way in the first movie but the second one clearly establishes that theme. But the theme of hope vs despair in the Lord of the Rings is strong and consistent and ultimately, to me, more moving.

Screen play wise Star Wars kicks the shit out of Lord of the Rings. Especially when it comes to dialog. The dialog is atrocious in Lord of the Rings where 90% of it is one character screaming another character's name in slow motion. Frooooodoooooo! Gaaaaaandaaaaallllf!

In the end, I like Star Wars better but then...Return of the Jedi...ewoks....the fight scene in the cave under Jabba's palace (the special effects are curiously bad) and Bobba Fett's fate...ugh. But then "Nobody tosses a dwarf"....elves at Helm's Deep....

I'm gonna punk out and call it even.

I vote for Lucas' Star Wars over everything else.

That is, the movie that came out in 1977. directed by George Lucas, called "Star Wars". I'll take that over all the rest.

Of course, I don't give a fuck about a elf or hobbit. I saw the LOTR movies, they were fine, but nothing I had to have over and over.

Vote: Star Wars

The Star Wars movies aren't short, but they're aren't too long either. Also, Han Solo.

Middle Earth as a series, but 1977's Star Wars beats any of the movies individually.

The Star Wars prequels are worse than the Hobbit, but the original Star Wars and Empire far surpass any of the Middle Earth films. The LotR trilogy is still good, but has not aged well, whereas the Star Wars OT is still amazing after 38 years.

Jackson's Middle Earth is almost as reliant on CGI as the Star Wars prequels and the rubbery prostheses on Hobbit feet and Dwarf faces aren't charming in the way that the cantina aliens, Frank Oz's Yoda, and space battles with model ships are in the SW OT.

Ian McKellan, Andy Serkis, Sean Bean, and to a lesser extent Martin Freeman and Viggo Mortenson are all great. I think that Ian McKellan is almost solely responsible for making the Middle Earth films believable. Nevertheless, Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing, Frank Oz, Ian McDiarmid, and James Earl Jones are all incredible actors in defining roles and I'd give SW the edge in this category as well.

As great as Howard Shore's LotR compositions are, there's no way they stand up to the John Williams SW score, which is among the best ever.

Rather than trying to somehow quantify exactly how much shittier the SW prequels are than the Hobbit, I'm going with the films with the higher upper limit: Star Wars

Is there a reason we're voting on 18 hours of film produced in six different installments vs 14 hours of film produced in six different installments?

Empire Strikes Back gets my vote. You can do what you want with what remains.

Star Wars / Empire also gets my vote, despite the prequels.

edit; Mof Tarkan > Saruman