Since the last Hobo movie comes out today, and with the SW ep VII trailer to boot, I thought I should compare cinemas best movies ever made, and two of my personal fav movies ever, to celebrate the teasing and showing of these two new Star Wars and Hobo movies.

Granted on the news they are saying that this new Hobbit movie is the best HRT movie ever, granted most really awesome epic tales have Dragons like "Friendship is Magic," "Dragon Slayer," "Dragon Heart," "Star Wars," "Spyro / Legends of Spyro," "ALIEN 3 ." I just feel it wont have the emotional impact ROTK had.

First lets take a look at the protagonist.

Tomarrow I will write up a comparison. =)

I totally agree that Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings series are some of the best movies ever. Especially when it come down to additions to pulp culture, I would put them both(series as a whole) in the top 10. But the Hobbit movies are not even on the list of the top 1000 movies of all time. I really really really wanted to love them. I loved the Lord of the Rings series of movies. Watching them sparked my interest in Tolkiens world of Middle Earth. I have since read all the Lord of the Rings novels, the Silmarillion, and the Hobbit, and I like the Hobbit the best of all of them. So when it was announced that the Hobbit was being made into a movie, I was thrilled. Then I saw it. And to say I was disappointed is MAJOR understatement. It is so far from the book, with so much added in just to make it long enough for 3 movies - money grab anyone? So then the 2nd one came out and they added even more unneccessary junk to the story(the whole dwarf forge thing and hanging from chains and all that was ridiculous) and took it even further from the book. If you can't tell, I can't stand the first two movies. I really hope that the third one will be epic and awesome, and bring it somewhat back into line with the book, but I am reserving judgement until I have seen it a time or two.

As much as I liked the 1st hobbit film, I disliked the second. Good god! Peter Jackson really overused that whole "birds eye view of a group of characters running over a bridge" shot. And that was the least bothersome bit.

I liked the LOTR trilogy. Again the first one is my fave. (Maybe I just like the Shire.) But they made Gollum a tad to likeable.

SW Original Trilogy is awesome.

My favorite fantasy movie is still Conan the Barbarian (1982)

You killed my mother! You killed my father, you killed my people! You took my father's sword... [classic!]

The Hobbit films did a decent job of expanding on a small book that wasn't at first written as a part of the Legendarium. They took the book and the appendices to expand and explain why the heck Gandalf disappears every other chapter.

Parts I didn't like were inconsistencies within the 6 films. Stuff like the bridge falling hundreds of feet without injury, surfing on molten gold, etc as opposed to the grittier Lord of the Rings. I also wasn't fond of the depiction of certain characters. Smaug needed to kill someone in DoS. We hear he's a bad dude, but I took away that he's a bumbling idiot, not a fierce wyrm to be feared. Then again, Treebeard (seriously, ents are giants, not trees!) and Faramir bug me in the old movies. So you win some, you lose some.

I plan on seeing the third installment of the Hobbit this weekend but while I might say the original Star Wars trilogy may be one of the most influential set of movies ever I really think the extend versions of LotR blow them away.

Where I feel the Hobbit falls flat is simply because they tried stretching the material too far and took too many liberties with the book. I mean with LotR squeezing each book into its theatrical release left us wanting more but I believe the extended editions really helped deliver that. With the Hobbit they went and took one book and tried stretching it to THREE movies; I know some of the added stuff can be found in other sources and happened about that same time but there was just SO much fill in the two movies I've seen that the book should easily have gone into two movies.

I totally agree that Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings series are some of the best movies ever. Especially when it come down to additions to pulp culture, I would put them both(series as a whole) in the top 10. But the Hobbit movies are not even on the list of the top 1000 movies of all time. I really really really wanted to love them. I loved the Lord of the Rings series of movies. Watching them sparked my interest in Tolkiens world of Middle Earth. I have since read all the Lord of the Rings novels, the Silmarillion, and the Hobbit, and I like the Hobbit the best of all of them. So when it was announced that the Hobbit was being made into a movie, I was thrilled. Then I saw it. And to say I was disappointed is MAJOR understatement. It is so far from the book, with so much added in just to make it long enough for 3 movies - money grab anyone? So then the 2nd one came out and they added even more unneccessary junk to the story(the whole dwarf forge thing and hanging from chains and all that was ridiculous) and took it even further from the book. If you can't tell, I can't stand the first two movies. I really hope that the third one will be epic and awesome, and bring it somewhat back into line with the book, but I am reserving judgement until I have seen it a time or two.

Same, agreed, same, agreed, agreed agreed agreed agreed! Couldn't have said it better myself. There are so many changes from book to movie that just ruin a lot of the Tolkien universe and some of the plots Tolkien created. (For instance, Azog the White Orc was actually be-headed in Tolkien's writing. It was actually his son Bolg that leads an army during the Battle of Five Armies).

They took so many perfectly good, easy to recreate scenes, and just ruined them. And then created SO many generic "movie magic" moments.Such as:

- The whole Azog chasing the dwarves thing was just absurdly hard to watch. It was just one of those stereotypical "insert sinister bad guy stalking" scenes, which is just the opposite of how Tolkien writes.

- Any and all additions of love scenes, female warrior elves falling in love with dwarves. Not something common in the Tolkien universe.

- Legolas being jealous (which is completely out of character for him)

- The Woodland Elf King being so sinister (Completely out of character as well. Just another instance of the writers creating a stereotypical movie moment, the opposite of Tolkien's writing).

- Bard being anything more than "a random superstitious man living in the town"

- The ruining of the "Black Arrow" scene in the book. I loved that scene in the book. But oh no, they just HAD to turn this neat little tidbit of fun Tolkien writing into a giant crossbow and destroy any of the feelings I had for it.

- The "Bilbo meets Smaug" scene being changed into what it is. Just another scene I loved in the book. Bilbo attempting to be clever in front of a dragon, and, though not fully succeeding, shows some courage and growth as a character.

- The ruining of the ENTIRE Forest adventure. Oh no, Bilbo shouldn't outsmart the spiders and rescue the dwarves by himself, as it is written (in perfectly legible English, I might add). Instead, lets use this time to introduce Legolas and the "badass" She-Elf character we created...Just a disappointment...

Just a big let down over all. I don't expect the third to redeem itself, as the "plot setup" from movies 1 and 2 already leaves so much to be desired.

My rant is going on to long, and it could go on longer. I'm just so upset that Hollywood took away from me what could have been a wonderful set of movies. I'm not even excited to share these movies with my daughter when she grows up. Just SOOOOOOOOOOOOO disappointing.

I don't want a word for word translation from a book to a movie. If you want to read the book then read the book, some things I get that people could be disappointed with other things are just people complaining.

JFFDVORAK and Phild0 nailed it. They took a classic children's story and turned it into another run-of-the-mill action blockbuster. The movies undermine the themes and completely eliminate the feel of the book. I still haven't seen the second one, but after Unexpected Journey, the movie-goer in the seat in front of me exclaimed, "This was Peter Jackson's Phantom Menace!"

And I think that is exactly what happened. After making the hugely successful Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson could do no wrong. I suspect that he surrounded himself with yes-men and probably even started to believe that his vision for the story was better than Tolkien's.

Protagonists Jedi vs King

This is all based off how I feel about the characters from both series.

In Star Wars ROTJ we got Luke Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, R2-D2, and C-3PO.

LOTR ROTK we got Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Gandalf the White, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Pippin Took, Merry Brandybuck, King Theoden, Eowyn.

Both movies have really good legendary characters that will be hard to forget, although some shine more than others. R2-D2, C-3PO, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Lando Calrissian King Theoden, Eowyn, Pippin, and Merry are the weakest of the group when it comes to character development in these films. Some actully feel more like supporting characters, THIS however doesnt deny there epicness.

Han Solo is still a badass BUT hes lost character in ROTJ the reason behind this is because Mr. ford actully didnt want much to do with ep VI. He actully tried to have it written that Han Solo died. This may have added more emotional impact too the viewer if this had happend but It will never be known if this could have made ROTJ better.

Few characters I wrote above dont feel like they are just here for the ride. But they still had great moments. I feel though Eowyn was the weakest out of characters from both ROTJ & ROTK. I just felt like the writer director didnt really have a purpose for her so they threw in a problem only she could deal with, which was the Witch King. I felt her purpose was just suddenly thrown into the story but in a way that doesnt feel surprising, more like forcefully craimed into the plot. I feel it would have been better if this "WEAKNESS" had been established earlier in the Trilogy.

I think what helps these protagonists, the weaker ones too be more exact, is there character dynamics with each other. Han and Chewie are fun to watch together, as is Chewie and Ewoks swinging from trees, C-3PO and R2-D2 together with the later leading the way while 3PO has panic attacks, and one must not ever ever EVER forget the awsome team that is Gimili, Legolas. Out of all the character pairings Gimili and Legolas may have the best friends dynamic... after Frodo and Sam, and at the least tied with Gandalf the White and his friends / father like dynamic with the rest of the characters.

However while ROTK has the better friendship dynamic than ROTJ, in my opinion, it also has some of the worst. Eowyn and Merrys friendship dynamic feels blah. I buy she cares for him but the feeling for the reason why is lacking. I think she is supposed to be sympathetic towards Merry because he is suffering from simular prejudice issues she suffers from. The small small problem I have with this is she kinda passively treats Merry like a child herself min before her Brother mocks the idea of Merry Riding with them into battle. I supose its natural for her to do what she did but it kinda makes her character impulsive and shiffty in her actions...

This might be why she up and hooked up with Faramir...? I just cant tell how much time passed between the victory at Gondor and Aragorns official Coronation. I thought it happend not to far apart...

NOW TO THE MAIN COURSE. The Italian porterhouse steak too out fully loaded baked PO-TAE-TOES with Cheese Cauliflower Gratin and Russian style Blueberry pies for dessert.

ROTJ & ROTK are mainly about Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Aragorn, Frodo, and Sam.

These characters are beyond legend, be it be because there heroic actions or very heart felt moments, its truly these characterss that will make or break a movie depending how they were written and the actors potrayal of said characters.

Luke is in alot of ways the viewer themselves, we have ambitions to go further into the world, grow, and shine. Shine while doing something we have always wanted to do be it career, or personal achievements. BUT just like Luke we c evolve / grow over time when it concerness our hopes and dreams while also taking into account. You can also say the same for Anakin.

What is good about Luke is that we see his character evolve, he is taken the job of JEDI much more seriously, but not quite enough as Yoda points out, to rush out and kill a Sith "just to complete his traing," a Sith that happens to be his father, is completly un-JEDI like. As he caries on he does finally understand what it is to be a JEDI. They live a modest demanding / hard life, the Force is used for knowleged and defence ONLY, compassion must me given too all living things no matter its origin, hatred, anger, fear are emotions that can control you if you let them control you, and they can kill you as well as bring harm to those around you.

One of the most powerful string of moments to happen in ROTJ is the testing and near failure of Luke Skywalker. Every taunt by the Emperor towards Luke is a small vile posining prick into Lukes soul, but the most energizing / powerful moment comes after Vader has delt him a attack in which if he ha wanted to kill Luke physically he would have. Its the scene in which he sees Luke take the high ground, Vader makes Luke fall to the ground after destroying a bridge with his sith light sabre. What alot of people miss, unless you watch Vaders left hand, is that Vader takes Lukes Lightsabre as well, leaving Luke unarmed. Metaphorically speaking this is the moment LUKE is most vulnrable because his weapon he would defend himself with is taken away.

This is the moment he fails, he slips to the darkside for a moment after hearing something that is worse than death. What Vader was aying to LUKE was so hurtful to the soul up too his breaking point Luke started lossing focus using his FORCE STEALTH and FORCE INVISABILLITY force abilities, FYI thats why Vader didnt see Luke, as the viewer it was choosen artistcally that we could see Luke even though he really was invisable.

Darth Vader: Yess, your thoughts betray you, your feelings for them are strong especially for sister. So you have a twin sister. Your feelings have now betrayed her too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. NOW HIS FAILURE IS COMPLETE. If you will not turn to the dark side PERHAPS SHE WILL!

See this was the straw that broke the Dewbacks back. Vader mocked Lukes mentor, a person he watched Vader kill. He has rejected the notion that Anakin will be saved, thus Vader trully kills Anakin, Lukes father, he has let Luke know that is going to kill him, and to top it all off, Vader will try and turn Leia next which will result in the death of the fleash OR WORSE, the Death of her soul. Darth Vader will have effectivly killed the whole Skywalker familiy.

What follows IS THE MOST ENERGIZED, POWERFUL, EMOTIONAL AND TRAGIC SCENE INVOLVING SWORD FIGHTING EVER.

Luke gives in to the Darkside, what aspect of the darkside he fell to can be debated I think Vengeance. Full anger and hate and defiance, Luke screams: NEVEERR!!! after force pulling his lightsabre right out of Vaders left hand, he violently and reklessly swings his light sabre at Darth Vader in a berzerker fury. He even put himself in dangerous positions including running past Vader to attack him from a diffrent angle. The only offensive strike made by Vader is to take Lukes right hand off agian ONLY he strikes Lukes Sabre hilt causing a small explosion, the special effect actully burned Marks right eyebrow right off, they shoulnt have replaced it with a fake in my opinion.

Luke pushes Vader back, and very likly tripped VADER with the force knocking him over. The near helpless Vader his hammer and hammer AND HAMMERED by Lukes attacks till he has his hand lobbed off.

But the most emotional part happens next, after hearing the Emperor speak Luke is some what dazed. He hears the Emperor tell him to take his Fathers place at his side. He looks at his hand and then too his fathers. Its left up too the viewer what went trough Lukes mind at that moment but think he knew that the same thing that happend to his father was happen to himself, he could see through the anger who his true enemy was, and how his own Father fell.

This was his trial to see if he could be a Jedi Knight. He had one of the hardest test to if he was worthy. He didnt pass with flying colors BUT he like his father before him was truly now a Jedi Knight.

Trully a beautiful scene.

Lots of Lukes scenes were fantastic like the scene that shows Luke getting his new Lightsabre. Trully epic. However when it comes to introducing swords, theres scenes that introduce swords, and theres scenes THAT INTRODUCE SWORDS.

Aragorn: Murderers, traitors, you would call upon them to fight? They believe in nothing, they answer to no one.

Elrond: They will answer TO THE KING OF GONDOR!

Elrond: ANDURIL, flame of the west, forged from shards of NARSIL.

Aragorn: Sauron will not have forgotten the sword of Elendil. The blade that was broken shall return to Minas Tirth.

This scene with Andril was beautiful, the best part about it was musical score created for the scene. Theres nothing wrong with the score carrying the scene because with movies you get three sources of information telling the story too you. The sights, the score, and the dialog. If each is done correctly you should be able to understand a story with just one of those elements.

ROTJ and ROTK do this perfectly.

I will carryon with Aragorn and the rest of the main heros I listed above but didnt get to.

You killed my mother! You killed my father, you killed my people! You took my father's sword... [classic!]

Movie has me right at the opening man. Imagine seeing this in the movie theather. It's pitch dark, teh screen is dark. And all you hear is this epic voice: "Between the times that the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Arrius.... there was ange undreamed of..and onto this age: Conan." This movie also has the best soundtrack.

Best opening ever.

To qoute clerks 2. There's only one return, and its of the jedi

The Hobbit films did a decent job of expanding on a small book that wasn't at first written as a part of the Legendarium. They took the book and the appendices to expand and explain why the heck Gandalf disappears every other chapter.

Parts I didn't like were inconsistencies within the 6 films. Stuff like the bridge falling hundreds of feet without injury, surfing on molten gold, etc as opposed to the grittier Lord of the Rings. I also wasn't fond of the depiction of certain characters. Smaug needed to kill someone in DoS. We hear he's a bad dude, but I took away that he's a bumbling idiot, not a fierce wyrm to be feared. Then again, Treebeard (seriously, ents are giants, not trees!) and Faramir bug me in the old movies. So you win some, you lose some.

You killed my mother! You killed my father, you killed my people! You took my father's sword... [classic!]

Movie has me right at the opening man. Imagine seeing this in the movie theather. It's pitch dark, teh screen is dark. And all you hear is this epic voice: "Between the times that the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Arrius.... there was ange undreamed of..and onto this age: Conan." This movie also has the best soundtrack.

Best opening ever.

To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to HEAR THE LAMENTATIONS OF THEIR WOMEN!

[classic! conan the barbarian is simple pleasure!]

You killed my mother! You killed my father, you killed my people! You took my father's sword... [classic!]

Movie has me right at the opening man. Imagine seeing this in the movie theather. It's pitch dark, teh screen is dark. And all you hear is this epic voice: "Between the times that the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Arrius.... there was ange undreamed of..and onto this age: Conan." This movie also has the best soundtrack.

Best opening ever.

Both Conan movies; the only motion picture soundtracks I have ever actively purchased for multiple mediums, vinyl, cassette and compact disc. Much in the same vein that I actively pursue each publication of the Star Wars movies; VHS, Laser Disc, VHS SE, DVD SE and then Blu-ray.

I thought I should compare cinemas best movies ever made,

Lawrence of Arabia and The Lion in Winter?

Both, not coincidentally, starring Peter O'Toole.

I thought I should compare cinemas best movies ever made,

Lawrence of Arabia and The Lion in Winter?

Both, not coincidentally, starring Peter O'Toole.

Atleast you didn't go straight for Citizen Kane vs. Casablanca. Well done.

I thought I should compare cinemas best movies ever made,

Lawrence of Arabia and The Lion in Winter?

Both, not coincidentally, starring Peter O'Toole.

There couple other films I have in my own list that I think are the greatest. The ones you listed do not meet my requirements to be on this list.

I look and listen to every detail of a film. Some may have a great story but only a ok musical score or artistic look or any othere combo than what is listed above. All these diffrent aspects MUST bleend perfectly, which to me doesnt happen often.

Tomarrow I will move on to Aragorn =]

I thought I should compare cinemas best movies ever made,

Lawrence of Arabia and The Lion in Winter?

Both, not coincidentally, starring Peter O'Toole.

Atleast you didn't go straight for Citizen Kane vs. Casablanca. Well done.

While good movies, I don't enjoy those two as much as I enjoy Lawrence and Lion. Especially Lion, Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn at their top firing snide remarks at each other?

I really don't like Citizen Kane at all. But some film buffs will claim it's the best movie ever made (despite it being one big plot hole)

Dagonet, have you seen Prometheus?

So what do you think? Loving tribute to Peter o' Toole, or not?

When i was watching Prometheus i was going: " What's up with this? Why is he Lawrence of arabia? I could be watching that instead."

It is a loving tribute to that movie, but it is also because David identifies with Lawrence, standing apart from the group and all that. There's a lot written about the analogies between the two.

I like Michael Fassbender, I think he is a great actor as witnessed in Shame or Hunger, but Prometheus was such a let down. I wanted it to be so much more. ;(.

Back to Alien and Aliens I guess. .

Amen to that!

Oh, and Ridley Scott's greatest work: Blade Runner

Starring Harrison Ford, bringing us nicely back to Star Wars. .

Nice steering the tread back on topic. I like Blade Runner (altough i have my issues with the androids)

But i think I like Alien better. (But not as good as Aliens)

Sorry. Back to star wars:

Wich one is your favorite of the trilogy? Mine's ROTJ.

I think I must go with ANH.

Not only because of that opening scene, but for all it's hamminess it really is an excellent movie that paints a universe in broad strokes (large number of aliens, not all creatures speak the same language yet they coexist), dumps us straight in the action suggesting a large backstory but leaving that to be filled in by the imagination and EU, the classic structure of farmboy leaving with a wise mentor who then dies to let the young hero accomplish victory on his own while companions met along the way help him. And while there is a female possible love interest that is not a part of the story.

And the universe is lived in, not squeeky clean but rusty buckets. And it opens with a CR-90. There's not enough movies that do that.

Empire is great, RoTJ is fine, but ANH is the big one.