How to watch ‘The Lord of the Rings’ in story order
Since The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Amazon Prime delivered its most watched premiere, Middle Earth is back in the public eye with a profile not seen since Peter Jackson was at the peak of his powers with his first The Lord of the Rings trilogy at the turn of the century.
Jackson’s trilogy garnered 30 Oscar nominations between 2001 and 2003, and the director has made a total of six Middle-earth films, returning to the fantasy world in 2012 The Hobbit Trilogy. With the first season of The Rings of Power Wrapping up on Thursday, there’s no better time to watch these 21st-century recordings of JRR Tolkien’s classic books in chronological order.
“The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power” (Season 1, 2022)
The latest on-screen version from Amazon is by far the oldest in Middle-earth lore.
Set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbitthe show lays the groundwork for everything to come: the forging of the rings of power, the rise of the dark lord Sauron, and the final alliance between elves and humans – all in a nearly 10-hour format that makes Jackson films seem, as if they should have competed for the Best Short Film category, apart from the 17 Oscars they’ve won.
Valuation: 3/5
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” (2012)
Jackson’s Hobbit Trilogy Opener introduces us to Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), the title character, who is persuaded by the wizard Gandalf the Gray (Sir Ian McKellen) to join a group of dwarves in an attempt to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug.
What Gandalf doesn’t reveal is that Sauron is resurrected and could use Smaug as a scaly weapon of mass destruction. It’s fun, along with the requisite battles, treasure, and crowd favorite Gollum (Andy Serkis).
Audiences were divided because Jackson was filming at 48 frames per second instead of the usual 24, with critics saying it looked like a computer game.
Valuation: 3/5
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” (2013)
It’s the second hobbit movie, and we’re still looking – thanks in large part to Jackson’s decision to stretch the events of a 300-page novel across three films, totaling eight hours.
Our heroes eventually reach the Lonely Mountain after fighting with orcs and giant spiders along the way. Upon his arrival, Smaug the Dragon is in no mood to have the mountain or its vast hoard of treasures liberated.
Valuation: 3.5/5
“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” (2014)
In high spirits after the home invasion, Smaug launches, as one would expect from a dragon, an opening full of visual effects as he wreaks havoc on people and property alike in a fiery apocalypse.
It’s the first of many spectacular, CGI-filled scenes over the next two and a half hours, in which Sauron makes a cameo appearance and a host of fantastical creatures smack him across several massive set pieces.
Although it is the shortest of the trilogy at “only” 144 minutes, Five armies feels like it contains most of the padding, with everything in between the set pieces acting as filler — perhaps because the plot was long exhausted in the nearly six hours of the previous two films.
Spoiler alert: Bilbo ends up revealing that he still has the magic ring he stole from Gollum seven hours ago. You will need this information later.
Valuation: 2/5
“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001)
The film that made the fantasy genre socially acceptable again and made it a cinematic epic in every respect, community was and remains one of the greatest productions to ever hit the big screen.
Sauron is back, 60 years after the events of Five armiesand he searches for the ring he forged back into it perfomance. It has now been passed down to Bilbo’s nephew Frodo (Elijah Wood) and chaos has already engulfed Middle-earth before Sauron finds it.
Men, elves and dwarves put their differences aside and agree that the ring must be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. So it’s time for another quest when Frodo and his friends set out for the fabled mountain.
Valuation: 4/5
“The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” (2002)
We are on our way to Mount Doom, deep in the heart of Sauron’s kingdom of Mordor. Frodo and his companionship of hobbits, elves, humans and dwarves are joined by peripheral allies such as Rohirrim (horse/humans) and Ents (animated trees).
With occasional help from Gandalf, the Fellowship must battle orcs, ghosts, dark wizards, and the ever-present evil Sauron to get there. Gollum is back too, and was widely hailed at the time as a rare example of a believable CGI character. Nor has he forgotten that Bilbo stole his precious ring all those years ago.
Valuation: 4/5
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003)
the return of the King concludes the story and Jackson pulls out all the stops. With war raging in Middle-earth, Frodo and his hobbit friend Sam (Sean Astin) must continue their quest alone while their larger friends battle Sauron and his allies.
Gollum serves as their guide, but his only goal is to steal back the ring. This finale has everything we loved about the previous films and more – magic, epic battles, ghosts, heartbreaking goodbyes, brave heroes, evil villains, and thankfully, an ending.
The first fantasy film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, it received 10 Academy Awards. Winning every category it’s been nominated in, it clearly did something right.
Valuation: 5/5
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Updated October 14, 2022 8:59 am