Star Wars v. Lord of the Rings, Which is the better franchise?

Since it is almost time for last Star Wars movie to come out and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is complete, what better time is it to debate the better Franchise.

I grew up with the Original Star Wars Trilogy and was a huge fan of all of them, especially Empire, but after seeing the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I have to say LOTR is a much more complete story, that becides the Special FX, the story is really driven by the characters and the story. Especially with the extended editions, there are no holes in the LOTR story.

Now for Star Wars, The Original trilogy was great, good story, great characters, but it had to end with the whole ewok/endor story, which was lack luster. The current trilogy is very sub-par so far, but I do have high hopes for ROTS.

In my opinion, Lord of the Rings is superior to Star Wars, but I leave the argument for you all. Voice your opinion, which is better the light Saber or the power of the One Ring?

 

I feel both are really excellent but what brings down the Star Wars triology is part 1&2 of the triology. (We'll have to wait till part 3 to determine the fait of Staw Wars)

Lord of the Rings was good till the very end.

 

I agree except for the last 30 mins of ROTK, when the king was crowned and everyone bowed to Frodo and Sam, that should've been the end. But NOOOO!!!!! We have to sit through a sappy scene where Frodo leaves Sam on the docks and Sam returning to a bar maid to get married.

 

In the defense of LOTR, The ending was somewhat true to the books. without that ending, it would of have a lot of the book loyalist be angry for not having it. It did slow down the momentum, but it was needed to complete the story

 

I like the original star wars movies better then the new ones. I think if it was not for the newer star wars movies, I would say star wars. But I will have to go with lord of the Rings.

 

in my opinion they bolth suck!

 

i cant wait for the next one by the producers of the lord of the rings: THE HOBBIT.

Pre reading of this one looks like its going to be very close to how the book was

 

There were alot of holes in LOTR also, they left out alot of things that were in the book (for reasons of time).

I would have to say LOTR also, because the new star wars movies messed up the franchise.

 

Star Wars definitely. I didn't think LOTR was all that great honestly. I can usually watch a 3-hour movie, but with all 3 of those I had to watch them in chunks. Then they made extended versions! As if they weren't long enough...

If anyone's into books, I should suggest the Dark Tower books from Stephen King. Awesome!

 

I like star wars. I can't watch the rotr movie b/c they r 2 long. I have only seen about half of each movie. I'm not good at sitting still 4 2 long.=(

 

I dont see why people complain about the length of movies. If the movie is good, then no matter how long it is, the time will fly. With the first two LOTR movies, the time went quick. Not to mention that, how many 3 hour 20 min movies leave you disappointed that you didn't get a "true" ending. In otherwords, the exit for both of the movies were so good that it made the lenght worth it.

I can see why people are so down on Return of the King's ending because after about 10 hours of build-up and the ring is finally destroyed, aragorn is crowned, and is reunited with the hobbits & Arwen, there is the whole anticlimatic back to hobbiton scene, Sams wedding, and the departure to the grey havens. This was all kind of slow and sappy, but like I said before it was necessary for the loyal book readers, not to mention it fills a lot of holes in the entire story. for instance, in Fellowship Sam talks of one of these days getting the courage to marry Rosie Cotton, well the whole experience of the ring gave him the courage to do so. Also, The story would not be complete without telling what happens with Bilbo, he is the one who started this whole thing anyway. I could go on and on, but it was necessary. DONT GET ME WRONG, the movie would have been just as good and even better for the casual movie goer if it ended after the argorn and his people bow to the hobbits (that scene was golden), but it would not COMPLETE the ENTIRE story.

Star Wars on the other hand could have benifited with a little more length. I would love to have more character devolpment. It would be cool to find out a little more about characters like Lando, Jaba, Boba Fett, or Leia even. We know them from the story and how they are linked to other characters, but where did they come from. It would also be cool to see when Vader convinces Lando to betrey is friend, Han, in Cloud City. Just imagine if that scene happenend, the whole time when lando is greeted Han and leia, you know he is leading him to doom, but you dont know when. That is some edge of your seat stuff! Also, what about in Star Wars when Luke finds his aunt and Uncle dead. Imagine if we saw that scene, that would be sweet. What if we saw more with lukes encounter with the Snow Creature in Empire or more character interaction with Luke and Han after that incident. It would give their characters a lot more value.

I know the new movies are supossed to be doing this (tie all the loose ends), but if all of this was done in the orginal three movies, the newer three would have a lot less character devolpment and more detail on the story. I think one of the major problems with that last two movies is that it spends half the time introducing new and old characters which takes away from the story at hand.

Lucas has this stupid idea that a good movie can not be longer than 2 hours and 20 min or else it is too long. This is totally not true and it has been proven wrong many times over; The LOTR trilogy, The Godfather, Heat, Braveheart, and many others. Fortunatly and unfortunatly Lucas always states that his movies are "small independent movies that are appreciated on a large scale", in others words Lucas is giving everyone a big "fusk YOU, I CAN DO WHAT I WANT AND NO ONE CAN TELL ME OTHERWISE" to everyone. But hopefully, Lucas just sat there and listened this time with ROTS and tries to make the public happy (the ones who bought tickets and merchandice from his movies who really built his empire) and not himself. Im sick of him saying that HE is happy with the way it turns out, but from what I hear the movies is going to break his self-imposed 2 hour and 20 min barrier.

 

I think Song of Susannah was #6. 7 is called the Dark Tower. gotta read em all.

 

Here are my two cents:

I think that LOTR is a more complete franchise so, it wins. I do like Star Wars a lot but, if I had to pick it would be LOTR as the Extended Versions of the movie left almost NOTHING out. The ONE thing that Peter did leave out of ROTK is the "Scouring of The Shire" which is the last chapter in the book. (Sorry, I know this is a bit off topic) That really pissed me off becasue he could have @ least included it in the extended versions. But, that aside, I stick to my original statement in saying that IMO LOTR is the better franchise.

 

I agree about that, but a couple things why that wouldnt work in the Extended Edition.

1. In the movie, Saruman and Wormtongue were killed as Isengard, not at the shire.

2. According to Peter Jackson, The scene in fellowship with frodo and Galandriel where she lets frodo look at the mirror and she shows frodo's "future" if he fails (the part were it shows orcs running throughout Hobbiton and killing hobbits and burning down the town) was supposed to be the hommage to the scouring of the shire. PJ changed the story a bit so it would "raise the stakes" for the fellowship and frodo. he also said that it would be a little anti-climatic and silly to have a hobbit-war.

 

@deezp1, thanks for pointing that out. I gotta re-read the books again lol, I remember the part about Saruman and Wormtounge dying at Isenguard in the movie and said to myself "That was not right" but, o well can't change it now

 

Marketing wise, Star Wars takes the cake though. I usually try to avoid Wal-Mart at all cost, but I had to go the other day to pick up a tax program. Anyways, when I went into the "eletronics" section (notice eletronics is in quotes), they had this Darth Vader cut-out that if you go behind it and talk into a little voice box thing, your voice comes out like Darth Vaders. It thought it was pretty cool. Not to mention, just on the way to the "eletronics" section, I saw Star Wars toys, clothes, cereal, soap, toothpaste, batteries, books, candy, and oh yeah, videos! just about Star Wars everything, but Star Wars condoms! LOTRs cant say it had LOTR soap or batteries!