New Poll Ranks This Lord of the Rings Movie as the Best but Some Middle-Earth Fans Won’t Be Happy

Trying to pick the best Lord of the Rings movie is a pretty epic journey in itself for any adventurer, but one recent poll has placed which of Peter Jackson’s three original movies has come out on top, and its decision might not land well with some Middle-earth devotees.

Elijah Wood (44), who played the iconic hobbit of the Shire who inherited the One Ring from his cousin Bilbo Baggins and started the whole adventure off, was only 18 years old when he touched down in New Zealand to begin filming for the movie so, for many fans, it certainly doesn’t feel like it has been over twenty years since Jackson introduced his epic fantasy world of The Lord of the Rings to the masses. The live-action adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s massive trilogy would go on to change the face of how fantasy movies were once viewed, winning a slew of awards for the saga’s mind-blowing cinematic techniques. With a cast of incredible actors, which includes Cate Blanchett, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, and Andy Serkis, The Lord of the Rings is still as relevant as it was many years ago.

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New Poll Ranks The Fellowship of the Ring as the Best in the Trilogy

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In a recent poll ranking the 100 best movies of the 21st century, The New York Times has placed The Fellowship of the Ring at number 87, beating the likes of Interstellar, Gladiator, and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther. However, the choice out of all The Lord of the Rings films might come as a surprise to some fans since Return of the King has been a hot favorite due to being nominated for 11 Oscars and winning them all. The Two Towers is just as popular, accumulating a very healthy score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, with many critics and fans praising the film’s “emotional storytelling” and “the greatest battlepiece composed for the screen,” referring to Helm’s Deep’s massive combat sequence, which marked the first large-scale battle of the War of the Ring.

In The New York Times poll, actors and directors like Pedro Almodóvar, Sofia Coppola, Barry Jenkins and Guillermo del Toro, as well as acclaimed actors like Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mikey Madison, John Turturro and Julianne Moore all taking part in voting for the 10 films that they cherished most over the past 25 years, the movies with the most nominations then ranked to create the final list of 100. The movie that took the number one spot was Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, as the late David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive slid into second place.

The debate about which Lord of the Rings movie is better has and will carry on throughout the years, and, at the end of the day, there really is no right answer. However, since the poll was made up of big Hollywood names and not the general public, it’s fair to say that another Lord of the Rings masterpiece may have made the list rather than Fellowship. Even with the director of the movies picking his favorite with The Two Towers, there will always be others whose choices will differ, but as a whole, the trilogy should be enjoyed and appreciated as one big epic series.