Let me be specific, too. I’m trying to compare apples to apples. That is, the SW Original Trilogy to the Lord of the Rings, the SW Prequels to The Hobbit, and all six Star Wars to all six Middle-Earth. (Movies only.)
You can’t really compare the SW Expanded Universe to the Middle Earth Expanded Universe. Middle Earth was intended to be a grand work of fiction, while Star Wars is sci-fi crap that was added on to the movies. Not a good comparison.
My. 02 - Compared to LOTR, the Hobbit trilogy sucked. Compared to the Original Trilogy, the prequels sucked. Don’t think anybody’s going to disagree.
But if you compare the Original Trilogy to LOTR, now you have a real debate.
In movie form only: Star Wars > LoTR
(I’m obviously assuming we’re not counting the prequels.) Had Peter Jackson not sorely fucked up Faramir, I might put LoTR first. Star Wars would be hard to top though.
I haven’t watched either of those. But if I absolutely have to, I’d pick Star Wars as I picture LOTR as extremely long and boring
http://collider.com/star-wars-prequels-worse-hobbit-trilogy#original-trilogy
Why the Star Wars prequels are worse than The Hobbit movies.