Every Single Harry Potter, Star Wars, & Lord Of The Rings Film, Ranked By IMDb

The Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings franchises are arguably the biggest media franchises in history, capable of turning great core stories into expansive works that have gained worldwide attention in film, while attaining a number of spin-offs and, of course, endless merchandise that has allowed them to generate more money than some entire countries.

However, fans have some drastically different views on the quality of entries into each franchise.

20 Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace (6.5)

The Star Wars franchise has an innate ability to divide its fans intensely, and it’s no surprise that they were so divided when presented with something as bad as 1999’s Anakin-childhood-centred The Phantom Menace.

19 Star Wars: Episode II: Attack Of The Clones (6.5)

Attack Of The Clones wasn’t really a step above The Phantom Menace, delivering more shambolic acting performances from actors who are usually brilliant, abysmal green-screen effects that make every fight almost unwatchable, and a storyline so uninteresting that you can barely sit through the whole thing.

18 Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker (6.6)

The fact that The Rise Of Skywalker is just 0.1 points above Attack Of The Clones proves one thing: Star Wars fans are angry. And they have a right to be after Disney tampered with so many things they love about the franchise. However, while The Rise Of Skywalker might be a pretty bad Star Wars film, it’s still an incredibly fun watch.

17 Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (7.0)

Rian Johnson’s take on the Star Wars franchise was the on-screen personification of Star Wars fans: divided. There were moments of brilliance in his film that were up there with the best sequences in the history of the franchise, but also a fair few moments that ruined its entire legacy.

16 Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (7.4)

The Chamber Of Secrets lost a lot of the magic and charm of the first Harry Potter film and hadn’t quite allowed for its central cast to learn how to act yet. The result is a lackluster adaptation of JK Rowling’s novel.

15 Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith (7.5)

After the first two prequel films, audiences weren’t expecting much to come from Revenge Of The Sith, but were pleasantly surprised upon its release. It was action-packed and concluded with a bleak, powerful ending that set-up the original films perfectly.

14 Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (7.5)

Despite following on from one of the franchise’s most impressive films, The Order Of The Phoenix was a muddled jog around Hogwarts that failed to capitalize on the return of Voldemort properly until those electrifying final moments.

13 Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone (7.6)

The first Harry Potter film gave us exactly what we wanted from the adaptation of the novel series: a wholesome, Christmassy, and generally uplifting story about childhood wizardry. Poor acting and a lot of huge CGI issues stop it from being rated too highly, though.

12 Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince (7.6)

Out of nowhere, The Half-Blood Prince took the Harry Potter franchise into the realms of dark, moody cinematography and pseudo-comedy.

Story-wise, this was the most exciting Potter had been in a while, but it suffered from being unnecessarily long.

11 Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (7.7)

The Goblet Of Fire is rightfully considered one of the strongest in the series. Interestingly, it doesn’t really have a traditional ‘plot’, as the vast majority of the film is centered on following Harry through the Triwizard Tournament tasks.

10 Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 (7.7)

Rowling’s Deathly Hallows book didn’t need to be split into two films, but the creators of the film series knew they could make a lot of extra money if they did. The result is a strangely uneventful series of walks around the British countryside and a cliff-hanger ending that provides the least action of any Potter film.

9 Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens (7.9)

When Disney announced a new Star Wars trilogy, fans were right to wary after the shambolic events of the prequels. The Force Awakens didn’t blow any minds and copied a lot from the original trilogy, but fans seemed to find it relatively agreeable on the whole.

8 Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (7.9)

Alongside The Goblet Of Fire, The Prisoner Of Azkaban was part of that impressive middle-period of Potter films that saw the cast starting to mature and learn how to act, while bringing humor and some much more intense plot points to the forefront.

7 Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 (8.1)

The reason The Deathly Hallows Part 2 attained such positive reviews upon release was that it was an almost three-hour-long action-sequence that finally gave us what we wanted to see from the end of the previous film.

6 Star Wars: Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi (8.3)

In comparison to the brilliance of the first two entries into the Star Wars universe, Return Of The Jedi was a very slightly stilted finale. Still, it gave us some of the best fight scenes in the history of the franchise and killed the Emperor once and for all. Oh, wait…

5 Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (8.6)

A New Hope was the first film to be released on this entire list, making its way to cinemas in 1977.

It was intentionally given a beginning and end just in case it underperformed and the trilogy was never completed; luckily, that wasn’t an issue.

4 Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (8.7)

The middle entry into The Lord Of The Rings was action-packed and intense, as all three films are, but suffers from a lot of meandering plot-points and overdone, boring dialogue. This is arguably the most over-rated film on this list.

3 Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (8.7)

The middle entry into the Star Wars franchise, however, is its high-point. An incredible story, full of the returning characters we loved from the first film, is combined with the twist to end all twists to form one of the best pieces of sci-fi ever seen.

2 Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (8.8)

It might take a little while to get going, but our introduction to Middle Earth and the adventure Frodo and his comrades have to undertake is first seen in The Fellowship Of The Ring.

1 Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (8.9)

Topping off this list and taking home the crown of the best film of all the Star Wars, Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter’s combined is The Return Of The King. It might be longer than a blue whale and have more endings than a millipede has legs, but you can’t argue with the non-stop action and the dramatic, grand conclusion to the franchise.