10 Ways Marvel’s Cinematic Universe Excels Over Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Beware: Minor Spoilers
Beginning within the same decade, both Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001–2003) and Marvel’s Cinematic Universe (2008-present) have undoubtedly cemented themselves as pinnacles of modern media. Both have inspired movie makers and watchers alike with their intense attention to detail, stunning visuals, breathtaking scores, and exceptional storytelling. Both of these media franchises receive the love and affection that they have earned, but only one of them seems to receive an almost equal inflow of hate and snobbery when discussed. Although the box-office success of this hard-hitting franchise is far from anything to balk at, Marvel’s Cinematic Universe (MCU for short) seems to get its fair share of scoffs along with its cheers.
In December of 2001 Peter Jackson demanded the attention of stunned movie-goers with his faithful yet digestible foray into fantasy adaptation with The Fellowship of the Ring. This was followed by The Two Towers and The Return of King in 2002 and 2003 respectively, the conclusion taking home more Academy Awards (11) than any film to date. Now, I’d be shocked if anyone these days truly takes the Oscars as a mark of a dominant film, but it would be unfair to redact the fact that the MCU only boasts a humble 3 Academy Awards (as of now) in it’s 22 movie run. That’s 14 less than the entire Rings Trilogy holds.
The Rings Trilogy seems to be viewed much less frequently down the bridges of noses from theater patrons and filmmakers alike, and I can’t help but wonder if it is due to the “Oscar Armor” that the trilogy seems to wear. Marvel, however, seems to be less protected from criticism and toxicity. Take filmmaker Martin Scorsese for example, who is quoted as saying this about the Marvel films in his interview with Empire Magazine: “Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.” The director seemed to be hinting at the fantastical elements being to his distaste, and he is not alone. Many folks complain about the MCU’s fantastical elements. At least Scorsese, who makes almost exclusively male-dominated mobster flicks, didn't attempt talk himself into a hypocritical corner by saying the films lack creativity, a complaint that seems to be rampant when discussing the MCU. These criticisms of fantastical and unrealistic elements as well as repetitive story beats seem to stop completely at Jackson’s adaptation of Tolkien’s epic, and it a curious case.
However, I am not here to criticize the unreality, predictability, or originality of the films dedicated to our favorite Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, and Men. My intention is another completely. Here, I aim to navigate the uncharted and possibly hot waters of stacking the MCU and your precious The Lord of the Rings Trilogy against one another. Here I will list 10 Ways Marvel’s Cinematic Universe excels over Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
10. Avengers Assemble
It is no secret that a major source of fan enjoyment when it comes to the beloved MCU is the payoff you get while watching a series unfold over an extended period of time. From Iron Man (2008) to Avengers: Endgame (2019), fans of the series spent 11 years watching the cinematic universe grow as they were introduced to new characters, each providing their own ingredient for this melting pot of a story. Fans got to spend years watching as rich genius Tony Stark, arrogant yet unstoppable Thor, and dutiful patriot Captain America grew their ranks to stop a diverse set of evils that culminated to one Big Bad.
Alongside the three main characters listed above comes a countless ensemble of lovable, detestable, and everchanging heroes and villains. As you consume the films, you get to know your large cast down to the smallest detail, making each moment of peril all the more exciting.
Aside from character development, plot points also progress and overlap throughout the many movies in the series. Sometimes a plot point or object will be drip fed throughout multiple movies, and sometimes it will come up on the viewer at a pace that feels quite quick. However, most of the plot points that are relevant in the apotheosis of the Infinity Saga (Iron Man to Avengers: Endgame) were built on a foundations that had been set and built upon since the beginning stages of the series. The best example of this lies within the Infinity Stones, the sources of power in the Universe, all of which if collected gives the wielder infinite power. These stones are the major plot devices of the 22 movies that you as the viewer witness the struggle for, making the ending all the more impactful. These sources of power, which become the stones as the series progresses, are different enough in each of their respective beginnings that they seem somewhat unrelated to one another. Their importance becomes more clear as the films head toward the conclusion. This set-up style feels like many points revolving around a story, moving towards a conclusion at the center, rather than a linear beginning-middle-end plot structure.
The Rings trilogy follows a storyline that is a bit more familiar, and thus slightly less effective when it comes to new formats in story-telling. The story follows a young character who is given a task, meets his assembled Fellowship, and sets out on his quest all within the first movie. This leaves little room for compelling curve-ball characters to be introduced, although Gollum and Faramir make formidable cases against this. We have most of the main characters that we care about in the first movie.
As for plot devices, the One Ring is introduced immediately in the movie as the main source of evil power that must be destroyed. It takes no time building to this fact and no variables about the object are introduced throughout the series. The Ring needs to be destroyed, there is a journey, and it is destroyed. As it is an adaptation of an epic and original story, Jackson cannot be held accountable for this, but through a competition lens, the MCU seems a little more creative when it comes to the story setup and excitement for variability in characters as well as plot.
9. Fan Service and Appreciation
Rewarding fans for their dedication to the source material is something that shines in the MCU films. From largescale Easter eggs like Stan Lee cameos, to minute details like license plate numbers matching comic issues, fan service seems to be a staple in Marvel’s priorities. For the fans who can watch with a true Hawkeye, the rewards are endless.
Marvel seems to understand that fans want to be rewarded for their knowledge, dedication, and patience. They reward fans with post-credit scenes in just about every film. I remember watching movies as a child and waiting until credits finished rolling because we’d heard from a friend that there was a post-credit scene. We’d sit there while everyone else filtered out after just about every movie, waiting to see if the characters would come back on screen for an encore. Most of the time, to our disappointment, the lights of the theater would be the only thing we had waited for to come back on. With Marvel films, true fans would have to be crazy to step out of a theater before the credit scroll is finished. The MCU has helped create a new type of patience in fans who want to be dedicated.
Although the length of The Lord of The Rings is patience training in itself, specifically the Extended Editions of of the films that last 4 hours each, the films did cut quite a bit of material and characters from the films. Fan favorites such as Tom Bombadil and Old Man Willow were left on the cutting room floor. Instead of these characters, some plot points that weren’t in the original book trilogy, or barely mentioned in the books, were extended upon. Take Arwen and Aragorn’s love story for example. In the books, it’s hardly existent in the pages. In the film trilogy it chews up screen time and just about stops the story in its tracks with the two of them whispering sweet Elvish nothings to one another.
8. Marvel is Fun for All Ages
Let’s be honest: a major target audience for Disney is and always has been kids. There is nothing wrong with that, and to deny that fact when discussing the MCU is fruitless. Some take to labeling the Marvel films as “kid movies” as an effective bit of slander, but it has always left me scratching my head. The ability for a child to be enamored with something isn’t a testament to that thing’s negative qualities. The ability for any child to focus on a movie shows that the movie in question is engaging enough to beat other things competing for their attention. This is not an easy feat when it comes to children, and Marvel films seem to have cracked the code on keeping the attention of the kids as well as adults. I know that I am engaged in the story and action of the same films that a younger audience may be engaged in as well, and I don’t see that as any sort of slight on my intelligence. To have your ego bruised at the simple fact that a kid might enjoy the same movie as you, even if for different reasons, seems a bit silly to me.
The Lord of the Rings isn’t exactly a movie that I see most kids willingly sitting through. Sure, there are plenty of amazing action scenes that could hold anyone’s attention, but there are a fair amount of sections that drag quite a bit if you are not fully invested in the plot that would almost certainly go over the head of anyone 13 years old or younger.
The beauty of the New Zealand cinematography is captivating to watch as well, but to a child, I’m not sure that it has enough impact to captivate most when watching the seemingly countless sweeping aerial shots. I believe that the MCU is a bit better at appealing to a larger audience, and I believe that it gives it a comparative leg-up when it comes to accessibility. This point continues in my next two possibly more controversial entries.
7. Strong Women, Not Just 2 of Them
Although the three main characters of the MCU (Tony Stark, Thor, Captain America) are all men, there are just as many strong and important women characters as male characters playing pivotal roles in the long-run of the Infinity Saga. Sure, the series started a little slow, with Pepper Pots and Black Widow being the only two truly notable women characters who had an affect on the story, but the films really hit their stride when it came to delivering compelling women characters who feel more than unidimensional eye-candy. Peggy Carter, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent fighting Hydra across from Steve Rogers in Captain America (2011) was the first of many women characters to catch my eye as more than a sexy assassin or damsel in distress (Black Widow does become well-developed later on). As the series moves on toward the finale, we get introduced to a stunning array of women who are very much their own characters. To list a few of my favorites, we get Gamora, Nebula, Mantis, Wanda Maximoff, The Wasp, Sharon Carter, Hela, Shuri, Captain Marvel, and more. As stated earlier, all of these characters play just as important and equal roles in the stories and finale of the Infinity Saga.
The Lord of the Rings has a bit of a women problem to put it simply. As stated previously, I understand that the movies are an adaptation, and that the original epic didn’t have a whole lot of meaningful women characters. That being said, if we are comparing, and I am, this is an important win for the MCU. The Rings trilogy isn’t completely devoid of women characters. We shouldn’t forget Eowyn’s delivery of “I am no man” while defeating the Witch King on the fields of Pelennor, or Arwen’s summoning of the horse gods to defeat the Nazgul while protecting Frodo at the river crossing. However, aside from these two moments, the trilogy kind of regulates its women focused scenes to confusing and vague Elvish magic and love interests.
6. Racial Diversity
The Lord of The Rings has plenty of racial diversity. It has humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, trolls, demons, wizards, and hobbits. Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily what the header of this section is referring to. While racking my brain, I cannot think of a single non-white character in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy. I am not sure if this is a part of Tolkien’s lore to have a Middle-Earth serve as a whites-only ethno-world, but I doubt it.
I was curious on this topic to see if I was forgetting about any non-white characters in the film, and an internet search did show me that a fair amount of Maori were used as extras to play the Uruk-hai as well as Orcs. Being that the entire series was filmed in New Zealand, I thought that was pretty cool. The inclusion of the native culture on the Islands seemed to be important to Jackson and the crew. Even if it did take an internet search to find that the films were more diverse than they appear, I still think that inclusion is an awesome and important touch.
It’s no mystery that the MCU is well-packed with a diverse set of characters. The stories, especially later on in the Infinity Saga, do a great job at highlighting the lives and backgrounds of the many characters that shape the overall story. The stories of the Wakandan people and their technology and resources are a shining example of this. If you watch all of the MCU movies, you can see the efforts towards a more inclusive movie experience while still focusing on the stories being told. The stories that Marvel seems to be delivering moving forward past the Infinity Saga emphasize these ideals more fully than in the past.
5. Collaborative Storytelling
The beauty of a collection of studios like Marvel is that there can be any number of talented storytellers working on any number of projects at the same time, all combining each of their story threads to create one larger narrative that is then reviewed and tweaked to perfection. Rather than one talented screenwriter or director making a product, the project can be molded by multiple visionaries who are all working toward a common goal that will appease a broad audience. In Marvel’s case, the President and Creative Director Kevin Feige is able to decide who he thinks is a best fit for each role in the creation and production process in order to ensure the quality of the project. This is conducive to a finished product that is enjoyed by all and minimizes the chance that a director or screenwriter completely sinks all that is riding on a story. The process of creating a film under the formula that Marvel has perfected is a necessary step in staying true to the vision that has been worked toward by the team.
When it comes to collaborative storytelling and the Rings trilogy, there was not much of it. Most of the ideas were contained to Jackson and his two screenwriters: Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. In this case, it worked well. In the case of trilogy that was The Hobbit films, it did not work. Under the same screenwriters as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, this trilogy suffered heavy criticisms due to its wild diversions from the source material as well as its inclusions of a love triangle and other liberties that were taken in the writing process. I can’t help but wonder if the Rings and Hobbit trilogies could have improved (maybe by a great deal in the case of The Hobbit) if there were more creative minds than the three screenwriters overseeing the entire storytelling process.
4. Marvel Tackles Real Issues
The MCU does not shy away from real-world parallels when it comes to its storytelling methods. Some have even criticized the series for its lack of subtlety on a number of occasions. In my opinion, due to the wide range of ages watching, sometimes a lack of subtlety is helpful. Captain America deals with Hydra, an offshoot of the Nazis that seeks world domination. Black Panther deals with the exploitation of natural resources from foreign (Western) intervention. Avengers: Age of Ultron deals with widespread internet toxicity. Iron Man 3 deals with scapegoats and terrorism. These are just a few examples of the many real-world issues that the Marvel Cinematic Universe chooses to address head-on, with varying levels of subtlety. I believe that in these tumultuous times, when all eyes are on these films, it is the duty of filmmakers to urge audiences in the direction of critical thought and human decency.
The Lord of the Rings, on the other hand, was written in direct opposition to real-world parallels. In fact Tolkien was averse to the idea of sprinkling allegory into his tales. Although some of his real-world experiences from his service in World War I undoubtedly informed some of his writing whether he consciously knew it or not, the acclaimed author and creator had this to say regarding allegory and Middle Earth:
“I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history — true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.”
There is nothing directly wrong with the author’s stance on allegory in writing. He was more than entitled to his opinion, as I and every reader of this are. The stories he created transcend history as well as modernity, but my question here is: do the adaptations? Was it the duty of Peter Jackson to hold true to this opinion of the author who all but penned his paycheck? I do not believe so. In the almost fifty years between the publication of the The Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson’s adaptation of the work, an insurmountable number of things had changed in the world as Tolkien would have known it. The very medium that the adaptation existed in had changed beyond belief between 1954 and 2001. Was it truly Peter Jackson’s prerogative to change nothing about how the story was told? Compared to Marvel’s Infinity Saga, there is almost nothing morally or ethically challenging about the viewing experience of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. All of its characters are unquestionably good or unquestionably evil, quite unlike the real world. To be clear, this is not a slight on the original story, but one on the adaptation’s inability to modernize the concepts. One of many suggestions of how Jackson could have modernized the concepts: Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin were all basically queer-coded characters, maybe start there!
3. Lore and Genre Blending
A major upside to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the fact that with such a large amount of films and characters comes a natural blending of lore and genres. Within the MCU you get futuristic science fiction concepts, gods, sorcerers, witches, superhumans, and much more all coalescing to serve the same story. You even get multiverse and time travel concepts baked in alongside Norse mythology and African folklore. It is a true melting pot of legendary plot beats and devices from multiple categories of storytelling. It is so much more than just one genre. It transcends the mere idea of genre and in a way that feels natural and compelling. Each individual story in the larger saga fits together to form a larger picture of epic proportions.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy is first and foremost and only a fantasy epic. It is meant to be that way, and that is more than okay. However, I do believe that from this angle, the MCU is slightly more interesting. The lore of Peter Jackson’s adaptation is that of J.R.R. Tolkien, and that is nothing to dismiss, but it is a single source and a single genre.
2. Box Office Success
This entry is a bit of a short one, but it bares mentioning when comparing two franchises. The Lord of The Rings film trilogy has current gross earnings of $2.991 Billion. As of August 2021, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has grossed $22.93 Billion. Even adding in the roughly $816 Million gross revenue of The Hobbit Trilogy (not sure why these films did so much worse than the Rings Trilogy in terms of sales), the total money that Middle Earth has pulled in on-screen is only about 16 percent of the total gross of the MCU. This number could change soon if we see a spike in sales due to Amazon’s Rings TV adaptation coming soon. Side note: I’m really hoping that’s good.
1. Last but not least, HUMOR!
The Marvel Cinematic Universe never strays away from a good laugh. There are plenty of times where the hanging tension of a scene is alleviated by a perfectly timed joke or gag. Whether this is delivered in a line of dialogue or in the form of physical humor, these moments usually make the scene in question that much better.
Cutting tension can be important if executed correctly and with thought. Timing is everything in comedy, and more times than not the folks over at Marvel Studios have it down to a science. Sometimes films need to be pulled up out of their broody, depressing bits. A refreshing, well timed joke usually does the trick. There are times when the MCU films need their depressing bits, and the studio does a good job restraining themselves from comedic relief when it’s clear that it’d be jarring. However, these moves are meant to be fun, and it’s clear that the writers know it.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy often times feels a bit bogged down and gloomy. Instead of relying on lightheartedness, the films often resort to reminding the audience sincerely (very sincerely) that hope will prevail. Sometimes these reassuring moments absolutely work. Examples of this are Sam’s speech at the end of The Two Towers and Gandalf’s discussion of death with Pippin in Return of the King. Other times the message feels a bit too… syrupy for my liking. Examples of this include Sam attempting to swim out to Frodo at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring and Sam carrying Frodo on his back up Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring. Typically the moments that are a bit too much for me are the ones where Frodo and Sam are crying, embracing, and monologuing.
The comic relief comes quite rarely in the Rings trilogy, but when it does it works well (usually at the wit of Gimli). I believe that the humor sometimes does not feel organic in the trilogy, however, as its lack of presence doesn’t help it when it does come around.
In Conclusion:
I firmly believe that when stacking the Marvel Cinematic Universe against Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, some points can be awarded to the MCU. There are surely many ways that the holy and sacred Oscar favorite trilogy could win out against The Avengers and their friends, but a few points are to be made in favor of Marvel. Mainly: the assemblage, the fan service, the box office success, the accessibility for all ages, the strong and important women, the racial diversity, the collaborative storytelling, the real-world applications, the lore/genre blending, and the humor.
Thank you for reading! I am a true fan of both of these franchises and many more. I enjoyed comparing the two of these and would love to tackle more comparative articles like this one in the future! If you’d like to discuss any of this opinion piece or suggest ideas for a new article or a revisit of this one itself, feel free to email me at: miacasiawrites@yahoo.com
About the Author:
Hi! I’m Mia Casia. I’m a lover of all things movies, music, television, books, and just about anything to lose yourself in. I graduated with a double major in English and Media Studies from Vassar College in 2011 and I’ve been writing nonstop since. I’ve written almost exclusively by hand and via typewriter to submit to local publications in my home county as well as occasionally submitting writings by mail to further my reach. I’ve only recently began my journey into the vast and awe-inspiring waters of online and independent publication. Join me on my writing journey!
Sources:
https://variety.com/2019/film/news/martin-scorsese-marvel-theme-parks-1203360075/#!
