It ’s not easy rankingPeter Jackson ’s celluloid from worst to best . It ’s been 33 twelvemonth since a young New Zealand director made a stiff impression on the earthly concern of movie with his low - budget revulsion movie that blended ultra - violence with   politically - incorrect laugh . Since then , Jackson has evolved into one of the most profitable conductor of all time , an Oscar - winning favorite who combine gamey - concept phantasy with the glossary of prestigiousness and helped to usher in a new earned run average of blockbuster picture palace .

Since the giant financial and critical success ofThe Lord of the Ringstrilogy , Jackson ’s standing with critic has call for a bit of a whacking , peculiarly after the messiness surroundingThe Hobbittrilogy . That downturn , however , has not indent Jackson ’s overall reputation , nor has it occlude his influence , both as a film producer and as a key figure of the blockbusters of the 21stcentury . The entire New Zealand film diligence alone owes an insurmountable debt to him .

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Not every photographic film Jackson direct has been a success , however , and there are quite a few entries in his filmography that have not support the exam of clip . The following is every Peter Jackson motion-picture show ranked from worst to best .

WORST: The Lovely Bones

Before Alice Sebold ’s debut novelThe Lovely Bonesmade its agency to shelves the world over , Scots director Lynne Ramsay get adapting the story for film with the intent of making an intensely desolate tarradiddle of familial grief . When the novel became a major best - vendor and ethnical milestone , the producers decided they wanted a bigger name at the helm who would bond more closely to the magical realism of the source cloth . The ending result was one of the most misguided literary adaptations of the century so far .

Almost everything aboutThe Lovely Bonesjust feel wrong in carrying out . Jackson seems more interested in make the achingly detailed macrocosm of murder dupe Susie Salmon ’s personal heaven than dispense with the harm at the heart of the story . Some critics , most notably Roger Ebert , even accused him of romanticise Susie ’s rape and murder because of this , and it ’s not operose to see how one would number to that conclusion . WhileSaoirse Ronanand Stanley Tucci are both predictably excellent in the moving picture , The Lovely Bonesis the tough example of what happens when Jackson lets his penchant for VFX take priority over the basic tenets of storytelling .

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Truthfully , it would be light to group together all three of theHobbitmovies here and call it a day . sports fan had high expectations for this Middle Earth prequel sacrifice the stratospheric success ofThe Lord of the Ringstrilogy , and Jackson bore the smothering weight of that anticipation after taking over director duty from Guillermo del Toro . What begin out as an adaptation of a delightful children ’s novel became a three - motion picture epic bloated beyond all comprehension that hunger Tolkien ’s work of its original heart .

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The Battle of the Five Armies , the third film in the trilogy , is the worst example of this job . Everything feels off , as if Jackson and company had lead out of steam and all that enthusiasm for the cloth had dissipated . It ’s overlong , the fundamental struggle scenes are plodding and bereft of the magic of the Rings wars , resolutions are either disconnected or non - existent , and the farcical elf - midget love affair between Tauriel and Kili would have been nonsensical if it were n’t so insulting to one of the few major female characters in the series . The Battle of the Five Armieshas nowhere to gobecause that struggle is base on one paragraph in the Scripture and the padding can not fix that . For Middle Earth fans , it was a operose and badly - conceive finish to a trilogy that never really got off the ground .

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The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

If Tolkien fans were optimistic about the succeeding ofThe HobbitfollowingAn Unexpected Journey , then it was withThe Desolation of Smaugwhere matter started to go off the rails . While it ’s not the disaster thatThe Battle of Five Armieswould turn out to be , the middle picture show endure from all the expected issues of being the makeshift of the trilogy . The spectacle is all there , but the hollowness beneath it all is more patent than ever . The movie ’s debut of a love triangle did n’t help matters either , providing the series with some of its most cringe - induce moments . What block the pic from being a write - off is Smaug himself , gamely played via motion - seizure byBenedict Cumberbatch , who clearly had the time of his aliveness in the role .

Bad Taste

Jackson made his debut as a director with the indie filmBad Taste , shooting on the weekends over the course of study of four class , using his mother ’s oven to make the special effects and keep open location to his hometown of Pukerua Bay . Bad Tastedid not please the moving-picture show industry of Jackson ’s native New Zealand , with one executive even speaking out to debate that perhaps their country call for few movies likeBad Taste . As with many low - budget directorial debuts , the pic is seriously jumpy around the edge and feels like Jackson is chuck out everything he has at the paries just to see what sticks . It is , of course , all in bad discernment and full of off - color sense of humor that still divide audiences ( if you find a space agency suffer the initial AIDS hilarious thenBad Tasteis the film for you ) . While the satire does n’t entirely work , there is a acuteness to the central plot of aliens hail to Earth to harvest humans for fast food . If nothing else , it ’s fascinating to see the grimy origins of the man who would become a prestige deary in Hollywood .

Meet the Feebles

Long beforeThe Happytime Murderswondered , “ What ifThe Muppetswas pointlessly adult and crude ? ” Jackson aim there first withMeet the Feebles . Jackson ’s 2d feature film has bring home the bacon a furor following in the eld follow its initial commercial-grade failure thanks to its deep perverse and corrosive parody of the wholesomeness of Jim Henson . The eponymic Feebles are a group of nihilistic , drug - addicted , and sex - addled puppet trying to get their variety show picked up for television . What follows is a cavalcade of ravishment , fornication , porn , drugs , Vietnam War flashback , and a shooting spree .

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The cinema has its fans for how attached it is to its gonzo concept , but the braggy trouble withMeet the Feeblesis how aimless its foulness feels . It ’s not an specially safe Muppets satire either , with the rough edges of the puppetry itself only barely hide by the motion-picture show ’s low budget . It does , however , have some cracking laugh - out - loud moments , such as one memorable strain dedicated to the delights of sodomy .

How Rachel Zegler’s

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

It would be false to take that the first of the three Hobbit films is superb or anywhere near the level ofThe Lord of the Ringstrilogy , but there ’s enough of that honest-to-goodness intimate conjuration in there that audience wondered if Jackson and company could draw this experiment off . The casting ofMartin Freemanas Bilbo Baggins is still spot on , and the scenes of the elf keep together in his home are near - perfect recreations of the novel . It start to get messier when the focusing move aside from fictitious character and lore to the spectacle . Jackson ’s decision to hit the flick at a high frame pace made the picture appear peculiarly cheap and much less attractive thanThe Lord of the Ringstrilogy made over a decade earlier . While there may be a great deal here for purists to enjoy , for general interview swept away by the beauty of Middle Earth , An Unexpected Journeyfelt oddly impenetrable and , dare we say it , mostly boring .

Braindead

Out of all of Jackson ’s low - budget gross - out other flick , it’sBraindeadthat remains the peak of this period in his career . It ’s bigger , more challenging , and way more disgusting ! Close to thirty years later and the transparent oversupply of gore inBraindeadremains startling , as well as hilariously inventive . In many way of life , it is the dependable inheritor toEvil all in 2 , something that countless directors have render to extract off over the long time , but none with the dash or sense of humor of Jackson . The special moments of the motion picture lie in in how inimitably " Kiwi " it is , especially in those setting where os - dry humor is counterpoint with stomach - churning flesh and blood . mess of blood . Jackson may have won more awards and acclaim with other films , but few moments exemplify his fashion quite like a Vicar giddily crying out,“I kick rear for the Lord ! "

The Frighteners

Made afterHeavenly Creaturesand long before he made his way to Middle Earth , Jackson combined his grimy bad taste roots with a more polished Hollywood style with 1996’sThe Frighteners , a funniness horror that Sam Raimi would have been proud of . Michael J. Foxplays a traumatized widowman who makes a living as a fake sensitive despite his real power to see ghost , all of which moderate him down a black path of resolve a extrasensory successive slaying case while the residents of his small townspeople imagine he ’s responsible for it . While it does n’t quite nail the frantic switch of tones that something likeThe Evil Deador even Jackson ’s earlier work can , what makesThe Frightenersso interesting is its genuinely bare nature , even amid the paunch laughs , and Fox ’s performance , which toss Marty McFly archetypes on their principal and allow the role player to play to his weirder side .

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King Kong

In terms of design , Jackson ’s intensely elaborated extremely farsighted remaking of the Hollywood monster picture classicKing Kongfeels like his adaptation of James Cameron’sTitanic , not so much because of plot or style but because of how it evokes each film - Almighty ’s unfeigned making love for the material in a manner that verges on obsessive , for unspoilt or worse . 2005’sKing Kongis nowhere close as cohesive asTitanicor as successful in its aim , but its gallant bosom of melodrama and wholehearted earnestness , even in the face of critical cynicism , feel very much dilute from the same textile .

The expansion ofKing Kong ’s characters from vague aureate Age archetypes into flesh - out human organism is Jackson ’s greatest plus to the story , as well as , of course , the monumental performance of Andy Serkis as Kong himself . The veridical chemistry he has with Naomi Watts ’s Ann Darrow provides immense kernel to the narrative that is sorely needed . Alas , Jackson ’s adore position towards the original go out him blind to his own creation , soKing Kongis about 40 minutes longer than it needs to be , and some plotlines are dismiss altogether . The discomfit limning of the aborigine of Skull Island is also surd to snub and somehow terminate up being more regressive than the 1931 film in that esteem .

They Shall Not Grow Old

Four years afterThe Hobbittrilogy come to a financially successful but critically maligned end , Jackson decided to take a complete uracil - turning with his next directorial sweat . They Shall Not maturate Oldis a documentary that uses little - find out footage from the First World War and bring to life the silent smutty and white images of the conflict . Through extended archival work and restoration of footage that is now over a hundred years old , Jackson brings the past times into the present through colorizing the films , append well-grounded effect and voice acting , and interview with veterans . Jackson intended for the motion-picture show to show audiences what it was like to be a soldier during that time , from the comradeliness to the training to the battle scene . The overall event is hyperreal to the point of the uncanny , but that ’s the compass point : Jackson wants viewing audience who have been desensitized by near - history through neutral history object lesson to feel the reliable echoes of the yesteryear . They Shall Not Grow Oldmay have its issue as a while of movie house – and plenty of archivist have expressed their displeasure with how Jackson treated this historic footage – but as a proficient experimentation turned regaining of humanity in the aftermath of catastrophe , it ’s truly something particular .

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

It seems delusory to rankThe Two Towersthis low , relatively speaking , because even though it is the weakest of the original trilogy , it is still undeniably an excellent movie . The natural process keeps moving in The Two Towers , even as it suffer from many of the in-between picture problems in damage of pacing and plot . Still , those feel inconsequent equate to the thrill of Andy Serkis ’s rotatory motion - capture functioning as Gollum , Brad Dourif ’s marvelously ugly round as Gríma Wormtongue , and the revival meeting of Gandalf the Grey as Gandalf the White .

Heavenly Creatures

Jackson landed his very first Oscar nomination for the screenplay of 1994’sHeavenly Creatures , a psychological thriller based on the reliable account of two teenage girls , Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme , whose intense friendly relationship led them to murder Parker ’s mother . Melanie Lynskey andKate Winslet ’s performances catapulted them into the public awareness as their scranch alchemy fully convey the obsessive chemical bond the girls had that has continue to charm New Zealand to this day . Heavenly Creaturessmartly focuses on the friendship itself over the murder and ensue trial , deftly teasing out the phantasmagorical allure of their trammel and the fantasies it inspired . The whole moving picture has a hallucinogenic look that appropriate you to sink into its deceptive brutality . WithHeavenly Creatures , Jackson announced himself as a theatre director that even the industry figures who scorn his early effort could not ignore .

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The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Everyone has made the jokes about the movie ’s multiple ending and how long it gets drag out over the course of 201 - second ( extended to 252 in the beautiful lengthened cut ) , butThe Return of the Kingearns every mo of its distance and then some . It ’s a real crowning achievement , the intricately constructed climax to a Brobdingnagian humankind of subplots and characters wait their respective resolution . The Return of the Kinghas some of the biggest rent - jerk moments in the series , as well as its greatest scenes of pure playing power , such as Sam ’s everlasting devotion to Frodo and the carry on turmoil of wretched Gollum . The movie famously win eleven Oscars , bind for the record for the most Academy Awards won by a single film , and it deserve every undivided one of them .

BEST: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

It ’s easy to draw a blank just how dazzling it felt to buzz Fellowship of the Ringfor the first time . A story that had been deemed unadaptable for decades felt fully lived - in and came to biography in such a striking fashion thanks to Jackson and his team . His adoration for the source cloth and every second particular is on display here ; yet , The Fellowship of the Ringremains entirely approachable to Middle Earth novices . Helped along by an supporting players of dead - cast actors in even the small of roles , Jackson breathes such energy into something that could have been old-hat or deliver entirely with a have a go at it New York minute . This is wholehearted earnestness at its good , and its that emotional sincerity , that true belief that audiences will invest themselves into this mythic quest , that makesThe Fellowship of the Ringso potent . A whole contemporaries of future film - makers was born after thisPeter Jacksonfilm was free .

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Peter Jackson’s movies ranked worst to best

The Lovely Bones Peter Jackson

Luke Evans as Bard and Lee Pace as Thranduil in The Hobbit Battle of Five Armies

The Hobbit Desolation Of Smaug Treasure Vault

Bad Taste Monsters

Meet The Feebles

hobbit unexpected journey fellowship

Braindead Peter Jackson

Michael J Fox as Frank Bannister talking to ghosts in The Frighteners.

King Kong holding Ann Darrow 2005

They Shall Not Grow Old Cropped

LOTR Two Towers

Heavenly Creatures Peter Jackson

Aragorn and Arwen in TLotR The Return of the King.

The Fellowship of the Ring standing together in Rivendell

Movies

The Lord of the Rings