Rage got boring to me. I still havent bothered finishing it. FOr an open world game its kinda restrictive, there arent many locations and you basically have to drive around everywhere, which is fun but its more expensive than walking. I'd give it a 5-6. Dont know about LotR though.
I'd go with LotR, partially because I'm a fanboy, and partially because I've seen and heard of Rage having a few technical issues (also, Jesse Cox's playthrough of LotR was really fun to watch).