For me, LotR hits a sweet-spot. Long enough to get your teeth into, fantastic world-building, amazing music that I still listen to, and it was made at the poin

For me, LotR hits a sweet-spot. Long enough to get your teeth into, fantastic world-building, amazing music that I still listen to, and it was made at the point in time before films over-used CGI. Don't get me wrong, I like computer graphics (I used to work in video games) but modern films are almost lazy in their use of CGI. Ridiculous camera angles that simply wouldn't be possible take me right out of the movie. Characters (CGI models) swinging and jumping all over the place that don't feel "grounded" (see the Marvel movies for example). LotR did have plenty of CGI but I get the feeling they were conservative with its use, and resorted to physical artefacts such as sand in-place of flowing/gushing water in scale-models (yes they still used scale-models!). I can compare it to Jurassic Park - whereby the CGI looks great even today, but due to the high cost at the time was used conservatively. The Mandalarian used physical models for a lot of the space sequences, so I think at least some people in the business are realising that CGI has to be used appropriately. Anyway rant over :)