Watching in late summer, when the morning fog starts to give way to morning mists paired with Bilbo's statements about the hobbits does make me feel like I self selected into the Shire. Height be damned.

I think this viewing really drove home how well Peter Jackson leveraged his horror chops, both for the evil creatures, but also Gandolf - the combination of which made it easy to emphasize with the Hobbits scared in a world out of their element.

Additionally the use of lighting and contrast usually works really well. The standout scene on disc one has to be the Fellowship scene, which managed golden light without resorting to the piss filter and managed into darkness when Gandolf spoke the language of Morder.

Of all the films, this one both is my quintessential Lord of the Rings film and the one that held up the best - perhaps due to the least use of CGI. The pacing is fantastic, even in the extended version, the world building is thorough, and frankly this feels like being transported into my childhood.