fantasy cinema peaked. Shit does not get any better or even close to the same level as LOTR.
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Board. There are a lot of Middle-Earth fans here, but this thread is over 20 years old and many in it are gone from the board.
If you start a new thread, they* will come.
Here is a link to many of the Middle Earth related threads: middle-earth.
* They = Middle Earth fans.
But my recommendation in this thread hasn’t changed! 