What makes the LOTR movies special to me, an my all time favorite movies is not just the story or the action scenes (which both are amazing imo) but the whole middleearth-world with its incredible atmosphere and characters. This paired with one of the best movie soundtracks of all time by Howard Shore just makes it a masterpiece of storytelling and filmmaking for me.

But what I realised over time is, that I have to be in a very special mood for those films. Like I can't just watch them when I am bored, because I know that I would just not enjoy them as much. I think LOTR requires a special feeling while watching to fall in love with it.