The Lord of the Rings movies are undisputed masterpieces, and even to this day, they remain some of the most thrilling and most well-made movies of all time. The amount of care that went into these movies is nothing short of astounding, and Peter Jackson and his team of filmmakers deserve all the credit and acclaim they consistently receive.
With that said, the movies are now twenty years old, and like all big blockbusters reliant on visual effects, they have undoubtedly aged in some regards. Some effects look better than others - especially when it comes to the involvement of early CGI.
Amazing: The Cave Troll
The Fellowship of the Ring was released in 2001, and it contains the least amount of CGI by far. One of the most notable exceptions is the cave troll, which attacks the fellowship in the Chamber of Mazarbul. The troll still looks spectacular to this day. It is richly detailed and well composited - especially in stunts requiring the blending of CGI and practical effects (like when the troll attacks Gimli on the tomb).
The close-ups are equally magnificent, with each scale and facial expression providing superb detail. The troll could be ripped from a 2020 movie and no one would know.
Dated: The Bridge Of Khazad-dûm
Immediately following the troll attack is the elongated Bridge of Khazad-dûm sequence. And there's no getting around it - this sequence looks borderline terrible today. The staircase sequence looks especially dated, complete with some horrible integration of CGI characters and a badly-composited green screen.
Things don't get much better at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm proper, as this, too, is plagued with some laughable CGI characters running across the bridge. This is one sequence that actually looks its age.
Amazing: Barad-dûr
Lord of the Rings is always at its best when it utilizes practical effects. Case in point - the majesty of Barad-dûr. Also known as Sauron's Tower, Barad-dûr is the iconic black tower that is capped by the fiery Eye of Sauron.
Everything about this tower still looks great today, including the magnificent detail, the epic way the camera crawls up the tower, and the hellish red-orange eye at the top. The miniature conveys a wonderful sense of scale and detail, helping Barad-dûr look suitably imposing.
Dated: Gollum
The creation of Gollum is pure visual effects wizardry and the motion capture proved incredibly unique and influential back in 2002. Unfortunately, Gollum is composed entirely of CGI (minus Andy Serkis's physical movements) and the said CGI is now twenty years old.
While Gollum certainly doesn't look bad (there are some CGI creatures today that look worse), he is nevertheless a very obvious CGI creation, and this is made especially obvious whenever he interacts with Sam or Frodo.
Amazing: The Balrog Fight
As horrible as The Bridge of Khazad-dûm sequence looks, the Balrog fight remains incredible. While there are a few issues with the fight on the bridge, these can easily be forgiven thanks to the amazing sense of scale that the Balrog creates.
It also helps that the Balrog itself still looks fierce, horrifying, and completely believable. Things get even better in The Two Towers as the iconic Gandalf-Balrog sword fight looks just as amazing as it did in 2002. The Balrog fight is pure cinema magic.
Dated: Making Actors Smaller
Things tend to look pretty goofy whenever the movie resorts to digital de-scaling. Making specific actors smaller worked wonderfully in The Fellowship of the Ring, as the filmmakers utilized many old school visual tricks.
However, both The Two Towers and The Return of the King began relying more heavily on CGI, and the magic of the effect was lost. The reveal of Frodo and Sam in the cave with Faramir's men looks particularly bad, as do Merry and Pippin dancing on the table in Meduseld.
Amazing: Shelob
For a scene so reliant on CGI, the Shelob fight looks incredible. Like the cave troll fight, Sam's battle with Shelob contains a lot of CGI-to-human interaction. Luckily, the filmmakers pulled out all the stops for this one, and Shelob was turned into a state-of-the-art CGI creation.
Both Shelob's detail and scale remain superb, and the violent interactions with Sam/Sean Astin are convincing. Add in some great sound design, and the Shelob battle remains one of the most exciting of the entire series.
Dated: Taking The Boat
There's one horrific scene that stands out in the Return of the King extended edition, and that's the scene in which Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli storm the boat belonging to the Corsairs of Umbar.
Everything about this scene looks quite poor - especially the fake CGI water and weightless way that the ships glide across it. Also of note is the atrocious green screen, which looks like something from a cheap '90s TV show. The whole scene is bad, and it's one of the rare extended sequences that didn't work.
Amazing: Battle Of The Pelennor Fields
At the heart of Return of the King is the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, which sees the enormous army of Sauron invading (or attempting to invade) the land of men through Minas Tirith.
The sequence is like Helm's Deep but bigger, complete with the epic scale of Minas Tirith itself, the ghost army and the charge of the Rohirrim. Fans can't forget either the fight between Eowyn and the Witch-King and, of course, the massive Oliphaunt battle. It all looks spectacular, and the Oliphaunts in particular hold up surprisingly well.
Dated: Any Large Group Of People
Lord of the Rings contains two epic charges - the Riders of Rohan at Helm's Deep and the Rohirrim during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. And while these scenes are obviously amazing, the CGI work certainly looks a little spotty.
A lot of CGI was put into these scenes to accurately depict such a massive number of people, and it shows. Some particular shots look like they were ripped from a video game. The music does a lot of heavy lifting throughout these sequences.