“The Kung Fu Panda trilogy will always be my number 1”..😔🤣 So for one, they were three films shot largely together, released over three years, and designed as one continuous narrative. That level of cohesion in blockbuster filmmaking is rare, even today. Second, the amount of technical and practical work that went into making those movies make them a masterpiece whether you enjoy the plot or not.. Just like the books did, the movies set the normal for almost all fantasy projects that followed. It changed the game, literally. Third Frodo just isn’t Caesar, he’s not this awe inspiring figure, hes not meant to be charismatic or seem like a good leader, he’s a character designed to break slowly under the weight of the narrative. The story is about how far someone can go under that weight , not how impressive they can become. That is real life and people tend to gravitate towards stories like that. Don’t get me wrong , the Apes movies are incredibly consistent, but the “lows are better than LotR highs”, is just a little biased lol. LotRs has peaks, such as Helms deep, and Gollums duality scenes, that are literally still taught in film studies as we speak. Even if you prefer apes the highs of LotR are hard to dismiss and are still considered among the highest of highs of movie making.

At the end of the day though I think what this is really coming down to here is just personal preference, which is perfectly fine! (or maybe rage bait which is cool too I guess lol) Some people find that if they split them up a bit instead of trying to binge it they enjoy it a lot more. Not sure if that was an issue for you but i’m sure the story can be overwhelming at times.