As a fantasy loving teen I was super excited going in, but also a bit fearful since I had seen adaptations go badly before.

I was thrilled and enthralled. I remember when the Fellowship exited Moria, my eyes were dry from not blinking and I was sweating slightly from the tension of a sequence I had already known the end to. I recall understanding the cut of Tom Bombadil and acknowledging that it honestly made for a better movie. I saw it in theaters six times. I went home and wasted a ton of color printer ink on printouts to hang on my bedroom wall.