LOTR is easy to love. It's a classic story arc, well told, and well adapted for mass consumption.

It's also a very thinly veiled metaphor for the ceaseless pursuit of industrialization in every aspect of life chipping away at the humanity and metaphorical magic of the human experience, and the perils of embarking on that endeavour to the exclusion of everything else.

Personally, I find some humour in this situation.