Two Towers, the fidelity is so high, you really start to see the faults in the CGI. Small objects, shadows, the feet of the cave trolls opening the Black Gate - the 3D Jurassic Park had a similar issue, where the CGI raptors jumping on the tables seemed to "slide" and not be connected to the scene. This is especially present in any extra scenes involving CGI. All the practical effects and makeup still hold up really well.
Originally, in the DVD and BD, the only two major CGI callouts I'd say were Legolas wrapping around and mounting an actively charging horse, but that looks surprisingly cleaner in this edition, even if the physics makes no fucking sense. And the CGI wargs looked pretty terrible, which is still the case here. This version the crispness and clarity really starts to draw attention to smaller CGI objects and how well they're matted into the scene. I'll need to see if surfing the CGI oliphant is as bad in King. That and the horse mounting were the two big things that always bothered me visually.
The Ents still look badass, and the animation and all of their scenes are clean.
There's several scenes with flowing water, and that's where you can really test the audio fidelity. Still as crisp as the BD w DTS-MA with a little better spacial performance out of the Atmos profile.
The hilltop village, which was entirely CGI, looks better than some of the scenes shot on film of *real* scenery. Though Dolby Vision really makes outdoor, daytime shots with clouds really *pop*. Whites and colors, again, really standout. Pink flowers on a hillside and subtle green algae growth I hadn't really noticed before in some wide angle camera shots. Dolby Vision really helps, but I'd say 4K resolution doesn't play as perfectly as it did for Fellowship, given the quantity of CGI. Part of the reason, I prefer the standard edition of Two Towers, but the extended of Fellowship.
I'll update after watching Return of the King tomorrow.
