Balancing act.

Rating: 10/10 (31 March 2019)

My theory with the Lord Of The Rings films has always been that the stuff that is good gets better with each film, but the stuff that doesn't work as well unfortunately gets worse. Whilst this means the very best moments of the franchise might still be yet to happen for film 2, there's no doubt a balancing act that is playing out as the stakes of the battles gets bigger and the adventures of the heroes get grander, whilst the sadder, darker moments start to creep into the edges of this film. Overall, for upping the grandeur of the already fantastic part one without delving into what makes much of part three an exercise in patience, this film rounds off as the best one in the series for me personally - just don't fret about the extended directors cut too much, most of that stuff whilst good in its own right, was better left on the special features disc.