I remember the consternation Gandalf's fall had amongst posters on an old lotr forum site I used to frequent (before this one). In other words, how on earth did Gandalf catch up with his sword and the Balrog? they had quite a few seconds on him and he seemed to catch up to them pretty fast...... can he fly al la Superman?
Anyway, I love the shot of the balrog and gandalf falling (at terminal velocity) through the 'hole' in the roof of the Lake. It shows what a massive cavern it must of been, and then going back to the shot directly behind them as they hit worked superbly.
Now we come to the point where surround sound (esp DTS) is required. I love the delicate use of effects PJ's sound team uses. With the volume pumped up high when Frodo and Sam are eating their lembas bread, you can hear the thunderstorm in the background getting louder until sam mentions the rain clouds. it's little things like this that keep you emmersed in the world of ME.
I love the way gollum crawls down the wall like a spider. A foreshadowing of shelob in the next film perhaps? And we see how dangerous an advesary he is in his fight with the hobbits. but did you notice gollum actually TOUCHES the ring during the fight? he just gets his fingertips to it.....
great delivery of the lines 'release him or I'll cut your throat' and 'lead us to the black gate' by EW.
I also like the EE new scene with the first viewing of gollum's split personality.