This was always going to be the tricky one, the difficult second album, the story with no real beginning and no actual end. Throw in the fact that audiences expect bigger, bolder and just plain better each time, and you knew The Two Towers would disappoint some people. After all, it's only as good as The Fellowship Of The Ring.

Hmmm... “As good as” an outstanding movie that visualised Tolkien's world in such a way that (batten down the letters page) it improved upon aspects of the original book. Think about that. What did we expect from Peter Jackson's second instalment? The second coming of Jesus?

Take a look at it again. From the thrill of the chase to the shock of the darkness, from the plains of Rohan to the bloodshed of Helm's Deep, The Two Towers delivers. If you think this is just the missable, pop-out-and-make-a-three-course-meal middle section of a 10-hour-plus movie experience, then you're hugely mistaken.

DVD Extras: The 42 extra minutes of movie on display here aren't just loving shots of New Zealand scenery. There are entire subplots that were chopped from the theatrical release.Merry and Pippin taking the Ent draught, Sam and Frodo using their elf ropes, Fangorn Forest arriving at Helm's Deep... It's all so seamlessly integrated that it's now difficult to imagine the film without this stuff. There's even a flashback showing Boromir and Faramir with their father Denethor (a character non-Special Edition watchers won't meet 'til The Return Of The King).Four commentaries is overkill – the music and visual-effects chats are dip-in, dip-out affairs – but the one with Jackson and co-writers Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh is priceless. Not only info- and anecdote-packed, it also gives an insight into their working relationship, with Jackson spiralling off into wild flights of fantasy (“Hey, why don't we show the elves battling on the northern frontiers?”) as the other two groan and try to rein him in.The cast commentary was clearly done by gathering groups of actors together separately, and then editing their comments together later, but it's skillfully arranged. Its only flaws are Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd's crap jokes about trained ants standing in for Orcs in the long shots...Wrapping it all up are exhaustive and exhausting documentaries and image galleries. Commenting on elements stretching across the whole trilogy, there are guides to which bits of Middle-earth correspond to which bits of New Zealand, insights into the rendering of Gollum, tales from combat school, chats with clearly barking Tolkien academics and stories about Viggo Mortensen fancying a bearded lady. And all accessible via an indexing system that pisses on most DVD menus from the top of Mount Doom.A must-have, must-watch and must-watch-again four-discer. Roll on The Return Of The King.