Yeah I found that splitting the series into two movies made the first half a little boring obviously I had the battle and the creation of Mordor in the second part so needed some kind of action and emotion towards the end of part one I really needed a climactic ending so thought the Gandalf witches battle followed by an emotional scene with Nori helping the wizard to find the good within himself , after these scenes we end the first movie in numenor with the queen agreeing to go to middle earth.