In my mind the Voice of Saruman part of the movies is one of the weakest.
In the appendices the writers say that they had to strip the scene to the bare essentials. You feel this when you watch it. It's the most loveless part of the trilogy. The "let's get this scene done already"-mentality is ever present.
But one by one...
I wonder that nobody has yet complained about Merry and Pippin welcoming the others. Getting high on pipe-weed??? What were they thinking? No really, what?* I don't understand why they didn't take the greeting from the book. It was funny, too. It wasn't too long. And it wasn't stupid.
Interesting to see that Saruman can talk to the others without shouting. Well, he's a wizard, you might say, but how is Théoden able to answer without shouting, then?
Théoden not hesitating strips the scene from all its suspense, to me. A lot of depth for both Théoden and Saruman is lost for saving a few seconds of time.
The fireball...
It not only makes no sense to me, but it looks like a very cheap effect, too.
"Saruman, your staff..." ..exploded???
Sigh... what a nice effect would it have been if the staff just cracked along its length and then fell out of his hand.
The deaths of Saruman and Gríma had to be dealt with this way or similarly, but it was all too quick. It's sad PJ gave the chief villain of TTT such an unspectacular ending.
I think Saruman's death ultimately belongs to the end of TTT. It would have been the natural ending of the second film. Pippin's finding the Palantír then would have to be included in flashback at the beginning of RotK. (by the way, did anybody count how often Isildur cuts off the fingers of Sauron? Or how often the Witch-King stabs Frodo?
)
The drinking game... I'm still speechless about it...
...okay, I'm not. What were the writers thinking? They
know the Hobbit. And even if it wasn't nonsense from the start, the scene is so horribly out of character (Game over!), it makes you (read: me) almost weep.
Only good thing about it: Millions of Tolkien fans can always rightfully complain that the movie makers could have included this or that scene
if only they've left out the drinking game.
They could have done the Old Forest, Tom Bombadil
and the Barrowdowns if only they've left out the drinking game.
This just had to be said. Now I feel better.
There's actually one thing I like very much and that is Pippin. As soon as he touches the Palantír, he seems to have changed into a proper character. He will have some very nice scenes later in Minas Tirith.
Thanks for bearing with me.
*Just remembered: In one appendix they say they've told the hobbit actors to suggest things that would make them laugh. I've got a terrible suspicion...