Mr Underhill (and others) your point:
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I also dislike the way the Black Rider is so easily thrown off the scent by Merry's tossed pack. I wonder how the placement of the Wood Elves' approach to drive off the Rider, as occurs in the book, would have affected the sequence.
I don't think too much should be made of Nazgūl "blindness" in excusing the way these scenes are staged. Aragorn's explanation of their abilities near Weathertop in Book 1, Chapter 11 makes them out to be pretty capable customers, especially at night, even if they "do not see the world of light as we do".
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I can't win with you guys. I try to find reasons for things happening in the film from the text, and it still gets brushed aside. The sequence took place during the DAY, and the nazgul do not see the world of light as we do. So if they can't see properly, why not a diversion using Sound? And I'm not bothered whether people who haven't read the books get it or not, it's for book readers to understand the point.
re Merry picking up a numenorean sword from Aragorn (and the film tie in book says he killed the WK with Theoden's sword he had as a child - stupid!)
It's not just a case of saying, ah well the sword aragorn gave him was numenorean. It's as much about the JOURNEY the hobbits take and what they encounter. It's just as important to say how something was found/given. Let's just change the plot to show Aragorn picking up a blade from the side of the road that was Narsil - let's not bother about the history of the blade and it's
significance - that's what we are doing here with Merry's blade.
But the one thing I do agree with you guys on is the power of the Ring is TOO MUCH. This just does not work for me. Without bombadil, we are neglecting to show that the power of the Ring is not all over powering. Bombadil can wear it without being affected, and can see Frodo when he wears it - it shows us that Evil cannot totally prevail - but becasue PJ and the scriptwriters have made the ring too powerful, we are not allowed to see this.
Lalwende: re
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As for the dropping of Frodo's song and the real reason he ended up wearing the ring, I have to admit I'm disappointed but not at all surprised. In general, Frodo in the films is played as 'intense Frodo', and his one moment of silliness looks very silly, his dancing at Bilbo's party. We know that Frodo was a light hearted and lovable Hobbit, with dreams, but not a permanent look of a 'rabbit caught in headlights' - he could have fun just as much as any other Hobbit. Here we get a Frodo who does not have much fun; all the instances of fun causing trouble seem to go to Pippin.
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In the book, Frodo does not sing the song 'for fun' - he does it as a diversion to stop Pippin giving the game away - He slips, falls, and the ring myseteriously ends on his finger - In other words, except for the song, it is pretty much the same as the book - It wasn't about Frodo having fun, it's about stopping Pippin putting his foot in it.