[Nikkolas]

Let me just preface this by saying I sincerely liked the first two LOTR films. They just disappointed me in some areas and this area is the one most grievous to me as Saruman was m favorite Tolkien villain.

Why did the movies turn Saruman into Sauron's toady? True, he was corrupted by Sauron's will, and his machinations ultimately served Sauron, but that was never his intent. He is a peer of Sauron cosmically speaking and he was very cunning in his own right. Moreover, he was an interesting villain. Unlike The Silmarillion, LOTR paints a rather simplistic picture of good and evil. Sauron by this point is devoid of anything resembling goodness and is all about torture and mwahahaha evil just for the lulz. He reigns over an empire of faceless goons who are kinda defined by being Generically Evil.. But Saruman? He is a "human" face of wickedness; someone we can look to and say "yes...I can see why he is doing this." Even when he repeatedly rejects his chances for redemption, it's presented in the most pitiable and understandable of ways. Pride is something we all must struggle with and Saruman was mastered by his, to his great loss as he was forever banished from paradise. His end is extremely poignant and tragic and I don't know which is more insulting, the way one cut of ROTK has him vanishing never to be heard from again or the extended cut where he just dies in the dumbest way imaginable.

I'm sure the Catholic Tolkien wouldn't have made this comparison but The Istari kind of make me think of Jesus. Wasn't he God's attempt to lower Himself to that of a human being? To feel all our emotions, our weaknesses? The description of the Wizards in Unfinished Tales is much the same:
"[the Valar] sent members of their own high order, but clad in bodies of as of Men, real and not feigned, but subject to the fears and pains and weariness of earth, able to hunger and thirst and be slain; though because of their noble spirits they did not die, and aged only by the cares and labours of many long years."

I also found this part fascinating:
"For it is said indeed that being embodied the Istari had needs to learn much anew by slow experience, and though they knew whence they came the memory of the Blessed Realm was to them a vision from afar off, for which (so long as they remained true to their mission) they yearned exceedingly."

Saruman succubmed to human vices after two thousand years of what must have seem fruitless labor. He lost sight of Heaven where he came from and instead fixated on Earth and all its comparatively meager dealings.

Now, yes, I suppose Denethor got it worse as he was transformed from a broken man into little more than comic relief, and the less said about Sauron the Evil Spotlight of Doom the better, but I honestly don't care about them as much as I do about Saruman. I think he was possibly the most three-dimensional character in the books apart from maybe Frodo himself.

Now I think Sir Lee was a perfect casting choice but they removed everything that made Saruman....Saruman. Don't you think?