[Kath]

I don't really see that it's greatly important to know how the Uruk-hai were created because the idea is that they are bigger, stronger, superior to normal orcs and the first scene we get of one where it strangles the orc that got it out of it's mud-sack thing shows that well. Also, with no real explanation in the book (that i can recall) PJ had nothing to go off.

Also, it can be better not to see it sometimes. That which you don't see can often be scarier than that which you do.

As to Gandalf's magical appearance on the top of Orthanc, if Saruman is able to make him fly up vertically there isn't too much of a mystery as to how he got there!

The palantir though, I love the palantir. It looks exactly right and those clawed fingers of Saruman's curling around it - just looks wonderfully evil. The words though, I always had a weird sort of thought that Sauron spoke to a person looking into the palantir via some kind of telepathic connection.

Anyway, mostly I just liked the sequence. The destruction of the beautiful landscape of Isengard really was awful (in a good way) and made you see the horror industrialising can bring.