Tolkien's 'Deus ex Machina'

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man

Jackson's Army of the Dead does at least fit within the context of the film and does not suddenly appear without explanation.

You're right, but if one looks at the actual pictures in the movie, the army of the dead just does it all by themselves (see the green going through everything, not leaving the human defenders, Gondorians or Rohirrim, a chance to play a role!).

So here I will side with Boro. That is just bad film-making (and Lommy had nice points about that).

But seriously, coming up with this army of the dead in a way Tolkien does it is not so clearly a DeM as they kind of play their part but don't make it alone, without regard to others filling their places.

I would still go for the eagles as the main source of DeM solutions in Tolkien...