Of Wizards....

[red]

Did anyone else get the feeling that Jackson tried to make the wizards appear to be of human origin?

No.

I was under the impression that Gandalf was of the same order or closely related to the order of Sauron.
Do we even know how old Gandalf is?

You are right. Gandalf is of the same order as Sauron. Gandalf, or Olórin, has been around since the creation of the world.

In the movie Elrond claims to have been at the battle when Isildur cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand, which of course is a plot twist, but is Gandalf not also an immortal?

Ummmm... are we reading the same book? Elrond was at the battle where Isildur cut the Ring from Sauron's hand. That is no plot twist. And, yes, Gandalf is immortal.

Wouldn't he be old enough to know that happened? The fact that he searched archives for the knowledge kind of left me scratching my head.

Gandalf did not arrive in Middle-earth until the Third Age. Before that, he was living the good life West of the Sea. He was not omniscient and so even though he was alive during the events described, he would not know what happened unless he was told or read accounts about them. The information he was seeking in the the archives in Minas Tirith was information that Elrond himself did not know. He wanted to see if he could learn if this Ring his friend Bilbo had found was indeed the One Ring.

I thought he was more of a contemporary to Elrond than a younger man, which is the impression the movie gave, or is that again, just an adaptation?

Actually, Gandalf is much older than Elrond. Elrond and his twin, Elros, were born to Eärendil and Elwing near the end of the First Age.

-réd