Fro:Boy informs me of a damned travesty. They have cut most (or possibly all) of the Saruman scenes at Isengaurd from the beginning of the Return of the King. Sweet lord that sucks! These were originally intended to be tagged on the end of the Two Towers (as they were in the books) but were cut because they drug out the end of the movie after the climax at the battle of Helms Deep. I agree that it would be odd to have 7 - 10 minutes of wrap up after the battle and would probably confuse the audience. But these are some important plot points that we are missing out on here. Peter Jackson did give a reasonable explanation for cutting the scenes, which does make sense, but it's too bad they even got to this point. They should have plopped the scenes in after the battle of Helms Deep but before the Frodo and Sam vs. Faramir scenes at the end of the second movie. That way you still get a bit of suspense at the end of the film. There's already an online petition gathering strength to get the scenes put back in the movie. I don't know how effective it will be but I guess it's worth a shot. At least they will surely be included in the extended DVD cut though. I wonder how they are going to explain the Palantir now.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 12:30 PM