LogFAQs > #965972289

Muscles posted...

More or less boils down to 2 points, 1) flying giant eagles into enemy territory on a stealth mission is a good way to get caught, especially when they have flying beasts of their own and 2) the eagles are sentient beings that probably wouldn't have agreed to it

It also boils down to the fact that it's explicitly brought up at the Council of Elrond in the books and Gandalf literally says it's a terrible idea. Same as just giving the Ring to Tom Bombadil.

Added to the problem that the movies create by omission - Gandalf can't actually summon the eagles. Gandalf's only rescued from Orthanc by Gwaihir because Radagast asked Gwaihir to go there to deliver a message to Gandalf. Gandalf wouldn't have had any way to ask the eagles to help in the first place, without spending tons of time trying to find Radagast (who is actively in hiding by that point). And even then Radagast doesn't just magic them up - he'd have to find one and ask it to pass a message along, and so on. Meanwhile, Gondor's falling and Rohan's burning and everything's fucked because the Fellowship was too lazy to walk.

Basically, Peter Jackson ruined everything.