Originally Posted by Morthoron:
Sir Ian did just fine as Gandalf, whether Grey or White; however, he was at the mercy of the script, which will be a recurring theme for me throughout these sordid discussions.
Yes, but. No actor could rise much above the quality of the script they're obliged to enact, even those with some talent like Viggo and Cate. Now McKellen has a lot of talent, and rendered G the Grey in a way that enhanced the wtritten part and in some ways corrected for its bad patches.
However, I don't find that to be the case with his G the White. Whereas in Tolkien Gandalf Returned is a bit more aloof or distant given his enhanced knowledge and latent but unchallengeable power, Sir Ian's GII is not aloof so much as simply passive, less engaged in general unless he's being an old worry-wort.
He has a nice moment giving Pippin the transplanted "white shores" passage, but he still comes across rather like a wise old schoolmaster-officer bucking up his cadet in the face of the final and fatal Afghan/Zulu/Ashanti charge- surely NOT a situation book-GII would ever have been in even had Tolkien envisioned Trolls bashing at the inner gates of Minas Tirith. Book G the W had nothing to fear in all of Middle-earth except - maybe - Sauron himself; it's for that reason really that T never puts him in a combat situation.* Had Ian understood Gandalf 2.0, he would or should have given us quiet but unshakable confidence.
*Does the Witch-King abandon the Great Gate because of cock-crow and the unexpected dawn? In small part, perhaps- but mostly because he senses, for all his bravado, that he doesn't dare try his strength against that old man. "You cannot enter here," says Gandalf, in almost the same words as "You cannot pass" on the bridge of Khazad-dum. But this time he is mightier, and his foe is no Balrog.