Saruman's fireball

[The Only Real Estel]

PJ decided not to put that in the movie so he had to show the end of Sarumon some how. he also had to show that he had lost his power over Gandalf. retreating into the tower would have done nothing to help in showing the end of him. by firing the fire ball at Gandalf and him reflecting it or what ever shows the Sarumon no longer had any power over him

True, but it probably would've shown Gandalf's power over Saruman well enough to leave out the fireball & just have Gandalf break his staff.

The only problem I have with this, is then people asking, why didn't Saruman shoot up the ents, or why didn't Gandalf shoot light rays out of his staff against the orcs? He did it before why not now?

Great point. In trying to put myself in the shoes of a person who has just seen the movie without having read the books, I've found that it would be very confusing that Gandalf can fight off Gimli, Legolas, & Aragorn in three seconds, blind Nazgul, etc., but never seems to make much use of such powers once the real fighting starts.

When I watched TTT for the first time, I assumed Saruman did nothing for several reasons: (A) He was taken by suprise (somehow) & caught off guard & (B) The damage was already 98% done by the time he had come out. Now I suppose to add to your question about shooting up the ents, a non-book reader could assume that he did nothing because he didn't have his staff with him when he was out on the balcony.

Of course, going by Jackson's version, he could've blasted all the ents out of spite because they turned his tower into an island--but for some reason he didn't. There are definitly holes that can be found (as usual). I guess I view it as a throw-away seen, but I'm still not greatly bothered by it.