Efficiency

I came across DVDs for the three Lord of the Ring movies for $1 recently and decided to watch them. It occurs to me after watching the last one that if Gandalf can just fly in on a giant eagle, what's with all the fucking horses and marching and fighting. Take the hobbit, fly over the volcano, drop the ring and be done with it. Orcs are not airborne. That's like nine hours of film that could have been shortened to twenty minute short film. No wonder the elves and whatnot are constantly on the verge of losing, they're horribly inefficient.