[AR_Six]

On the eagles thing,

Spoiler!

In the films it happens 3 times - Gwaihir saves Gandalf from Saruman, a bunch of eagles save the hobbit crew from the wargs, and Gwaihir rescues Frodo. Thing is, the first one, where he saves Gandalf, isn't supposed to happen that way Gandalf doesn't send a moth to fetch a giant eagle, Gwaihir was supposed to meet Gandalf at Chez Saruman to give him an update on what he'd found out about the Nazgul. He found Gandalf imprisoned. More of a coincidence than anything. So it's not the deus ex machina that Peter Jackson makes it seem like, you don't just say the word and there they are to save your ass.

Though they are used in the war (i.e. after Gandalf fights the Balrog, Galadriel asks Gwaihir to go find him, which he does). But what do you expect, they're useful for that sort of thing.