[Redcitizen]

It would have been easier if the Fellowship of the Ring had flown over Mt. Doom with Eagles and airdropped the Ring into the volcano. That would save a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

[Tax-chick]

Chuck Norris would have done it up right, skipped all that poetry!

[Olog-hai]

That’s what they all say. But that would have put the Ring right in Sauron’s eyesight (the point was to keep it out of his sight); and the Sammath Naur, where the Ring was actually forged, was located within a side vent rather than the summit crater. Sauron did have air-to-air interceptors (the Nazgûl on their winged beasts) that would have kept the Eagles busy long enough to effect a recovery operation for the Ring, too.

Also, the book didn't specify whether there were any summit eruptions on Mount Doom; there could have instead been a lava dome up there instead of a liquid lava lake, and that wouldn't have been any use to destroy the Ring.

[Bulwyf]

Ya, we could of turned 9 hours or so of movie into about 5 mins heh.

[FreedomPoster]

Air power was vastly under-appreciated in Middle Earth.

[ctdonath2]

High-profile/high-power invasion and assault would have been anticipated and well prepared for. This was a very smart wizard who had thousands of years to prepare against any assault. Any strong enough to carry out such an aerial invasion would have been sorely tempted by the ring itself in its own self-preservation (even Frodo succumbed, with Gollum's interference finally destroying it). The long flight in would have been noticed and intercepted.

It was the very fact Frodo & Sam were such small, humble, harmless, incapable figures that allowed them be overlooked while Sauron was distracted by the frontal assault by a formidable army.