this applies to lord of the rings too. in jacksons first trilogy, gandalf uses magic like all of 3 times and he generally just uses it to start a fire or shine a bright light, or talk to a butterfly(i dont remember exactly). gandalf spends most of the trilogy using diplomacy to bring nations and factions into aragorns alliance against sauron so that the white city and the rohirrim can be saved, which also serves the purpose of distracting saurons focus from frodo. this politicking is infinitly more interesting than gandalf mowing down rows of orcs with flashy magic, ala scarlet witch vs kamar taj.