I don't think that completely applies in extreme situations though, such as a random Balrog attack. And there are times in the books that he does fairly crazy stuff with his magic. All of those scenes conveniently never made it to the movies for some reason. He fires off magic that can be seen from miles away when he fights the Ringwraiths on weathertop. He immolates a whole tree to scare off a pack of wargs on their way to Moria. And if I'm not mistaken he incinerates a hell-hawk or two when Osgiliath is taken. That was the scene in the movies where he shined a flashlight from his staff at a hell-hawk, chasing it off so Faramir could get away. It was more of a blast of fire in the books, and I believe it either killed or severely wounded the hell-hawks.
I will admit it's been a while since I read that book, so I'm not 100% on the details. What I am sure of though is that it should have been about 10 times more badass than it was shown to be in the movie. Why does Hollywood have trouble with energy attacks? Couldn't get a decent kamehamheha wave in DB: Evolution either.
Last edited by OrcsRLame; 2011-11-04 at 02:46 PM.
It's not really as extreme as you point out, but yes, he does throw around some badass stuff. Though as a Maiar, he is capable of far more. Once again, he was told not to make things 'too easy' for the West. Not that he could have defeated Sauron single-handedly, anyway, but still.