I lol’d so hard when you pointed it out, because I thought that guy in the Prancing Pony looked like John Wayne when I first saw the movie.

There is a good reason why you can see Sauron when he wears the One Ring. He controls it completely and can use or not use any powers in it he chooses. If he doesn’t want to be invisible while wearing it he isn’t. He was wearing the One Ring while corrupting Numenor and was visible the whole time.

Haha!! :) For someone who didn’t like the book..because of too much exposition I presume, you ask questions that were explained in book in painful clarity (or at least character’s own wondering and speculations, you know some thing MUST remain secret, it’s the thrill of the suspense and mystery and all that jazz :) ), the history of Aragorn’s ancestors is detailed and well explained (in fact Isildur who cut Sauron’s finger off with the Ring didn’t abandon the throne, when he was killed in ambush and ring lost in the river he was on his way north to claim throne of Arnor and title of High King over two realms Arnor and Gondor, his descendants remained kings in teh Northern Kingdom while descendants of his brother remained kings in Gondor until southern line died out and the North Kingdom fell), but despite important role of Aragorn he is actually a side supporting character, the Hero is of course the less qualified for the job and it is remarkable as traditional fantasy epics go (and part of Tolkien’s brilliance :) ). As for the Ring…YES it is magic, it can act on it’s own as a sort of sentient object of object possessing part of the will of it’s creator, it can put itself on finger, it can change size and weight, it can slip off in the most inconvenient moments, it can lure evil creatures to cause it’s current owner’s doomy doom of DOOM (most likely his horrible death but other far worse fates can be arranged, like you know turning into wraith)!! It can also enslave minds (well one of the purposes it serves is to provide the villain the Dark Lord Sauron, I don’t know about you but for me it sounds awesome :)…, is to use it to gain power to dominate minds of others, especially wearers of other magic Rings of Power since the One controls other rings, and to enhance his own power it’s an amplifier artifact, when wearing it Sauron is stronger than ever, more powerful than he was before making it. The invisibility effect is explained as being drawn half into wraith world, the Unseen, and the fact that those who have the Ring (Isildur, Deagol, Smeagol, Bilbo and Frodo don’t have strength needed to control it and fully master it’s power) so Sauron himself when wearing it is visible (and besides being who he is in nature a powerful spirit that assumes physical form, he already exist in both worlds).

As for Nazgul attacking the inn (in the book) it’s actually said that those who broke in to the room were most likely Nazgul’s lackeys not the Ringwariths themselves (Aragorn says they would not attack the house full of people not unless they are desperate), meaning common thugs they coerced into service. Nazgul themselves were specifically ordered to remain in secret, they had to restrain their powers (and there are various limitaitons or factors that influence their power level), also the Ring-sense (they can sense the power of the Ring, it draws them) is not accurate it gives only general whereabouts of it’s movements, and they have HUGE area to explore until they found Shire and later on in Bree they did not waste time to wreck sh*t for evulz they are patient and knew there will be many more chances to strike in wilderness which would give them advantage, like on Weathertop where they used morgul-knife they left then with notion of mission accomplished since anyone wounded with this weapon turns into wraith under their command they did not reckoned on the peculiar ”magic resistance” of halfling (since they are little known race in wide world) and Gandalf says that a mighty human warrior would fall to this wound much earlier.

Oh those ”few touches of his own” relate to the flood wave that took form of white horses that swept the Riders (Elrond caused the flood, since he has magical control over water in his valley and Gandalf added his own tricks to increase the destructive power of the wave). As for the Three elven Rings (one of which Galadriel wears), they were never touched or corrupted by Sauron so they are safer to use, yet still they are under control of the One so if Sauron gets his Ring everyone wearing other will be in his power.

But yeah there are many weird things in this movie :).