Well, cyberspace ate my last post. These were the relevant points.

NeverarGreat, it was obvious to me from your first post that you probably are pretty hardcore. That's cool. Too bad you didn't enjoy the film as much as I did, as I was okay with the changes.

I feel we get to know the dwarves far better in the film than in the books, and while I can't usually put a name to each face, I can remember at least 8 of their faces and what made them unique. It's harder to do a better job than that with so many minor characters involved simultaneously, but perhaps a better move would have been to focus on three or four of the dwarves (plus the constant focus on Thorin) per film, thus leading to greater familiarity with a different bunch each time.

As for the eagles, they are hardly different from the books, but the lack of development and the very "convenient" deus ex machina that they are makes me wonder if doing the films in the proper order instead of Star Wars order might have helped things make more sense with them and perhaps a number of other points as well.