Yeah, that is another challenge but there are pros and cons to the Laketown situation. Having a few dwarves remain in Laketown will make Smaug's attack in the 3rd movie more involving, since we have already invested time into the characters as opposed to Bard and the others who are still relatively new. I actually like that Jackson decided to split the company up in this regard. It will also be nice to still have something to cut back and forth between Laketown and Bilbo.

Still, we need to establish the reason why the four dwarves remain in Laketown, which is because Kili is shot and wounded. Therefore, at least part of the barrel chase must remain. I can easily remove the ridiculous CGI acrobatics of Legolas though. The way he is portrayed in the Hobbit makes you wonder why he couldn't have defeated the army of Mordor singlehandedly.