What will continue to amaze for some time is the brave handling of what had to be accomplished in the screen-time that Peter Jackson and his co-conspirators had available.

Tasked with refreshing our memories of what was right and beautiful and being left behind, setting us firmly in the 'when' of the tale, placing the pieces on the board so that we knew their purpose and potential, and taking care to (try to) show rather than tell, navigating the familiar and unfamiliar places in Middle Earth probably could not have been handled better.

There were opportunities for better choices to be made, chiefly among a couple of the action set pieces and digital characters. You were not going to out-Gollum Gollum, and the goblin king and trolls fell short. The wargs were an opportunity for great improvement over those of the first films, but again, short.

It is quite easy to be lost as one among fifteen I should think, and I laud the choices for the dwarves and the effort in realizing them as individuals. No small feat was also

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