Yep I've been thinking along the same lines and my next big diorama/display project will be Barrels out of Bond (which I got for Christmas! ). The hobby options this film brings are huge!

As for the film itself, I'm afraid I was a little disappointed. I kind of liked it as a film but for me, as a huge fan of Tolkien and someone who really feels his work was enhanced beautifully in the other 4 films (more so in LotR), there were not enough moments of emotional connection like there were in LotR or even AUJ. I think the film-makers missed an opportunity in the theatrical version and should have made it less of a Super Hero movie and taken out the unnecessary plot lines and set-pieces (Love Triangle, Elves battling in Laketown, Smaug vs Dwarves showdown). The left over screen time should then have been devoted to moments of some of Howard Shore's soaring score work with some shots of Thranduil's Halls (nowhere near enough of that) and perhaps background flashbacks to Beorn's origins. Just some of the deeper moments when you can take a breath and relax for a moment because as a Middle Earth film it needs that.

In my ideal Hobbit movie, I feel the Azog chasing plot line should never have existed. However I did enjoy the Barrels sequence and the spicing up was quite good there so who knows...?

There was a lot that was excellent. E.g: the slow corruption of Bilbo by the Ring (Martin Freeman is fabulous!); the designs for all the races again top notch (the Elves especially good); Thranduil himself was excellent... I mean the list could go on but, for me, there was just too much in this film that overstepped the mark in terms of poetic licence with Tolkien's wonderful work. I think TABA will be very good and be back up to the heights of AUJ. After DoS, I was left thinking why they ever made it into 3 movies (2 would have been perfect, IMO) because as black1blade said, nothing really happened.

Anyway sorry about that but the rant is finally over

Also the actress signed on the condition that she wouldn't.......be in a love triangle.

That pretty much sums up how I felt about it. I'm clearly in the minority, but generally thought the movie was only OK, and definitely the weakest, by far, of PJ's Middle-Earth movies.

My main beef with this movie was that it "nuked the fridge" so many times that I never felt like anything was at stake in any of the action sequences. I like that they made the barrel escape into a bit of an action scene, but was rolling my eyes at the Bombur: Dwarf Barrel of Death bit. I didn't like the ridiculous acrobatics that Legolas pulled off in the LOTR trilogy, but it's only one character, he's an elf and they're supposed to have supernatural agility, and it only happens a couple of times. Not so with dwarves, and there's been a tendency for many of the dwarves to pull off all kinds of ludicrous stunts in the two Hobbit movies, so far.

...

In the end, I thought it was visually stunning, consistent with the other films in that regard, and very well cast. The over-the-top action scenes, however, seemed to take front stage over any sense of narrative, which was a shame. I'm not necessarily a purist, or curmudgeon that thinks everything needs to follow the book to a T, but I did think that, in most instances where they significantly deviated from the book for this film, they did so unnecessarily, and ultimately to the detriment of the movie.

Clearly aimed at a younger crowd, but still and enjoyable romp back through middle earth

Why does Azog have to command Saurons forces? Why can't the Nazgul? I'm so muddled up there.

A rough guess would be because the nazgul are out looking for the ring?

Maybe the ringwraiths were too weak like Sauron at that point to lead any army, that's my theory.

Does anybody else think the film, although enjoyable was a little rushed?
Its like, lets get Beorn out the way quickly, Mirkwood, wood elves and lake town all rushed through just to get to Smaug ?

My impression exactly.. I'd loved to see more time taken for Beorn or Mirkwood.. and maybe less barrel-action instead ^^