Thoroughly Enjoyed a Movie

I am a big fan of J R R Tolkien.  I was introduced to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings when I was 15, and I read both books (or all four) during the fall of every year.  Tolkien spent a great deal of time building and crafting Middle Earth, creating its history, and using his knowledge of ancient sagas and tales to bring his own world to life.  I am a great believer, too, that books - the written word - are much better than a film adaptation.  In the book, the author has control of the words used, and it is one's own mind that conjures up the scene the writer is offering.  With a film, one sees a specific person's view of that written work...  I usually like the written word much more than the cinematic representation.
   With the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, much was cut from the stories, and a bit added.  With The Hobbit movie trilogy, a lot has been added, and a lot has been changed from the original story.  Characters who did not appear in the book The Hobbit appear in the films.  New characters are made up, and some of the story lines are changed.  I'm not too happy with that - as well as the fact that travel time is suddenly shortened without regard to the story.  But I do understand that directors of films must make a sell-able object, and that, these days, folks have a much shorter attention span and need multiple, quick-paced movement.  That being said, I actually liked the second part of The Hobbit movie trilogy, The Desolation of Smaug.
  It moved along well, almost too fast at times, and none of the dwarves were given much of a personality - indeed, if you didn't know which dwarf was which, you were pretty much out of luck.  You were able to recognize Thorin Oakenshield, Balin, and young Kili, who was wounded in the film, by the time the film ended...  But you felt nothing of the camaraderie that had grown between them and Bilbo in the 6 months that occurred during their journey to the Lonely Mountain.  Bombur just seemed thrown in for comic relief - especially in the barrels in the river scenes; his ordeal in Mirkwood (in the book) never happens.  Even with this grousing, I liked the second part of the film.  And it had to do with casting and acting - so my thanks go to:  Martin Freeman, Sir Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Ken Stott, Graham McTavish, William Kircher, James Nesbitt, Stephen Hunter, Dean O'Gorman, Aidan Hunter, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, Jed Brophy, Mark Hadlow, Adam Brown, Lee Pace, Mikael Persbrandt, Luke Evans, Orlando Bloom and Evangeline Lilly...  I also enjoyed the director's cameo at the beginning of the film.  I was quite surprised to realize that the Master of Lakewood was Stephen Fry.  And I looked in vain for Stephen Colbert in a cameo in Laketown; he is listed a a Spy for the Master in the credits, but he said that he, his wife, and children were a part of a Laketown scene....  Sorry I missed you, Colbert!