One huge problem with the dwarves in The Hobbit, aside from the awful comedy gags they're saddled with, is that they're barely developed at all, except for Thorin Oakenshield, who just so happens to be the leader. The rest of the dwarves more or less blur into one other than some fairly forgettable descriptors, like "the fat, ginger one", "the attractive one", "the old one" or "the one who is played by James Nesbitt", and pretty much no effort is actually made to distinguish them from one another. Though we wouldn't want the first Hobbit film to be any longer, Jackson wastes far too much time at the start of the film with silly kitchen-cleaning and food antics (you'll see) rather than letting us get to know the dwarves as people we can care about, which is pretty important given that they're the only characters whose fates we might not be aware of. In The Desolation of Smaug, hopefully Jackson will field out more character-driven beats now that he's laid the groundwork; we don't necessarily need a dozen flashback sequences throughout the three films, but just give the characters some meaningful dialogue rather than goofy and inane dialogues about what the Elves eat. There are so many better ways to use precious lines of the script, Peter.