2. Set-Pieces
As a result of the visual effects quality and the general mastery of the craft, Jackson is able to deliver some exceptional set-pieces, as is the area in which the director best acquits himself. Though some of the action sequences are shoehorned as expository flashback that could be done away with, the meat of the action comes after the first act is out of the way, and the gang leaves the Shire. The first comes when Bilbo spies on a group of three hungry trolls, who then attempt to cook the dwarves along with him; the second is when the gang are scaling a rock face only to realise that they're caught in a battle between three rock giants; and then finally, the stand-out finale, in which the team fight their way through the Goblin kingdom before briefly facing off against Azog. These sequences are the easiest to defend because they so perfectly achieve what Jackson intended even if the narrative mechanisms don't quite work all the time; as frantic, exciting action scenes, they completely succeed.