1. Andy Serkis
To me, the best aspect of the Lord of the Rings films was always the character of Gollum, played so well by Andy Serkis that many even considered that he should have been eligible for an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor (an argument that re-circled when he played the ape Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes). Though Serkis won't be enjoying the same conversations this time for The Hobbit, he still is easily the most successful and enticing aspect of the film. It's just a shame that he doesn't appear until nearly 2 hours in - 1 hour, 57 minutes, to be precise - and only sticks around for fifteen minutes. Still, it's a riveting fifteen minutes, in which Gollum drops the One Ring, Bilbo picks it up, and the two then play the famous Riddle Game from the book. Gollum eventually realises that the Ring is missing, but it's too late, and Bilbo makes off with it, leaving Gollum distraught as we leave him. Serkis could probably do this role in his sleep by now, but each time he manages to make it feel fresh; here he presents to us a Gollum that is fully in the thrall of his obsession with the Ring, and is a tragically, occasionally rather funny figure as a result.