Why?

Rating: 6/10 (18 December 2014)

First of all, let me begin by saying that I am not what you would call a Tolkien fan, neither have I read the book (although I have read the LOTR ones). However, I really enjoyed the whole story (incl. the 6 movies) and feel sad that it's probably over.
That said, I must admit that the last part of this second trilogy didn't live up to my expectations, which can't have been that high. It's not because of the acting (on the contrary, I found it rather great). It is mostly because of 3 main things:
a) there were too many "silly" jokes, even at very serious moments. OK, I admit that I enjoyed some smiles/laughters every now and then, Martin Freeman's (Bilbo) facial expressions alone were enough for that, but I think they overdid it especially in the BOTFV without any reason.
b) I think the plot leaves some gaps widely unanswered :the mysterious "worms"; the actions of Bilbo - in general, his involvement in this last movie was quite small, after all the movie is supposed to be about a hobbit!); the size of the 2nd orc army (where did they all disappear during the ambush?); the fate of important characters, like Bard, the successor of Thorin, Thranduil, Sauron and Saruman; the lack of involvement of other important characters (like Galadriel or Elrod) in a battle that seemed to be of absolute importance; and the reason of this importance - was it its location really or the gold? A map during the movie would have been helpful perhaps... I think that if they managed to create 3 long movies out of a single book, they could have used more time to explain things rather than spending it on what appears to be an invented love story (apparently) or Legolas defying the laws of nature.
c) personally I would have liked more and stronger ties to the LOTR plot.
And since I am given public writing space here, let me also add my ever unanswered question: why don't these eagles appear a bit earlier to save the day? They seem to be able to handle pretty much everything, to the extent that it keeps me wondering why they didn't take Frodo to the bloody mountain in the first place!