This is obviously joking, but the eagles, to my understanding, were a higher form of intelligence and were extremely stubborn and arrogant.
Them just showing up is a little convenient, but the books are pretty clear as to why the eagles weren't in the story more.
In the Hobbitt movie, I believe it was Radagast that fetched them.
The best way to sum up the Eagles is to basically call them the bird equivalent of Elves. They were proud, very intelligent, a bit haughty, kept generally to themselves and spoke the common tongue. The Jackson movies would leave one to believe that they were basically sitting around the nest all day just waiting to be called for something. Not true, of course. Since from their view, they usually didn't have much of an iron in the fire, they required powerful, persuasive argument to get them to join in a fight. The biggest of all Eagles (from the first age) had a wingspan of 180 feet.
As to the movie itself, I agree that it was definitely the best of the 3, but that really isn't saying all that much. The good news (for me anyway) was that the effects were quite good and I did not find it overly long. However, I have a long list of what I found to be bad news. This Legolas shared only the same actor for the character: Legolas is a total arse in the Hobbit. The love story sucked. The horrible use of Galadriel in this series is nauseating. Yes, the "Orc under the ice" sequence was just plain bad. A dwarve throwing around 1 ton rocks all by himself was eyerolling. Sure glad Thorin's men found that big "bugle" to blow. Etc. Etc. Etc. A lot was just short of Yakety Sax sort of thing.
Lotsa action (maybe too much action) kept it moving, but after awhile, my bride and I found ourselves saying, can we have a bit of a break here?
I'll be charitable and give it a 2.9 out of 5 stars.
