Poll: Smaug - Best cinematic dragon ever?

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thejboy88

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Title says it all. I would like to know if you all think that Smaug, the dragon antagonist from the recent Peter Jackson Hobbit movie, is the best dragon ever made for the big screen.
 

JoJo

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Definitely, or at-least undoubtedly the best animated. My only complaint is that after about half-an-hour of running around he failed to incinerate a single dwarf, which doesn't exactly give the menacing impression he deserves. Still, hopefully he'll cause some fatalities in the third film. Also, in before pedantic "he's a wyvern, not a dragon, because he's got the wrong number of legs, ruined4ever!" complaints.
 

ClockworkPenguin

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If I have seen a better one, I don't remember it. Sean Connery in DragonHeart was pretty good, but Smaug was just badass in every way.
 

Eamar

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For me, definitely. No contest. I've always been disappointed by dragons in films, but Smaug was more than I could ever have hoped for XD
 

TheRightToArmBears

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Probably. I would say (I'm not sure they really count, but they're pretty dragon-ish) the fell beasts from the LotR movies looked more real, but Smaug is much larger and does a lot more on-screen. I've heard some people say the voice wasn't great but I thought it was fine, it was still recognisably Benedict Cumberbatch, but the effects were definitely needed.
 

bartholen_v1legacy

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Well certainly the best one I've ever seen. But I don't watch that many dragon-related movies to begin with. I haven't even seen How to Train Your Dragon, though I've heard it's awesome.
 

Drummodino

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Almost certainly. I can't think of a better dragon in any film I've seen. Not only was he technically impressive and actually present for a decent amount of the movie, but as a character in his own right he was terrific. Benedict Cumberbatch did an amazing job with the voice.
 

FalloutJack

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JoJo said:
Definitely, or at-least undoubtedly the best animated. My only complaint is that after about half-an-hour of running around he failed to incinerate a single dwarf, which doesn't exactly give the menacing impression he deserves. Still, hopefully he'll cause some fatalities in the third film. Also, in before pedantic "he's a wyvern, not a dragon, because he's got the wrong number of legs, ruined4ever!" complaints.
Strictly speaking, a wyvern's just a classification of dragon anyway. Those of us who grew up on Shadowrun tend to understand wyverns to be low-intellect dracoforms. Also? Truth in tale. I'm pretty sure Smaug didn't burn any of 'em in the book either.

OT: Smaug's old classy in terms of dragon, so making him his up-to-snuff ancient badass of scale and fire with Cumberbatch's voice-over is the best draconic thing I've seen in a long time.

Best dragon ever? Well, I went down a list and I found it a bit hard to decide, what with...

Draco in Dragonheart by Sean Connary,
Keizer Ghidorah in Godzilla: Final Wars,
All the dragons in Reign of Fire,
Toothless in How To Train Your Dragon.

So, it's a little bit complicated for me to choose.

Oh, honorable mention goes to the dragons of The Record of Lodoss War, especially Narshe and Shooting Star.
 

DementedSheep

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Best in terms of look and movement, yes. I'd probably still go with Draco for best ever (that I've seen) but that might be nostalgia talking.
 

JoJo

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FalloutJack said:
JoJo said:
Definitely, or at-least undoubtedly the best animated. My only complaint is that after about half-an-hour of running around he failed to incinerate a single dwarf, which doesn't exactly give the menacing impression he deserves. Still, hopefully he'll cause some fatalities in the third film. Also, in before pedantic "he's a wyvern, not a dragon, because he's got the wrong number of legs, ruined4ever!" complaints.
Strictly speaking, a wyvern's just a classification of dragon anyway. Those of us who grew up on Shadowrun tend to understand wyverns to be low-intellect dracoforms. Also? Truth in tale. I'm pretty sure Smaug didn't burn any of 'em in the book either.
True, though it's been a while since I read the book I'm pretty sure the dwarves weren't running away from Smaug for that long either, or jumping around between chains and riding tubs through molten larva. Don't get me wrong, I love the movies and the light-hearted tone which is consistent with the original book but it does somewhat take the bite out of Smaug's threat when he can't even roast one fat dwarf between quite a few scenes.
 

Hero in a half shell

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I absolutely loved the reveal scene where the gold coins were shifting everywhere, and then as he slowly rises you realise just how big this thing is, as it just gets longer and longer. Very well done, although I'm with the 'overmilking the dwarf chase' camp. To be honest a lot of scenes overstayed their welcome like that (extended barrel scene, warg chasing scene before getting to Rivendale in first movie and that scaffolding riding scene in the goblin caves.) They each got to a point where you stopped being drawn in and thought "Well this is getting a little silly now, just escape already."
 

Kennetic

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Nope, I'm going to go with the dragons from the Harry Potter movies. The horntail from Goblet of Fire was truly terrifying and the one from Deathly Hallows part 2 just looked majestic as fuck even with the blood and scars.
 

Nokturos

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I can't seem to recall anyone doing a dragon better in a film. I wonder if the Warcraft movie, if it ever does come out, might be able to provide some competition in the form of Deathwing.
 

FalloutJack

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JoJo said:
FalloutJack said:
JoJo said:
Definitely, or at-least undoubtedly the best animated. My only complaint is that after about half-an-hour of running around he failed to incinerate a single dwarf, which doesn't exactly give the menacing impression he deserves. Still, hopefully he'll cause some fatalities in the third film. Also, in before pedantic "he's a wyvern, not a dragon, because he's got the wrong number of legs, ruined4ever!" complaints.
Strictly speaking, a wyvern's just a classification of dragon anyway. Those of us who grew up on Shadowrun tend to understand wyverns to be low-intellect dracoforms. Also? Truth in tale. I'm pretty sure Smaug didn't burn any of 'em in the book either.
True, though it's been a while since I read the book I'm pretty sure the dwarves weren't running away from Smaug for that long either, or jumping around between chains and riding tubs through molten larva. Don't get me wrong, I love the movies and the light-hearted tone which is consistent with the original book but it does somewhat take the bite out of Smaug's threat when he can't even roast one fat dwarf between quite a few scenes.
I think in the book, Bilbo and ONLY Bilbo went inside and then soon ran for his damn life as Smaug exited the mountain to lay waste to countryside and - by proxy - the intruders. Movies take license, of course.
 

Asita

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I thought he was good until the chase began in earnest, at which point he might as well have been replaced by the T-Rex in Jurassic Park for all that his intelligence and cunning seemed to evaporate (and given that the chase didn't exist in the book at all, this could easily have been avoided). On the flip side, I did rather like his physical design, with the long thin body and massive wingspan. Made it actually seem like a plausible flier (well, outside how they taper near the body, which I'm willing to let go).

Plus, knowing that Watson was desperately trying to appeal to Sherlock's ego just made it all the sweeter.
 

KazeAizen

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Johnny Novgorod said:
I think they overkilled it a bit with the CGI but he was very impressive, sure.
Um not to sound rude but how exactly were they going to make a gigantic fire breathing lizard convincing in this day and age? Stop motion animation or a puppet? CGI was really the only way for them to go with Smaug.