They all just ran backwards and forwards through the dwarf forge and showed off lots of big silly CGI.
I wasn't fussed on that at all. Just the dwarfs playing around with all the molten gold should have roasted them all, never mind the greatest calamity of their time actively trying to do so.
Nope. He's up there, I suppose, but that's more due to the weird lack of awesome movie dragons than anything else. They did a great job of making him seem overwhelmingly huge and dangerous (the part where he rears up and asks Bilbo how the legends compare to him is probably the best moment of the movie apart from the scene with the baby Mirkwood spider), but that's really about it.
Smaug's film characterization was tragically one-note to the point that giving him a voice and dialogue didn't wind up adding much to the movie at all. His entire range of emotions was arrogance, restrained anger, and firebreathing-anger. Not that those weren't his three biggest personality traits in the book, but in the book he also displayed cunning, charisma, inquisitiveness, detached personal indulgence, a dry sense of humor, and even greater rage than that depicted in the film - all within a conversation scene with Bilbo that dragged on far less than it did in the movie. (Not to mention how overkill and out-of-place it was to make him say "I am death," though I'll at least give the line credit for being impactful.)
Even purely from a physical standpoint, he left a lot to be desired. Why, pray tell, did we need Benedict Cumberbatch to provide a motion-capture performance for a giant winged reptile? That was a valid approach for Gollum because in his case there's supposed to be a recognizable human aspect to him buried underneath five hundred years' worth of degradation that renders him relatable and pitiable (which is largely why he's still hands-down the best CG effect in any of these movies after more than a decade). Smaug has absolutely none of these traits; the filmmakers just figured that mo-cap worked great the last time they had a pivotal CG character, so they might as well do it again without any regard to why it worked in the first place. Wrapping a recognizably human facial structure around a twenty-five-foot crocodilian head doesn't look cool or convincing, just bizarre and distracting - especially since they insist on repeatedly showing it from frontward angles in order to accentuate its humanlike quality for who knows what reason.
And while Benedict Cumberbatch did provide an evocative and menacing voice whenever Smaug was speaking in a low growl (I always imagined Smaug's voice being more like a sharp hiss, but whatever), louder lines like "No blade can pierce me" and "My wings are a hurricane" lose all of their impact when they abruptly sound like they're being spoken by Treebeard [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuEbH3cShmk&t=0m47s].
The Desolation of Smaug botched several major things up more than it did Smaug himself, so I'll not claim the fairly lackluster job on him singlehandedly ruined the movie or anything. But for whatever it's worth, Smaug was the big setpiece of the movie, and both he and the movie were disappointments. I'll stick with the likes of Maleficent, King Ghidorah, and the Hungarian Horntail.
Negative. Best cinematic Wyvern, hands down. Best cinematic dragon is Dragonheart's Draco. Runner up goes to Merlin's Kilgarrah.... though he's more of a TV series dragon.
JoJo said:
Also, in before pedantic "he's a wyvern, not a dragon, because he's got the wrong number of legs, ruined4ever!" complaints.
Your inb4 has failed to stop me from stating my opinion, mwahahahahaa. That being said there is no denying, Dragon or Wyvern, Smaug does nothing short of kicking major amounts of cinematic ass.
Curses, I have been foiled again. Mr Bubbles, away! *rides off into the sunset*
I'd also argue that a wyvern is a type of dragon, but I guess that depends on your interpretation, since of course they aren't a real species that can be experimented on.
Animation wise. probably. although his jaw just made him look like he was gurning. 20 minutes of chase scene made me fall asleep in the cinema though. And it was the most ridiculous place to finish!
Oh, I agree. It's Fantasy, dammit. There have been dozens of interpretations stemming from these archaic old definitions.
If it were a creature that actually existed, then people's complaints would hold some water. Smaug looks great, and that's all that matters. The Firework Dragon in Fellowship of the Ring didn't have the 'mandatory' six legs, but nobody bitched about that. All the Hobbit has done is follow the established visuals of the Peter Jackson adaptations.
Damn, ninja'd. Well at least you now know the difference.
Besides that, the move wasn't just ruined because of smaug derping around and getting covered in gold ONLY to spin mid air and lose all traces of it thereby nullifying the last 40 minutes... No, it was the excess of elves. The weird not focusing on Bilbo. and a love triangle that would NEVER happen in a million years. Two races hate each other too much.
Kili becoming something more than a mere background character for Bilbo... Bilbo getting pushed aside and out of focus. I'm alright with the Gandalf bits; with the exception of the shadow of Sauron showing up. If he knows that it's Sauron... then why doesn't he know what the ring is right off the bat? Ruining the story, making the movie NOT follow the books, and basically reworking it completely with only a mere basis of what was once going to be great... THAT ruined the movie. All of that stuff there. Which make my OT post pertain only to the OP's question.
OT: No. That honor falls to Drako from Dragonheart.
Besides, Smaug was a wyvern in this. Wrong number of legs.
I haven't seen the film yet, just clips and trailers, but from what I've seen, I think I'd rate him slightly below Toothless and Draco, my other contenders for the spot.
Also, taking the dragon that pretty much was the archetype for the D&D Red and turning it into a wyvern is pure heresy.
Hey, you believe what you want and the rest of us will do the same. That's like someone from a church forcing their beliefs on you.
The Funslinger said:
The Firework Dragon in Fellowship of the Ring didn't have the 'mandatory' six legs, but nobody bitched about that. All the Hobbit has done is follow the established visuals of the Peter Jackson adaptations.
Not true. I complained about that a bit. Also complained about the Hobbit wars not being in there, and that Tom Bombadil (Tom Bombadillo!) never ONCE made a smegging appearance...
Nor that Bjorn (bear guy) didn't show up like he was supposed to in the LOTR.
For film, I agree completely, Smaug is awesome. If games were included, I'd say Angelus from Drakengard but that's because I care for her as a character.
Not even close. I'd even rate the old Hobbit cartoon's version of Smaug to be superior. However for dragons in live action films, the winner goes to Vermithrax from the 1981 movie Dragonslayer. A spectacle of practical effects that still makes me drool.
And while Benedict Cumberbatch did provide an evocative and menacing voice whenever Smaug was speaking in a low growl (I always imagined Smaug's voice being more like a sharp hiss, but whatever), louder lines like "No blade can pierce me" and "My wings are a hurricane" lose all of their impact when they abruptly sound like they're being spoken by Treebeard [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuEbH3cShmk&t=0m47s].
With much of Tolken's works Smaug is the root that most modern western dragons stem from. So to see Smaug the Magnificent in the (Animated) Flesh on the big screen was Glorious.
His voice was a solid 80% of the intimidation behind him. It may have been the specific version of the movie at the theater I saw it at (might not have been that 48fps), but I thought Smaug was pretty weirdly animated at some parts. Mostly when there was fire involved in the environment and it reflected on his body (not when he was breathing fire), he looked really rubber. He'll definitely be a dragon that looks worse as CGI gets better.
But I don't see how they could've done him any better otherwise. So, I'll say he's the best.
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