1. THE DRAGON!
This is, ultimately, the best and biggest reason that the Desolation of Smaug is going to be the best film in the trilogy. Because it's got a
dragon! And unlike much of the Hobbit, this is something new for Jackson and his team at Weta. We've seen wargs, giant eagles and giant spiders before. But dragons are something new, and before you clever-clogs decide to pip up with references to the Nazgul's winged mounts from the LOTR, I'd like to point out that Smaug is a whole different breed of creatures from them. He's bigger, meaner and, more importantly, intelligent. Here, we won't see any cat-sized animals like Daenerys' brood in Game of Thrones. Smaug is not just a monster, he's a character. Creating a monster which is inhuman and alien to us is far easier than creating something that can talk to us as well just look at how comedic trolls became the moment you gave them voices (sorry Tom, Dick and Harry, but you ain't that exciting). And to pull this off, Jackson has cast Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug's voice. Hearing the first snippets of his mountain-rattling voice was the highlight of the latest trailer and the prospect of seeing Bilbo's encounter with Cumbersmaug in surround-sound is unbelievably exciting expect your very bones to rattle when confronted with that smooth English burr. And the best part of this is, we've not even seen Smaug in his full glory yet. As the most important part of the book, you can bet Jackson will be pulling out the stops to make sure Smaug is as magnificent as he believes himself to be.
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