The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug - 5 Elements It Nailed (And 1 That Failed)

2. Smaug

Obviously the biggest selling point for the film is the great Smaug himself. Thanks to the impeccable vocal and motion capture performance by Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Jackson took an important piece of Tolkien's fiction and made him work on a level that arguably only he could have accomplished. What we get is a complete CG representation of Smaug in all his glory, confronting Bilbo and the Dwarves inside Erebor, grand-standing dialogue between the dragon and Bilbo, and a chase sequence involving the Dwarf company that adds a wonderful climactic note to the movie. The sheer anticipation of seeing him after all the trekking through Middle Earth is met with the reward of one of the coolest, most visually appealing introductions in recent memory. And seeing him in full astonishing 3D is nothing short of amazing. Weta Digital packed all of their experience in designing Smaug; after all the intricacies in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, they've gathered enough knowledge to pay their homage to Tolkien in full, and Smaug is one of their absolute masterpieces. Smaug's just such an impressive piece of visual entertainment and an even more impressive character, supplementing ruminative visions of what is to come while providing his own nonpareil personality in ways that have us, as the audience, root for this potentially threatening and deadly antagonist. While Smaug may appear to be the film's selling point to most, the next element for The Desolation Of Smaug is surely something none of us saw coming within a dragon's lifetime....