THEY BROUGHT BACK LEGOLAS IN *The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug*!!?

The commentary about Smaug is really funny because I'm pretty sure that cannonically speaking Smaug is actually really insecure for being one of the smaller dragons in Tolkien's universe, so all of those afirmations about him being fire and death and all that are just him pumping himself up.

[@Xlcola]

He is the largest dragon in Middle Earth at that moment though ;)

[@holl0918]

@@Xlcola Kinda won be default...

[@goldendoomslayer6301]

Ancalagon be sitting from dragon heaven like you go get him lil guy you got this.

[@calumzmemez5075]

Wasn't the smallest but he was one of the weakest compared to his predecessors

[@ivanw2080]

Smaug was voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch (AKA Dr. Strange), who was referred to from his work alongside Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins) on the mystery crime drama Sherlock. That's why his portrayal of Smaug was so interesting and compelling to watch.

[@Real-Name..Maqavoy]

*Benedict* also voiced Sauron in the Hobbit Trilogy. And he came up with a really cool idea (talk black speech backwards) so he would speak normal elvish than they'd just reverse it and slow down the speech. Worked like a charm!

[@mister_silent6]

Damn I just found these comments and replies after I'd finished writing my own and its almost exactly the same😂😂🤣 I

[@bartoszrebelski8571]

@@Real-Name..Maqavoy it wasn't elvish, it was black speech

[@Real-Name..Maqavoy]

@@bartoszrebelski8571 Aye. I'll correct that.

[@penguin50279]

the gems that the elf king wanted were originally for his wife. that’s why he wants them. he’s not greedy.

[@rex8329]

Which they explain in the movie but sadly it was a deleted scene, no idea why

[@OgreProgrammer]

He is, however, a bit of a dick.

[@Tooba-K123]

Can you tell me why he wanted it for his wife?

[@penguin50279]

@@Tooba-K123 for a necklace

[@Tooba-K123]

@@penguin50279 thanks

[@ThatShyGuyMatt]

Whem Smaug revealed himself from the gold and started talking, it made everyone in the theater kinda spooked. Giant screen, surrounded sound speakers with extra bass going on them. Not often a dragon commands such a screen presence in a movie. More so in a theater.

[@celeste9958]

Probably my most scary showing of a dragon. Imagine trying to evade Smaug. Literally a flying death machine.

[@justinstone1169]

A lot of the actors in this are in marvel movies. Smaug/Sauron=Dr Strange, Galadriel=Hela, Tauriel =Wasp, Thranduil =Ronan the acuser, Thorin=hydra assassin who killed Dr Erskine, Elrond =Red Skull, Bilbo =Everett Ross

[@MrRockstar402]

And Eomer was Skurge in Thor: Ragnarok

[@chocorenavfx4403]

@@MrRockstar402 THAT WAS HIM???

[@johnwalker1058]

Then there's also Andy Serkis = Smeagol/Gollum aka Ulysses Klaue.

[@k--music]

I’m so conflicted abt this trilogy, it’s clear there was a lot of studio interference, time crunch that causes sloppy writing etc. but Martin Freeman’s performance and some of the scenes with Gandalf, gollum, and smaug are some of the best in the franchise for me

[@vsGoliath96]

They did the best they could with the massive amounts of studio interference. Clearly it never should have been a trilogy. There is easily an entire movie's worth of unnecessary scenes that can be cut out to make a nice, tight duology.

[@k--music]

@@vsGoliath96 agreed

[@theawesomeman9821]

it should have been one long movie instead of three overly extended films

[@iremainteague5653]

There's a guy on KZbin who made a one 4 hour movie cut of all three films. It's actually amazingly good and somehow makes perfect sense despite having 8 hours cut from it.

[@iremainteague5653]

Ed Harris is his channel name.

[@housel9352]

I remember having the privilege of watching this movie in a movie theater in 3rd grade as a reward for good grades. Seeing a huge awesome dragon on a theater screen is the best childhood memory of mine.

[@heatseekerx51]

Something the movie doesn't really talk about (explicitly) is the idea of 'Dragon Sickness': essentially a greed-born mania brought about by the obsession of gold and riches. Dragons inherently possess this trait, and will guard their treasure hoard with unrivaled determination. As Smaug states, he will not part with a single piece of it.

[@Xlcola]

Balin actually mentions dragon sickness explicitly :)

[@heatseekerx51]

@@Xlcola [snaps finger] You're right, he does. I suppose I never considered it effectively explained for the uninitiated.

[@JohnBanana]

@@XlcolaAnd gandalf. Dragon sickness seeps into the hearts of all who come near it. Almost all

[@Renoistic]

Really hated that plot point, that they made up for the movie to make Thorin more sympathetic. Sometimes greed is just greed.

[@dallinorr6929]

Sounds like most billionaires these days...

[@S.Parrow]

Fun Fact: The actor who plays Thranduil also played Ronan The Accuser in the Guardians of the Galaxy

[@nidheeshkumar6760]

LoL 🤣 u missed few their Dr strange and hela

[@S.Parrow]

@@nidheeshkumar6760 and Tauriel is Hope Van Dyne/Wasp in Ant-man. That's the problem with commenting early in the video

[@nidheeshkumar6760]

@@S.Parrow yup 😁😀 i forgot that i am not trying to demean you i am just saying lot of MCU cast is in this movie Gandalf also magneto except he is from fox marvel

[@blackwolf4653]

Isn‘t it Ronan the abuser?

[@mister_silent6]

I knew you'd enjoy this. Fun fact is that Benedict Cumberbatch voiced not only Sauron, but Smaug as well. He also did the movements for Smaug when voicing. Very good movie, probably my favorite of the Hobbit trilogy, and Return of the Kind being my favorite of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Overall, this movie was packed with action, steady pacing, and fun stuff.

[@Xackadee]

I have my issues with how the book was adapted into these movies, but one change I really like is that their burglary mission actually has a plan and a point to it from the start that intends to resolve the threat of Smaug. They actually have an endgame to steal the Arkenstone and use it as a symbolic rallying point for the rest of the Dwarf clans to defeat Smaug, rather than just haplessly going "Yeah, we're gonna set out with, what, 15 people and just, y'know, sneak in and rob the place. All that treasure. Just us. It'll be easy!" like they did in the book. Tolkien was a marvellous writer, but the Hobbit was clearly written when he was more interested in making a comedic fairy story than he was in establishing a world with concrete rules to it.

[@katharinaharmsen2991]

I so enjoy smaug the most. And I too see him standing in front of the mirror every morning chanting: "My teeth are swords! My claws are spears! The shock of my tail is a thunderbolt through the sky! The clap of my wings is a hurricane! My breath of fire, my signature, is death." and the going off to his white collar job in the big city ;)

[@Hyper_Fixation]

Everybody in my theater made the same horrified gasp you did when Bilbo accidentally kicked the key XD

[@MeesdeFilmliefhebber]

Hahaha when you said Smaug is basically a giant version of your diabolical cat 😂 just imagine: "my furballs...are like mountains!"

[@thedoctor4327]

So this trilogy is a case study in diminishing returns but I do enjoy a good portion of this. In particular: - The sequence of Gandalf discovering the Nazgûl have broke out of their tombs (to hell if it wasn’t in the books, it’s appropriately creepy) - Bard’s story. He makes for a decent equivalent for Aragorn. - Gandalf trying and failing to stand against Sauron. Love the use of the Minas Morgul theme. - Everything about Smaug and Bilbo’s conversation (in some ways I prefer it to the book scene). Easily the best scene in the trilogy alongside Riddles in the Dark

[@callnight1441]

agreed!

[@UpYourArsenal]

I enjoyed the story -- but the 'battle' at the end of the last one was just blatantly pathetic CGI. Put 1/4 of the 'troops' out there and make it interesting, don't just extend out 2,000 perfectly symmetrical units Total War style.

[@vsGoliath96]

Totally agree with you on diminishing returns. Unexpected Journey was genuinely fun with a couple of silly parts. Desolation of Smaug is a pretty mixed bag. Bilbo and Smaug is amazing, but it's in the same film as the barrel scene and surfing on molten gold... Battle of the Five Armies is just... just shit. Really, really bad. I legitimately cannot think of any moments I liked from it, and I say that without exaggeration. I actually felt insulted multiple times throughout the film.

[@ruarikelsey1793]

‘Case study in diminishing returns’ 😂 Stop trying to sound like a scholar or a connoisseur. You’re not that high-brow, you just didn’t like it. Maybe you just hate fun or joy or whatever, this trilogy was incredibly well made and had heart in every fibre of its being. Take away your cynicism and you wouldn’t be so critical of it.

[@vsGoliath96]

@@ruarikelsey1793 Ah yes, the rushed, poorly written, studio controlled fanfic filled with crappy CGI was definitely made with heart. Sure.

[@ImDerpyDuck]

"I feel like taking a dragon on like this is guts-" Miko: "MY TEETH ARE SWORDS! MY CLAWS ARE SPEARS!!!"

[@iReiGNxx]

I think the first movie captured the feel of the Hobbit best, but Smaug is the star of the show in this movie. Every line of his is so good and well performed.

[@Ammeeeeeeer]

Man Cumberbatch was really enjoying all that scenery chewing as Smaug! Not just the voice, he also contributed to the motion capture of the dragon. Definitely my fave movie dragon of all time, just above Sean Connery's Draco in "Dragonheart" 😁

[@dylangerig4915]

Gandalf: "you want me to cast my friends aside?" Vkunia: "don't do it. That's not like you, Gandalf." Fun fact: trying to help the free peoples prepare to fight Sauron upon his inevitable return is the exact purpose that Saruman, Radaghast, and Gandalf were sent to Middle Earth for.

[@rimasmuliolis1136]

Exactly. Imagine Smaug under Sauron's control, still alive in LOTR. Eowyn wouldn't have cut him out from under the Witch King. This was Gandalf's mission. btw Tauriel, Legolas' redheaded babe, might be familiar to you from Antman.

[@qbasicmichael]

I don't see why he couldn't handle both. The enemy and the 9 had evidentally returned some time prior. What harm a few more days? Whereas the dwarf situation is urgent, with durin's day approaching. Go help the dwarves, and send radagast to warn galadriel and elrond.

[@orangegalen]

There’s a theory I like that dragons like gold to sleep on because anything else will get set on fire and gold is the softest metal, so it’s their mattress essentially. Also lore wise, dragons were created by Morgoth, the evilest and darkest being that was the one that brought Sauron to his side (also the one that controlled the Balrogs). All the evil Sauron has made and done, Morgoth has done far worse. So Dragons in LotR are beings created by evil, hence Smaug’s attitude.

[@matthewpulido7912]

On the one hand I'm happy that you resumed The Hobbit. On the other you didn't do the extended edition like the first one. I really hope you remember to do the extended edition for the last film.

[@theredpriest]

Dragons are very prideful/arrogant. And Bilbo knew EXACTLY how to speak with Smaug. Flattering, yet not so flattering as so insult Smaug's intelligence. Had Bilbo spoken any other way, it would not have gone as well.

[@bensneb360]

You should check out the behind-the-scenes footage of Benedict Cumberbatch playing Smaug, it’s just him in a motion capture suit on the ground, but you can tell he’s having like a blast playing the character

[@iDuckman]

According to Tolkien, Smaug is pronounced sm-ow-g (all once syllable). 'au' is also prounced 'ow' in Sauron, with a bit of trill to the 'r'. Viggo pronounces it correctly in LotR. The voice of Smowg is provided by a Mr. Benedict Cumberbatch. You may have heard of him.

[@mevb]

Beorn doesn't hunt, not even as bear, as he's a vegetarian. In the book he's described as mostly living on honey and bread and that he doesn't slaughter his animals as he sees them as his family.

[@itsnobody3696]

Yeah Thranduil isnt greedy, he just wanted his wife jewelry back, idk why you would say that's greed when he also offered help/treasure in return for that Jewel

[@terrylandess6072]

“Good stories deserve a little embellishment.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien < I remember this when I think about this story becoming so epic.

[@falsenostalgia-shannon]

35:55 omg, I can’t begin to tell you how much you made me laugh here. Smaug and his daily personal affirmations. 😆😆

[@theGhost_141]

Fun fact, they used real fish for the fish barrel parts. So the actors had to endure the stink for real

[@william_santiago]

11:42 Kili was an adventurer until...😆

[@olddog330]

You little...Why, I oughta...I fling my upvote in your face! I feel so wrong laughing at that. Thank you!

[@Edd25164605]

I've got something I'm supposed to deliver, your eyes only ! 😀

[@metoo7557]

"Why is this dragon so hungry for gold?" Gold is a symbol of power, and as is the nature of dragons, to covet and hoard power.

[@Shego2Drakken]

25:26 - It's not about the Ring being gold, it's about it being the Ring of Power, hence Smaug's use of the word 'precious'.

[@qbasicmichael]

Yeah. Makes it clear he knows exactly what bilbo is wearing.

[@MaoKatz]

33:07 They just can't live in harmony as dragons, just like orcs, are servants of the dark lord Morgoth and, after his fall, servants of Sauron.

[@jjrocks22]

Benedict Cumberbatch did such a great job as Smaug, they hardly even did anything to the voice to like that’s pretty much all him

[@gardener68]

"Oh, barnacles!" is now my favorite exclamation.

[@johnwalker1058]

Vkunia reacting with the utmost disgust and horror at the spiders of Mirkwood: *shudder* "Bleahhh!!!" Me: I guess we shouldn't tell her about Ungoliant."

[@CountryMusicMann]

To explain: Rivendell is the most easterly home of the Noldor elves, master smiths, jewelers, and loremasters. Across the Misty Mountains, in Mirkwood, live the Sindar elves, much less educated and refined than the Noldor, though moreso than Men. The reasons for this are long and complicated, but as an extremely abridged explanation, back in the earliest days of the world, the elves awoke far in the east, in a land that no longer exists. They ventured west toward Valinor, but when the Sindar passed through the ancestor of the forest of Mirkwood (obviously before the spiders) they decided they wanted to stay, as they didn't want to cross the Misty Mountains. The rest of the elves continued on to Valinor. Later, a lot of very complex lore-heavy stuff happened, and the Noldor returned to Middle-Earth, this time coming from the west. They settled in another land that is now lost, with the only remnants of that civilization being Lindon, west of the Shire, and Rivendell, just west of the Misty Mountains. And as far as the dragon: there's no way a dragon would live in harmony with others. Dragons in Tolkien's lore are engineered monsters, instruments of wholesale devastation. Morgoth, Sauron's former master, created dragons along with orcs and balrogs to wage war on Elves, Dwarves, and Men, to conquer creation. Ain't no way a Tolkien dragon would stoop to working for what it can take.

[@HoloCatHead]

The official explanation for why dragons always have a hoard of gold is because that is how they make their beds. The metal is soft enough for them to lay upon and not as hard as stone, but won't ignite like sticks or grass.

[@mevb]

In the book, it's a bit different with the hidden door, instead of the last light of Durin's Day, it's when the sun and the moon is up in the sky together at the end of Durin's Day. The reason the dwarves gives up after the sun went down is that Durin's Day don't happen every year and the dwarf people have forgotten how to calculate when the next Durin's Day will be, so they could wait for years (which they can't afford).

[@paulwagner688]

Bilbo actually spends WEEKS invisible in the elf halls.

[@mevb]

I noticed you didn't watch The Extended Edition of the movie as Thraín, Throin's dad is in the extended edition where Gandalf finds him at Dol Guldur, finds out what happens to the last Dwarf Ring (Azog cut his finger off and took it, meaning that Sauron have all remaining Dwarf Rings that wasn't melted by dragon fire) and when they run into the Necromancer, he tells Gandalf to tell Thorin that he loved him before The Necromancer grabs him and swallows him before his fight with Gandalf. The Extended Edition have more bits like Gandalf attempts slowly introduce the dwarves to Beorn when he's not so fond of dwarves period, a bit at the tombs where the men of Gondor bury the coprses of the Ringwraiths in the Tombs of Rhudaur, Bilbo and the dwarves have to climb some vines over a river that has magic water that will make you fall asleep if you fall in it (which Bombur does and four of the others have to carry him for a couple of days while being lost in Mirkwood), Captain Braga and his men almost catches the dwarves at Lake Town Market but the men gets knocked out by them and the villagers help hide them while Bard distracts Braga, and there's a longer scene with The Master and Alfrid discussing about Bard while The Master have ram and goat testicles with mushroom gravy for breakfast. You should watch those scenes here on KZbin cuz they're worth watching.

[@Anthony_Marquis]

I look forward to your reaction to "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" to conclude this series! Great reaction!

[@jmhaces]

Thranduil, Legolas' dad, is a total diva but he's not really greedy. He just asked Thorin for the jewels in exchange of his help because they were his late wife's and he wants them as a memento of her. And he doesn't want to risk his people by fighting the dragon because, as he said, he's faced dragons before and he knows what it's like. And he was still willing to help in exchange for his wife's jewels but Thorin rebuked him and he got offended by that.

[@lordmortarius538]

The White Gems of Lasgalen were a plot device created by Peter Jackson to make Thranduil's interest in Erebor more plausible to audiences :P

[@rhalarda4088]

Thranduil also has every reason not like nor trust Dwarves based on his history with them.

[@mevb]

The Mirkwood Spiders are the spawn of (or at least closly related to) Shelob from The Lord of the Rings. They all are decendants of Ungoliant, a demon spider from outside of the world of Arda (where Middle-Earth is located) who helped Morgoth (Sauron's ex-master) killing the Two Trees of Valinor (which wear the light sources of the world before the sun and the moon was created, in fact the sun and the moon are two flying ships where the fruit of the silver tree and the flower of the golden tree respectively, each sailed by a Vala, the gods of Arda). Once returning to Middle Earth, she ensnared him in a spider web when he refused her to let her have The Silmarils (magical jewels) but was saved by his Balrogs who tore the web down and attacked the ginomrous spider with their flaming whips, forcing her to flee and hide.

[@drewrosecrans9728]

Both franchise's are beyond iconic!

[@Ssecave]

36:14 The silence in between Smaug's lines and the silence just after it. My god it was incredible in the theatre back then. Like everybody shared a collective silent "ho shiet" just before the music start :'D. Best dragon in cinema history (tho it's not reallllly a full dragon (no 4 legs) but who cares !

[@tjarkschweizer]

A dragon is not defined by the number of limbs it has! There are dragons with two, four, six, a hundred or no legs. They're all dragons regardless.

[@CarnageO31]

36:19 Should have been the thumbnail. It's perfect XD

[@Taningökberkk]

Bilbo actually spends weeks invisible in the elf halls

[@TheHeroClass]

1:18 the makeup is looking fantastic!!

[@RegularGamer392]

He was this much trouble and Smaug is one of the smaller dragons of middle earth 🐉🐲

[@xanthiusdrake2775]

And not only smaller but also generally weaker, red dragons are pretty strong, but its the purple ones or black ones you want to avoid the most.

[@Frelzor]

Smaug is not one of the smaller dragons. In fact, he is one of the bigger ones. His size compared to the rest of his kind is never mentioned, but he is the "last of the great dragons", which would make him bigger than most.

[@Frelzor]

@@xanthiusdrake2775 What? Do you have any source for this? I wanna say you either made it up or are confusing two different fantasy stories - colors on dragons meant nothing in Tolkien's legendarium.

[@xanthiusdrake2775]

@@Frelzor Black dragons existed in the LOTR universe, one to be exact; Ancalagon the Black, the greatest of all dragons. And there are other dragons that make Smaug look weak when compared to them. Also the color a dragon does not always depict the color of their bodies, but the color of their breath, in this case with LOTR, the purple color is directed to dragons with lightning or plasma breath.

[@Frelzor]

@@xanthiusdrake2775 Nobody challenged that there are black dragons in Tolkien's legendarium - but dragons are not "rated" by their color. There are is exactly *one* dragon that we know are bigger than Smaug - and that is Ancalagon, and we only know that because he was the biggest. Glaurung and Scatha are probably also bigger, but Smaug is still one of the great dragons, and THE greatest of the Third Age. What the heck are you on about? A color doesn't depict the body? What does that even mean? Plasma breath? What fantasy universe are you talking about? It for sure isn't Tolkien's.

[@117dragonking]

Was literally doing the exact laugh WHILE hearing her theory, and then saw the clip for our reactions after hearing it. I died.

[@swagromancer]

"Nobody makes me bleed my own blood!" - Legolas, probably

[@Real-Name..Maqavoy]

*Funfact:* The bear/skin changer (Actor) in Smaug. Is a very famous Swedish Actor. *Mikeal Persbrandt* He rarely does English movies. I'm from *Sweden* and.. I was SHOCKED when I found this out! ^^ Watched them all back-to-back not that long ago. And *The hobbit* & *Smaug* are great. The 3rd is.. Not that great (has a good ending),but thats about it. Feels very rushed and a lot of.. odd things in it.

[@mevb]

Tauriel is a character made specifically for the movie as the original book lacked female characters (Belladonna Took, Bilbo's mom is mentioned but she was dead long before the events of the book, and while Galadriel wasn't mentioned in the story, in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, it told that she was at Dol Guldur as she, Gandalf, Saurman, Elrond, Celeborn and an elf lord called Glorfindel were members of The White Council and they purged Dol Guldur of The Necromancer).

[@Edd25164605]

Random Fact. Bards daughters are played by James Nesbitts (Bofur the Dwarf) daughters!

[@SophiesDriver]

I enjoy your reactions, your insights, your conclusions. 1:19 I even like your new look. And Miko? I want to see more of the cat. Absolutely adorable at 33:57

[@CJR-wv8kc]

I was actually wondering if you had abandoned these. Also it was funny you mentioned the go-pro's because that is how they filmed much of the footage. And fyi those fish that you said was gross, they were 100% real and the actors did indeed get buried under tons of real fish and it stank

[@HugeAirconditioner]

Fave part of the movie was the cat for sure

[@fnglert]

"It's a spider! Ofcourse it is!" - Nah. It's not a spider. It's *many* spiders.

[@Wolf9216]

You don't seem very smart, why would the dwarves team up with the dragon who chased them out?

[@chuckwoods7321]

@Heimdall she watched the first one right? It’s right in the opening! I haven’t read those books either, it’s just paying to attention to the movies

[@ThatShyGuyMatt]

I love how Myko is like "Uhhuh.....K....."

[@hellowhat890]

24:38 When you're a child trying to sneak around at night but you hear your parents movements from the other rooms and they can see through walls. XD

[@jenni5104]

Legolas was always my crush too. And then I saw his dad. 😍 Thranduil is Middle Earth's next top model lol

[@holyloktarw186]

HAHAHA! "And they didn't bring their GoPro's"

[@marcostapia1949]

Benedict Comberbach plays both sauron and smaug

[@nataliep6385]

I hated the fact that the dragon itself was able to talk english.. Could you imagine the Balrog in LOTR started talking english to Gandalf?

[@incogneato790]

The spiders in Mirkwood are the children of Shelob (the spider in LotR), they are the ones that got away before Shelob could eat them.

[@DeepSpace_Pw]

3:45 Exactly, I cannot understand the people who say the movies are bad, but I also always thought that it looks a bit too digital. The Lotr and the Orks inside these movies looked more natural, because except Gollum etc they haven't used that much GCI.

[@Lord_Betty]

Fun fact: the eyepatch guy in Lake Town is played by Stephen Colbert.

[@CountryMusicMann]

16:58 Interesting fact: that one-eyed Laketowner is actually Stephen Colbert, one of the biggest Tolkien nerds in the world.

[@pspublic13]

Vkunia, you would probably enjoy Arachnophobia a lot. Eight-Legged Freaks is also a great spider movie.

[@dannybob42]

I think this is the best of the Hobbit trilogy, thanks mainly to actually seeing Smaug do his stuff, some of the additions while not inoffensive - such as Legolas' return and the creation of Tauriel to push a romance with Kili - weren't exactly needed the overuse of CGI was a common criticism too

[@Frelzor]

The inclusion of Legolas makes sense - he would've been there if it weren't for the fact that he hadn't been invented yet. Same with Tauriel - they could easily have just given a name to a random Elf that was there in the books. The love triangle, however.. Eh, I realise there's a target audience for it (which isn't me), so I can overlook it.

[@kentbarnes1955]

Good approach to NOT compare these to LOTRs. In fact the two books (yes LOTR is actually ONE book...was just split into 3 because of production costs at the time) are VERY different. LOTRs is largely the concluding chapter in Tolkien's entire Middle Earth legendarium (check out videos from Men of the West, Tolkien Untangled, Nerd of the Rings etc). The Hobbit (Tolkien's first literary success) was/is for the most part a children's book. Peter Jackson had a near impossible task trying to make the Hobbit, capturing the more light heartedness of the story, while grounding it in the INCREDIBLE realism of the Middle Earth he created for LOTRs. Enjoy The Hobbit movies on their own merits. Yes there are flaws (the use of CGI for some of the main Orc characters is one...as opposed to the practical effects used in LOTR...opps...I guess that is a comparison), but there are some awesome bits as well...i.e., the design of the dragon Smaug. Thanks as always for an excellent review.

[@MKF30]

Compared to the show the films are Godly lol. I think we can all agree on that All flaws aside afterall nothing is perfect afterall but yeah Jackson did a great job with LOTR and Hobbit.

[@shaderax_storm6165]

It would be like comparing the Princess bride to kingdom of heaven (directors cut) The Hobbit is meant to be read to kids as a bed time story, like Alice in Wonderland or the wizard of Oz. The Lord of the rings was a labour of love and madness, full of history and fantasy all smashed together with a world war analogue in there if you squint hard enough. The Del Toro hobbit movie with be a film people will always be left to wonder about.

[@kentbarnes1955]

@@shaderax_storm6165 I read The Hobbit to both of my kids at bedtime as they were growing up.

[@shaderax_storm6165]

@@kentbarnes1955 I got read that and the black cauldron... Is it a trilogy? The series of books, I must have rewatched the animated lord of the rings and black cauldron on a loop as a kid, and was fascinated with rotascoping. I'll never forget my dad pausing a vhs tape and getting some tracing paper to copy the entire image from the TV screen and passing it to me. Like sodding seeing magic being made! Fantasy should awaken the imagination.

[@shaderax_storm6165]

@D G Tolkien presented the books as a singular tome, but the publishers told him that no one would buy a book that big. You can find a lot of the back story in the a copy of the Silmarillion where it has letters sent back and forth between publishing house, and added information from his children.

[@mevb]

Legolas wasn't in the book as Tolkien didn't come up with him until The Lord of the Rings but consinder most elves are around a couple of thousands of years old, it is plausable he was around in Mirkwood and maybe even fought in The Battle of Five Armies. Thranduil was just called The Elven King in The Hobbit, he wasn't named until The Lord of the Rings where it is mentioned he was the King of Mirkwood and Legolas' dad.

[@chloec4009]

1 more movie and then you're all done with the films of this universe. I do recommend the Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War video games as well as the Rings of Power tv show if you want more content. If you do plan on experiencing both the games and the show I recommend watching the show first, there are some reveals I think are presented more satisfyingly in the show than in the games.

[@blazednlovinit]

You wonder why Smaug is so full of himself and loves gold? Ultimately and simply, it's just the nature of dragons in middle earth, they are creatures of greed and vanity. The reason Bilbo is giving him riddles is similarly because "dragons love riddles", it's just in their nature. Another thing dragons can do is hyponotise/charm lesser creatures with their eyes and voice (called "dragon-spell"), this is how he got Bilbo to take off the ring.

[@bobcharles1204]

The spiders of Mirkwood were offspring of Shelob, the spider Frodo encounters on his trip to Mordor

[@joshberth2771]

I'm heading to NZ on Thursday for an lotr and hobbit tour for 3 weeks so excited. I can scratch this off the old bucket list.

[@datdudeinred]

6:17 greatness begins 😂😂😂

[@chrism7395]

12:00 knowing this was filmed in New Zealand, I'm a little surprised that Barrel Riding isn't already a thing considering some of the other extreme sports that you can do around Queenstown

[@pduidesign]

Please please watch the extended version of the next (and last) Hobbit movie. Especially if you love Cate Blanchett. There is an extended scene with her.

[@Hockeyhobo89]

She said she watched it already so I’m afraid if she didn’t for this she won’t for that, which is weird because she watched the extended edition for the first one.

[@abc.animal5143]

The barrel raft scene as awesome, and Smaug was the best part of the trilogy.

[@williamflores7081]

Should watch the bloopers, particularly the bloopers for the scene at 10:25 😂😂 I laughed for too long

[@thedoctor4327]

If I’m being honest I’m not opposed to Tauriel. She could have easily taken the place of the nameless elves that had lines in the book and provided a female character the story was lacking. That said, the unnecessary love triangle didn’t do it for me (and to the actress Evangeline Lilly as well)

[@CJR-wv8kc]

Same here, to me the love triangle took away from the legolas and gimli friendship as it was supposed to be special, but how can it be if just 50 years earlier elves and dwarves were falling in love.

[@OriginalPuro]

"If I’m being honest" Do you usually lie? If no, you don't specify when you're honest, you're just honest..

[@to0muchtoan]

Agreed. There was much more CGI with the Orcs this time around and that just made it look less immersive.

[@christianbeck7901]

It's wild when you think that when you compare Smaug to other dragons in Middle Earth, Smaug was tiny

[@aaronburdon221]

I know right? Ancelegon the Black was about the size of the lonely mountain so smaug could literally walk around inside him.

[@Frelzor]

I will repeat myself to death with this, but this is a common misconception - Smaug really isn't tiny - he's actually quite huge, being the last of the great dragons. He was the greatest of the Third Age, and the only one we know for sure was bigger, is Ancalagon. Most likely Glaurung and perhaps Scatha as well, but seeing how we never get any concrete measurement to compare them with, we can't be certain. What we *can* be certain of, though, is that Smaug is one of the greats.

[@megg8566]

Thranduil is not greedy. The gems he wants belonged to his wife.

[@mattwhite2328]

Tauruel taught Legolas the love of dwarves.

[@qbasicmichael]

Or maybe the respect of dwarves. It was probably gimli who taught him the love of dwarves.

[@oddish3022]

“Oh there’s a dumb bird” -VKunia 2022 😂

[@idimebag_163]

Dr strange is smaug´s voice

[@djgusto5878]

Her: Nobody likes orcs! Me: SARUMAN!

[@xanthiusdrake2775]

Well to be fair they are not actually orcs, its hard to explain what they actually are because a lot of cultures and franchises have different names for them, but it all points to the same thing.

[@Coprolite19]

Smaug is one of my favorite movie creatures. You should watch a video of Benedict Cumberbatch in the motion capture suit voicing Smaug

[@zeynepbusraogretici6696]

0:24 We wanted this too, girl. We wanted...

[@ravensshadow2179]

This is my second favorite Hobbit movie, my biggest complaint is that when they are in the treasure room and Smog breathe fire the gold doesn't melt, but it does later.

[@TheWindcrow]

Vicky... That mane though, on point.

[@kyleterrell6842]

This is the best movie of the trilogy. The next one is pretty cgi heavy, but it is still full of action and emotion.

[@jamesdee759]

They have added stuff and a few characters to these movies that were not in the book. I understand why though. They wanted to make the Hobbit book into a trilogy.

[@-_James_-]

"GetRect!" I still fail to see the fascination with the Windows API. 🤣 Also, was that Stephen Fry?

[@geraldrhodes4114]

"...white water version; and they didn't bring their GoPros." Way too much!