I’ve certainly no issue with good old Leggie shooting down a winged beast of the Nazgul, given that he can also dispatch such large armoured creatures as Oliphaunts with such aplomb as well. But the flying monsters that Melkor spawned at least seem to be of a manageable size to a single warrior.
One of my favorite parts of all in LOTR ,both film and the radio series, is Eowyn’s slaying of the Witch king on Pelennor Fields and I’ll even admit to that slight lump in the throat every time I see or hear that entire scene, its such a rarely written heroic part for a fair lady to play. But I never for a moment doubted in her ability as a shield maiden to slay both the Nazgul and his nightmarish ride, large as they were.
But Smaug ,even as the last of the Fire drakes , looks in these trailers far vaster that I ever imagined he would be. I always pictured him to be in size and shape rather like a scarlet cousin of Verminthrax (courtesy of “DragonSlayer” ) probably because he’s perhaps the most definitive dragon we’ve had yet as a screen character. Its hard to judge the scale I know but even he looks like a puny reptile god set against Smaugs kiaju like proportions.
It seems we are really talking the Death Star of all film Dragons here and so I find my credulity that a single arrow ,however dependably shot by Bard, can actually take down a sky monster of that magnitude somewhat stretched.
Saying that ,if that bare hollow in his left breast where his foreleg is flung wide turns out to be just under two metres wide and therefore somewhat similar to a certain thermal exhaust port, then I guess I really will just have to go a long with it.
Regardless of that point , given the newly reported cost of the Hobbit films, it seems PJ has truly almost needed Smaugs mountain of gold to produce it all. But I don’t doubt for a moment it will all look as magnificent on screen as Smaug himself will. Now if only they’ll do a slightly cheaper radio version so I can listen to it whilst I paint, I’ve almost worn my old BBC LOTR tapes out.
