"THAT, MY FRIEND, WAS A DRAGON!"

Balin (The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug, 2013).

Big, but is it a dragon?

Late again, I know.

So, the new trailer for the Hobbit is causing a stir online, and we finally get a head-shot of the antagonistic dragon of the title.

Huh. So that's what Smaug looks like... 

How... Disappointing.

In the first Hobbit film I took issue with the amount of CGI that was used in place of physical effects. I found this the most jarring in 2 scenes: firstly, with the Goblins inside Moria (who had previously been so well portrayed by actors in makeup in LOTR), and with Smaug's attack on the Dwarfs during the Hobbit's opening. This later instance illustrated the single biggest flaw of CGI: heft. CGI creatures (as opposed to landscapes, which fair better) never have the 'weight' or 'presence' to completely convince, and Smaug's flight over the dwarf kingdom was both too fast and too 'light'; a beast that size would be moving slower and flapping it's wings with greater power. 

The Fell Beast, as seen in Return Of The King.

Oddly, the LOTR films handled this problem more smoothly- remember the Fell Beast? The winged bat-like creature that the Ringwraith rode into battle, attacking Gondor from the skies? It 'felt' more real. When it dived it was fast, but it didn't move like a jet! 

The Horntail, giving Harry a run for his money.

Still, the Fell Beast is a rare example of a perfectly believable CGI creature, so I thought "maybe I'm being overly picky to compare Smaug to the Fell Beast", and I put aside my concerns- still excited to see Smaug's grand reveal. I thought a decent design would atone for the lack or realism, so imagine my disappointment with the above film-still from the new Hobbit trailer. Not only is the design more like something from How To Train Your Dragon (some of them monsters looked pretty silly, didn't they*?), but the quality of the effects are terrible! It's like a straight-to-DVD dragon, from the type of films with titles like 'Shark Vs Ninja' and 'Stripper Zombies From Planet X', or 'I am Legendary'. Even the dragon in BBC's Merlin looks better!

A Dragon, according to the BBC... Looks a little like the Loch Ness monster.

Nevermind. Maybe it's just more of a let-down after the effects in LOTR? Actually, taking another glance at the first picture, that is pretty rubish, isn't it? It looks so obviously fake, let's hope the effects are still unfinished! Although, I doubt they'd include such a shot in the trailer if it was still being tweaked.

Rein Of Fire. I'll confess I've not seen this film all the way through, is it any good?

In my mind (at least) there is only one real movie dragon, and although others have come close (Harry Potter's Horntail and the creatures from Reighn Of Fire spring to mind), it still reins supreme. Dark, brooding, frighting; everything a real dragon should be...

Ladies and gents, I bring you 'Vermithrax Pejorative', from the (suprisingly dark) Disney film Dragonslayer. So-so film, unpronounceable name, and a very camp Peter MacNicol as the heroic lead, but one fucking awesome Dragon!

"Holy shit!" Dragon Slayer's formidable Vermithrax.

  ...Peter Jackson take note: that, my friend, is a real dragon.

*In defense of How To Train Your Dragon; some of those creatures were supposed to be daft and loveable, but the  King Dragon in the film's climax was terrifying...