Amph The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Balrogs are Maiar ( Gandalf is a Maia, as was Sauron originally ). The Balrog is intelligent/self-aware, as is Smaug. The same can be said for Glaurung in The Silmarillion.

In the book Smaug speaks verbally.

His speech with bilbo being on of the most iconic moments of the novel, so I'd say he can speak. He's also very intelligent and another fan of riddles.

The

riddle scene between Bilbo and Gollum was very amusing

I agree.

I just hope film Smaug sounds like a dragon speaking and not like, say the way the goblin king spoke. Looked like a giant, horrid monster but sounded like a very articulate orator. Not that it seemed terribly out of place.

in the book, Smaug speaks to Bilbo, he will in the movie too voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch

Smaug is hyper-intelligent. Tolkien's Dragons are basically re-useable nukes with beyond-human AI. The words that Dragons speak are known to hypnotize and cast a spell over all those who hear, and they especially enjoy riddles and mind games. In the books, Smaug speaks to Bilbo, but Dragons are known to have influences over the mind too, so I'm not sure which direction the movies will go in.

Also, the Balrog of Moria definitely could have spoken since he was a brother of Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast, Sauron, and the rest.

If the Balrog was so smart, why didn't it use its wings to fly back up when Gandalf broke the bridge?

Because it wasn't supposed to have wings. This is a long running argument, best not to bring it up...

"And suddenly it reared itself up to a great height and its wings were spread from wall to wall."

Case closed

Smaug certainly seems able to talk in some way, having not read The Hobbit for many years I forget if it is stated exactly how he talks. By this I mean whether it is some sort of mental voice projection stemming from his Dragon ability to have a hypnotic-like power over others or if he actually moves his mouth.

Not having read the books but having seen the films and having read the debates:

It appears to me the balrogs are spirits that manifest an avatar of sorts that appear to have wings. Though they are very magical beings once manifested they do tend to obey some form of physics so that they at least need room or a running start to fly or if not that then they need their magic to be unoccupied(like not fighting a being like Gandalf) in order to call upon said magic to fly.

I have to say, it seems pretty incompetent of the dwarves to have lost to him. All they needed to do was lead him into a narrow chamber where he could not fly out or maneuver easily. Then seal it behind him, and make sure the room has abundant arrowslits in a 360 degree circumvallation. Stand back from whichever region he attempts to use fire, and in the meantime have archers unleash their fury form everywhere else. He would pretty quickly suffer a death from a thousand cuts.

You mean Alatar and Pallandro?

Pallando.

Pallando system?

Unless he just waited outside the chamber and sent orcs to deal with the archers.

I'm currently rereading the Hobbit at the moment, it's kind of amusing imagining where Peter JAckson will add unnecessary action scenes.

We should place bets. Double if someone correctly guesses an Albinorc scene.

In the movie Smaug will talk out of his butt ala Ace Ventura.

No, not talk. Remember we never saw where the fire came from in the prologue.

Quoth the PJ: “The trouble with redesigning dragons I’ve found is… you very quickly can go into science fiction territory, and I don’t want to do that. I want to present the most venal, scary, decrepit, nasty dragon I possibly can.”

Pallando's not a system, he's a man! ...er, well, he looks like a man...