In my humble opinion, he's just a pretty boy who can read (credit to CheezeKing for that explanation!). I'm not that much for him because I think they ruined the true Legolas (the one who is profound, has a deep friendship with Gimli that transcends mere words, the one who sings about Nimrodel, etc) when they cut many of those parts out of the movie. In the future, I still think that Orlando has much to prove with his acting abilities, though I have not yet seen anything that he is in except for Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Carribean (which I was half-asleep through, anyways).
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Itaque incipet.
All that glitters is not gold but at least it contains free electrons.