'The Hobbit 3' Trailer Released [Watch Here]

When fans learned that J.R.R. Tolkien's story about a Hobbit will be made into a series of movies, they railed against the plan, thinking that there will be a lot of watering down and heavy Hollywood treatment applied to the movie adaptation of the much-loved book. After all, how indeed can you stretch a slim volume into three long films of an epic scale? Director Peter Jackson's successful "Lord of the Rings" movie triumvirate average three hours.

However, after having seen the first two parts of "The Hobbit," fans and moviephiles seem to be pleased with Jackson's treatment. And now, with the arrival of the first trailer of the third and final installment of the LOTR "prequel," it appears that the 52-year-old filmmaker is playing his cards right.

"The teaser for 'The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies' promises every dramatic special effect and battle sequence director Peter Jackson and his Weta Digital workshop can pull out of their magical hats," The Daily Mail observed.

The said clip was first unveiled at Comic-Con on Saturday. Perhaps not wanting to deprive the rest of us with that privilege, the trailer was released to the general public just hours ago, about 2 days after the SDCC 2014 launch.

In the trailer, Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and the dwarves, along with the helpful hobbit, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), "left the towns surrounding the Lonely Mountain at risk of destruction by a scaly beast intent on revenge."

"In a lull before the storm, the trailer begins with Bilbo's voice drifting over footage of elf Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) looking alarmed as Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen) rides through battlegrounds; Smaug destroying Lake-town in a fire-breathing fit of rage and Legolas (Orlando Bloom) surveying the smoke filled wreckage," the British publication said. "The trailer promises drama, but also sorrow, and is set to mournful song The Steward of Gondor (Mist and Shadow) first seen on Lord Of The Rings and performed by the hobbit Pippin (Billy Boyd)."

The one minute and fifty second clip also shows Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans), Elvenking Thranduil (Lee Pace), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), and Gandalf (Ian McKellen). It ends poignantly on a scene of Thorin asking, "Will you follow me one last time?"

According to Forbes, this third installment is less of a risk to Warner Bros., as it already had huge hits with the first two and that "much of the footage shot for this third picture was merely stuff that was shot during the initial production for what was supposed to be the two-film Hobbit adaptation."

"Warner Bros. already had two installments that made a $1.1 billion and $958m worldwide respectively for the trilogy. This third entry almost counts as a freebie in terms of financial risk," the business and finance news source observed. "As such, the teaser above exudes a certain confidence, using a beloved song from Return of the King and adopting the same grim tone as the first teaser for that trilogy caper back in 2003."

Will you watch "The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies" when it opens in theaters on December 17 this year? Tell us in the comments section below.

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