Behold, the First Trailer for 'The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies'

Culture

Dramatic a capella singing? CGI monsters? Orlando Bloom with platinum blond locks? Why, it could only be the preview trailer for The Battle of the Five Armies, the last installment of Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy.

Just in case Jackson hadn't done enough to prove that a 276-page children's book should be turned into a nine-hour cinematic odyssey, the new trailer continues to pile on the drama as the titular war between the races begins in Middle Earth. 

The trailer strays away from spoiling big battle scenes and instead focuses on a lot of smaller, no less dramatic moments. Evangeline Lilly and Orlando Bloom lurk on hillsides as elves Tauriel and Legolas, Cate Blanchett briefly appears weeping, Ian McKellen looks bloodied and exhausted (as would anyone after six movies of this length) and Martin Freeman continues to charm as Bilbo Baggins. 

Jackson decided to expand the films to a trilogy to include all the material surrounding the battle provided in the appendices of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books, and has also adapted from parallel plotlines within the Silmarillion. Hopefully the driving force of the battle will keep the movie from feeling as padded out and overly comprehensive as its predecessors were accused of being.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies hits theaters on Dec. 17.