The Lord of the Rings book and film series is one of the most well known fantasy series of all time, and it is therefore one of the staples of geeky culture. But before Lord of the Rings, there was “The Hobbit,” the prequel novel released by J.R.R. Tolkien in 1937. While the three-book epic fantasy Lord of the Rings is almost 1,000 more pages than “The Hobbit,” they will both receive the same screen time: three movies. Now, “The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies,” the third and final installment in Bilbo Baggins’ adventure, is almost upon us, set to be released on Wednesday, Dec. 17.

The main trailer was released on Thursday, Nov. 6. Some background: In the second film, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” the dwarf Thorin and company (whose party includes iconic characters such as Bilbo Baggins and the wizard Gandalf) travelled to the Lonely Mountain next to Lake-Town in search of the Arkenstone. The Arkenstone, which was in possession of the dragon Smaug inside the Lonely Mountain, is the sign of whoever rules the Mountain. Thorin’s dwarf heritage establishes him as the heir, but he does not have the stone. So in a search to get said stone, Thorin and his crew made Smaug pretty darn angry, as dragons don’t typically like giving up any of their hoard of valuables, despite the fact that all he really does is sleep all the time. Smaug starts to attack Lake-Town, the dwarves claim all of his hoard as their own and pretty much every group in Middle Earth comes riding in to fight for it (hence the “Battle of Five Armies”).

The trailer starts off with some intense but soft music, introducing us to nearly every major player in the movie, such as the dwarves, Gandalf and even infamous Lord of the Rings baddie Sauron. Different parts of the Five Armies are shown coming to battle, such as Thandruil leading his elves and the bats coming from Mordor. And then, in typical Lord of the Rings fashion, battle music starts to rage as a montage of fighting scenes commence. We are left with Bilbo slipping on the infamous ring, and then the title card.

It is clear that if you enjoy any of the other Lord of the Rings or Hobbit movies, you will mostly likely like this one, too. It has all the staples of Peter Jackson’s famous movies: absolutely incredible makeup and costuming, very well done special effects work and incredibly intense battle sequences. Plus, this is the final planned Tolkien movie. This might be the last chance for die-hard fans and cheerful movie-goers alike to attend a midnight premiere for a fantasy epic film about an adventurous hobbit. I’ve watched the trailer at least five times, and I am super excited to see it. The films are always a great combination of beautiful audio, visuals and story. The only problem I have with these movies is that they don’t come with built-in intermissions – three hours is a long time (I can’t even survive my first block without wishing I had a bathroom break).

Overall, I recommend the film to anyone who’s a fan of the previous Tolkien movies or books, adventure movies, intense battle scenes or to someone who wants to chill out with some friends but really just needs a three-hour nap. Until then, you can have a re-watch party of all the other movies (all the extended editions of Lord of the Rings plus the regular Hobbit DVDs would last a whopping 17 hours!) or simply enjoy some quality Tolkien comedy.