Movie trailers are often overlooked as an art form in their own right. Many people — myself included— will see a film without ever having viewed its promotional trailer. But for some people, a trailer can be the catalyst for discovering and then going and paying to see a film. A good trailer should make a film look good even if the actual film itself isn’t. A trailer needs to build enthusiasm and anticipation for a film without giving away too much or too little. And in roughly two minutes — a pretty average length for a movie trailer — that can be hard to do. In 2013, these were some of the films that found the perfect balance — or were just incredible and deserve to be watched.

5. “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”

The trailer for the second installment of The Hobbit series pulls a nice trick. A good portion of viewers already know where this film, and the series, is headed, but instead of giving the viewer what they already know and want — the climatic battle with a dragon and other forces of evil — Peter Jackson and company don’t reveal the goods. It’s so tantalizingly close, but they make sure you have to see the film to be completely satiated.

4. “The Wolf of Wall Street”

This trailer is dangerous. It sucks you into a maelstrom of cool. Kanye West’s “Black Skinhead” smacks you immediately in the face, and then you’re along for the tightly edited ride that makes this film look like a surefire hit. It’s sure to inspire audiences to enthusiastically line up outside the theater.

3. “American Hustle”

The trailer for American Hustle doesn’t give a whole lot of insight into the plot of the film, but it makes up for it by simply oozing style and cool. You feel cool just watching this trailer. It has an incredibly talented cast and director, it’s tightly edited and when it’s over you won’t soon forget it.

2. “Only God Forgives”

Only God Forgives is — in a manner — a phenomenal trailer because it made a movie that ended up polarizing critics look like it was going to be incredible (actually polarizing might be to forgiving, most people hated this film). Nicolas Winding-Refn’s follow up to Drive looked like it had a lot going for it: cool location, cool premise and Ryan Gosling. And the trailer lived up to the hype. It’s lit in flashes of fluorescent lights and driven by a pulsing song as it sets up what looks like an awesome revenge flick centered on a troubled Ryan Gosling in a seedy criminal underground. The filmmakers probably couldn’t have asked for anything more; regardless of their intention was with the film (commercial suicide? The Kid A of movies?), the trailer knocks it out of the park.

1. “Gravity”

This trailer throws my own notion about what a trailer should be out the window for one very simple reason: I didn’t go see Alphonso Cauron’s Gravity specifically because of the trailer. It scared the living daylights out of me; it left me clenching the arm of my chair, eyes blinking rapidly and muttering profanities. And it did so because it’s a masterful piece of work that managed to stir a disturbing emotional response from me in just two minutes and 33 seconds. Most films can’t manage that in two hours. The Gravity trailer is beautifully rendered, with a terrifying near 30 second unedited shot focused on an astronaut played by Sandra Bullock spinning out of control in space hundreds of miles above Earth. It’s disorientating, pulse quickening and gorgeous all at the same time. Perhaps it defeated its own purpose — but I’m afraid of space so whatever it doesn’t count — but the Gravity trailer is incredible in its own right.