Born of Hope

Having thoroughly enjoyed the short but sweet story from The Hunt for Gollum, I was delighted to experience another LOTR fan film - but this time from a different Director and ultimately from a different perspective.

Although perhaps in less style, this film packs a fuller storyline with greater substance than its independent predecessor. The romance is multi-layered; the action is smooth; the costumes and settings are fantastic; and the set is beautifully crafted to create the perfect homestead ambiance.

The characters are surprisingly well defined, for such a relatively short feature, and this is complemented well by two outstanding acting performances in particular - Christopher Dane (Arathorn) and Kate Madison (Elgarain).

Other than the above, I loved the script and was also surprised by a subtly professional music score.

All in all, the success of Born of Hope should encourage other independent film-makers to take hold of their own production reins and create individualistic, original and just plain enjoyable fan films.

It is professional grade quality! Acting, editing, script, costumes, sets,music, make-up--it's all in the professional category. The only complaint I have is that I can't have the DVD in high def. It belongs very proudly on my shelf next to the LotR movies. It's clear that you all have futures in the moving making industry if you want them. You stayed close to the vision of Tolkien, and for that reason alone, I'm very grateful. That it is free to us is one of the greatest mathoms ever given, but I would gladly have paid to see this at the theater. Perhaps maybe one day.

Kate and crew...great work! You should be very proud. I'll be watching this often.

I've been following the production of Born of Hope for over two years, and it was well worth the wait. It's an excellent film period, but it is especially impressive given that it is a fan film made on a low budget. The effects aren't top-notch (though better than those in many fan films), but you can really tell that the team responsible for this cared about every aspect of the film.

For me, the beauty is in the details - just little things that only real fans of the books will notice, but add so much more to the film. There was a brief moment with Halbarad and young Aragorn that contributed little to the story but still managed to give me chills. It's the little moments like this that make this film truly remarkable.

They did an excellent job of scouting locations, especially for Taurdal - it really captured how I've always envisioned the Dunedain villages. The story isn't flawless, but they did very well provided how little they had to go off of. You feel for every one of the characters, and even though I knew how it would end, I was nearly in tears. It was beautifully written and beautifully performed.

In all, I definitely recommend this film. It represents everything that I love about fan films. It's loyal to the original material and captures the feel of Middle-earth, but it's also a beautiful story in its own right. It's an excellent companion to the trilogy, and I will be watching it many more times.

Overall Born of Hope is a good movie. It was character driven, accurate and enjoyable. You forget the budget is small once you get taken in by the tale. In no way is it a rip-off of of Jackson's trilogy because it is a historic story from the same land and people......Middle Earth; as well as written by the same visionary author.....J.R.R Tolkien. Since the film isn't plot driven it can seem as if it's not going to twist and climax; however, the story goes on for generations and this film is only an hour long......It does end well. I would like to see more films from the Tolkien books before I'm an old man and was quite pleased to find this one. Give it a try if you have some shred of imagination and don't get bogged down by a lack of shinny things.

I think that considering it's a low-budget film made by without big-name backing it"s not bad at all. Most of the acting is what you'd expect from this sort of thing, with somewhat wooden performances. The fighting scenes are actually rather good, and manage to convey a higher number of combatants than there actually are, without using computer-generated imagery. The Troll is rather pathetic, but I won"t hold it against them...

All in all, I have one major complaint - Beth Aynsley. She can't bloody act, she is very far from being beautiful (and yes, she is supposed to be) and she is the main reason I gave this film 6 stars. I truly cannot comprehend why the director (who BTW acts much better than Aynsley, in addition to being the producer and the director) chose her for the part...