The Hunt for Gollum

I have watched the LOTR films, and read The Hobbit. I have not even read the LOTR books, although I do have them in a pile of waiting to be read books...I read quite a bit, but...eh to be honest I never got into LOTR. I'm sorry. I like the fantasy genre, I like the story, I've read so many series within this type of genre. But I've just never gotten deep into LOTR. I will say I did enjoy the movie series and the original book that started it all.

Why do I say this? Because I want people to know I'm not just some die-hard fan of the genre period. I don't really follow it except as a media thing.

My point? This short movie was damned impressive. I hear it was done on a shoe-string budget by honest fans of the film, and damn it...this thing looks legit. This is seriously talent being played out here. I enjoyed the camera work, I enjoyed the acting, I enjoyed the scenery, the story, the casting...well I couldn't find something wrong with it.

Look at my past reviews and comments on movies. I am not an avid reviewer or commenter on this genre...and lets be honest, a lot of my reviews plain out suck. But I caught this short, and I was impressed. I honestly would not mind seeing fans like this be allowed to write and direct an entire shot-by-shot series, or movie franchise. They just flat out did it well.

I give this two-thumbs up, if you are a fan of LOTR, then this is a must see. If you're like me, just a casual fan...this is still a super fun thing to watch.

Like I've said...I'm impressed. I've seen so many indie films that have been such garbage, with much larger budgets than this. This is just properly done.

Nuff sed.

This film was made on a budget of about 4000$ contributed by fans. Despite that, the cinematography and action sequences do not feel like a low-budget fan-film but come very close to multi-million-dollar Hollywood productions. If you consider the cinematic value versus the budget ... that makes it the best movie ever. Do not watch this movie unless you are a "lord of the rings"-fan though. The story is very basic and needs you to have viewed the 3 "lord of the rings" movies and preferably even read all the books since this story is in fact the prequel to those. It can hardly be called a story on it's own and will probably leave many people who don't know the characters with a lot of questions ... A new milestone nevertheless for fan-made films!!

An extremely well made film by the fans of The Lord of the Rings, both the book & Peter Jackson's film, The Hunt for Gollum is a 40 minute fan-made feature that showcases the 17 years between Gandalf the Grey leaving the Shire to his return to save Frodo Baggins after learning about the magical ring of Bilbo that Frodo has now inherited. It presents the events that was presents in the book but was skipped over by Jackson's film and concerns Gandalf meeting with Aragorn to hunt for the creature Gollum before the enemy finds it & learns the truth.

The direction is very impressive & the amateur cast does put up a performance that is much more improved from what one generally expects from a fan film. Also, the shoe-string budget this film was made at retains an artistic fluidity of its own & is an admirable homage to Jackson's film & its production design, including the rendition of Gollum. On an overall scale, The Hunt for Gollum, apart from a different cast, very much looks like the missing part of Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring that didn't make it to the final print and is a remarkable work by the entire production team.

P.S. The movie is free for all & is available on YouTube as well as their site. So if you're a fan of The Lord of the Rings, I suggest you give it a try. The Hunt for Gollum will surprise you in ways fan-films rarely do.

I am in awe. "The Hunt for Gollum," made by Lord of the Rings fans for £3000, is a resounding success! It is adapted from material gleaned from the appendices of the world-renowned trilogy, and it covers a short period of time between "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" in which Aragorn searches for Gollum before Sauron's forces can find him.

At 38 minutes, this moody piece is short enough for non-fans to commit to, yet long enough to really linger in your memory. All areas of the film succeed. The cinematography is bleak and beautiful, exquisitely capturing the Middle Earth that we have come to know and love. The costumes are appropriate and elegant. The special effects are convincing, as is even the digital effects work, despite the limited budget. The fight scenes, while not on the level of the trilogy (that would be nigh impossible), are still better than most fight scenes in normal movies. And even the acting, which is often the scourge of all amateur productions, works wonderfully.

Tolkien himself would be proud. This may seem like hyperbole, but I'm being serious. Tolkien always longed to create the great English mythology that his country never got, and with Middle Earth, he did. But the greatest part of a mythology is that others carry it on. Kudos to everyone on this production for doing just that.

This is a great film. Not just for being an amateur production, but for being a film in general. Nobody can match Peter Jackson, but next to some of the tripe that finds wide release in this country, "The Hunt for Gollum" is magnificent. I hope to see everyone involved with this production (and I mean everyone) break out into the film industry in a big way.

Go to the film's official website and watch it now. Being fanmade, you get to see it for free. And it'll only take 40 minutes of your time. Worth it? Definitely!

I was truly surprised and very happy to realise that this film was actually very good!

Expecting a well meaning but very flawed fan piece, I have to say my presumptions proved to be nonsense. The hunt for Gollum is a masterpiece in what can be done with talent and determination, regardless of money. It looks good, sounds good, is well written and even has a great fight scene with an Ork war-band.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TEAM BEHIND THIS! Excellent job, thanks a lot for all your hard work!

BTW. for anyone who doesn't know, you can watch it on the official website in HD for free: http://thehuntforgollum.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html