The Hunt for Gollum

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!!

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!

A team of Tolkein fans, with an estimated budget of $3,000, have produced their own addition to Peter Jackson's film series. For such a small budget, it's impressive how close they come at times to reproducing Jackson's big-budget style.

The movie takes its inspiration from one of the many appendices to the original novel, events that are hinted at in the first movie. The wizard Gandalf goes to Aragorn with a crucial mission: find Gollum, who knows the location of the One Ring, before Sauron's forces do. Success will allow for more time to plan, failure will result in a forced hand for our heroes, requiring that the ring be moved, with Frodo and the others put in imminent peril. Those who have seen Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring will know how this movie ends, but then that manages to add some more tense elements to the story.

If you had some favorite technical element from the movie trilogy, writer/director/producer Chris Bouchard has likely re-created it here on a fraction of the budget. No less than a half- dozen cinematographers were used to evoke the atmosphere and rich, somber colors that helped distinguish the first movie. The score by Adam Langston and Andrew Skrabutenas is less conspicuous and "epic" than the Oscar-winning strings of Howard Shore, but that's perhaps fitting for this small, more personal movie. Gollum is envisioned with creativity, the filmmakers confining him to a burlap sack for most of the movie, yet whoever plays him in the sack, combined with Gareth's Borough's keen impression of Andy Serkis, are a worthy low-budget substitute for Jackson's extensive motion-capture. The appearance of a full-CGI Gollum addressing the camera at the very end was sufficient payoff for me.

The acting styles of Adrian Webster and Patrick O'Connor as Aragorn and Gandalf are both quite interesting, surely both were cast in part for their resemblances to Viggo Mortensen and Ian McKellen respectively. Still, seeing them in their roles on the big screen is not a great stretch of the imagination.

Fight choreography was one of the movie's strongest points, Bouchard has a very good eye not only for cat-and-mouse suspense, but complex sword fights. Too often with fan films, (or action/fantasy in general), fight scenes are handled poorly, leading to audience boredom. Far from it here, where the action drew me in a surprising amount.

Bouchard and company have created something most impressive, and with a running time of 40 minutes and a price tag of $0, there's really no excuse to not see it. I can only hope that the people behind this movie will have their hard work here recognized, and maybe next time they'll make a movie they can actually profit from. This is likely the best fan film I've seen since Grayson in 2004.

This is a wonderful fan-made film that really surprised me. A friend recommended me to view this one - glad I did.

Well acted, beautiful costumes and set designs, good directing and the CGI Gollum was impressive. The script is a little bland, needs a little bit more spice, but the action makes up for it. Overall it's worth watching if you enjoy Tolkien and fan inspired film-works.

8/10

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