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.

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.

I was not expecting anything spectacular. How can you when it is only a fan-made independent film? But 'The Hunt for Gollum' was a lot better. Unlike the latter, 'Born of Hope' has an abysmally poor plot. While yes, the plot is at least in existence it does not really go anywhere, so you are not particularly interested in what is going to happen.

The acting was alright, even if it was hard to believe. The narrator was awful though. She ruined it for me.

The effects were good enough, and the costumes and the setting was commendable considering that the film was done on a shoe-string budget.

This is worth a watch, only if you're a fan of The Lord of the Rings. If not, you won't really enjoy it. Having said that, I am a fan and I was bored by it.

This is a film made truly for die-hard Tolkien fans. While meticulously consistent with the story lines established by the author, fans solely of the film will likely be rather bored with it. This exceptionally well-crafted, fan-made, micro-budgeted film, while it takes great pains to share visual continuity with Jackson's films (and does so remarkably well, despite the tiny budget) is long on dialogue and short on action, creating a tone which is more consistent with Tolkien's "histories" (ie, The Children of Hurin, Lost Tales) than to his novels (The LOTR Trilogy, The Hobbit). If you fall into the former category of fans, you'll undoubtedly be pleased by its overall faithfulness to Tolkienian lore, the excellent casting, above-average acting, true-to-Jackson costuming and surprising cinematography and scoring. But if your only experience of The Lord Of The Rings is the films and you're not a fantasy reader, you'll probably think the Orcs look lame and be really bored by it.

A fan film made and privately funded by enthusiasts of JRR Tolkien's LOTR, this prequel narrates the story of Arathorn, heir to Isildur's throne, and father of Aragorn, who would play a pivotal role in the Great War of the Third Age of Middle Earth. Although understandably far lacking in technical polish compared to the studio funded films, it is surprisingly heartfelt, well made and earnest. As best as can be expected, the cinematography, acting , film score, location shooting, production design and storyline are all very well done. The script also appears to be quite faithful to whatever Tolkien wrote about the Dunedain. In particular, Christoper Dane (a dead ringer for Sean Bean in many shots) and Kate Madison as Arathorn and Elgarain both play their parts superbly. Actually, I'm seriously so impressed by it. And if you're a fan of Tolkien's work, this is a must watch.