The Hunt for Gollum (2009)

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

"The Hunt for Gollum" is a 35-minute (without credits) short film from 6 years ago. It was written and directed by Chris Bouchard and many people think this is the best "Lord of the Rings" film made by fans of the franchise. I can see why. I have to say it did not look too different from the real films for the most part. Good settings, nice makeup, all in all a solid job. I myself am not the greatest fan of fantasy films à la "Lord of the Rings", so bias is probably the reason why I did not enjoy this as much as I hoped I would. However, if you like or even love the Tolkien franchise, you can give this one a watch, unless you have a problem with the famous characters played by other (obviously fairly unknown) actors than in the movies. Then this one is certainly not worth your time, even if the actors did a fine job for the most part and I wonder if they maybe could also have played in the movies. Or if Bouchard could have directed these.

The hunt for Smeagol was always a glaring yet essential missing piece in the LOTR film trilogy. It has now been lovingly made, for next to NOTHING, by fans! The long and arduous search which Aragorn undertook to find, capture, and deliver the creature Gollum ("He stank") was the a plot factor to initiate the flight of Frodo from the Shire in the first place. Understandably only narrated in the film, The Hunt For Gollum fills the gap which book nerds crave. This was made out of passion, by fans, for a reported few thousand dollars. The Hunt For Gollum is fabulous, riveting, and minus one or two quick scenes, perhaps for budgetary reasons, drops like a bag over your head and you are caught before you know it. For any Tolkien geek like myself, this film should be watched and enjoyed for its amazing dedication, adherence to story, acting (which is really quite good), tension, and beautiful production value. The Hunt For Gollum surpasses most of the dreck squirming its way out of Hollywood. Indeed, I sat on the edge of my seat after having seen this three times. Anyone who seriously criticizes out of some sort of misdirected spite should just go wait in the car and spare us all, because this was beautifully done out of devotion, and as such, wins the geek prize of the century. It's too short to really delve into with much depth, and if you don't know the story, well, watch this lovely film. You know that you've watched the extended editions and special features more times than you should ever reveal to a woman or a first date. This piece of joy is perfectly short and sweet, and worthy of the highest praise.

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.