The Hunt for Gollum (2009)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

OK first off the actor for aragorn wasn't enigmatic enough for me, he wasn't the best choice for the part. he didn't have the same charisma as viggo mortensen (which is expected to be honest) but the actor chosen just wasn't powerful enough. he didn't command the movie like we come to expect from aragorn. there was surely someone else they could of used. secondly, the story was clever with the time it was set, just before frodo sets out on his journey but the ending was weak. i don't think they did the ending right at all. it was a bit silly how the witch king just disappears and the elves are everywhere. and finally, the fighting scene was so bad-ass. when the guys came out with the spear and aragorn got both of them it was brilliant. the fight with the boss orc too, very good fight. on par with the lord of the rings for fighting choreography in my opinion.

"The Hunt For Gollum" (THFG) is an extraordinary, spectacular fan film. Without a doubt, THFG is one of the top 10 fan films (through the end of 2009). Perhaps if I had paid $10 at a theater to watch this, and knew it cost $40,000,000 to create, I would be less impressed. But I still would have enjoyed watching it, and still would have considered it professional quality cinema... albeit rather short. It certainly leaves us wanting more, that's for sure.I am not a big fan of the "Lord Of The Rings" books or movies, though I did go watch the movies at the theater and enjoyed them. Truth be told, I'm not a fan of the "fantasy" genre - I'm primarily a fan of "realistic sci-fi", followed by "sci-fi", followed by "anything that unexpectedly knocks my socks off".This fan film "vaporized my socks", so I'm a fan of THFG on that score.Oh, and I must admit that I am also a fan of extraordinary fan films, and anything that is extraordinary. I suspect the reason I so appreciate extraordinary fan films is... their creation is almost like "sci-fi becomes real" --- almost like "seeing the impossible happen".To make this flick for $4000 USD is amazing. Frankly, I suspect few pros could make a movie like this for $4,000,000 --- 1000 times more.The casting and acting was excellent, the cinematography was excellent, the story was well conceived and extraordinarily well matched to available assets. For example, we see Gollum 3 times during the film created with very difficult, very time-consuming CGI (computer graphics). Between those 3 views, Gollum is very convincingly carried in a very convincing sack - which any rational human would do in those circumstances. This allows them to interact verbally, and Gollum struggles mightily and craftily to escape the sack by any means he can imagine.I'm fairly sure this fan film is in the top 5 of all fan films through 2009, though one or two other great ones might have escaped my view. Perhaps the best are:#1: Star Trek - "World Enough and Time" by www.StarTrekPhase2.com #2: Star Wars - "Revelations" #3: Lord of the Rings - "The Hunt For Gollum" #4: Star Wars - "Reign of the Fallen" #5: hmmmmmmmm - too many vying for fifth place to decide.Watch www.thehuntforgollum.com and enjoy. Especially if you've ever tried to create even 1 minute of professional cinema, you'll socks will be blown off by what these talented and dedicated artists created for a a mind-boggling, amazingly frugal $4000.

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.

This 39 minute fan film was put together by a bunch of very dedicated people. They seem to be people who are bigger fans of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films than they are of J.R.R. Tolkien's brilliant book "The Lord of the Rings", but that would hardly qualify them as unique. What they've done here with a reported $5,000 budget is pretty astounding. I wouldn't say that it's equal to Jackson's film, but pound for pound and dollar for dollar it's a very impressive achievement in fan films. Most fan films just easily shrug off the lower production values and turn the movie into a farce. This film takes itself seriously, which in some aspects weakens the film but in most cases strengthens it and lends it a credibility rarely seen in amateur fan film.The story roughly corresponds to the events taking place between "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" which are described in the Appendices to "LotR" and in the "Council of Elrond" chapter of the second book of "LotR", concerning the hunt and capture of Gollum by Aragorn. Concerned that Gollum may reveal the identity of Bilbo Baggins to the enemy, Gandalf the Grey charges Aragorn with hunting the creature down so that he can discover what he knows and what knowledge he has shared. The hunt takes him through the forests on the western edge of Mirkwood and involves several battles with the goblins charged with bringing Gollum back to Mordor.The casting for this film is very uneven, as you would likely guess since few of them would have been paid. The most important lead role of Aragorn is fortunately very well carried off by Adrian Webster. In some ways I prefer his Aragorn to Viggo Mortensen's more deliberately world-weary version. But his is the only really exceptional performance. Patrick O'Connor can't lend Gandalf any trace of Ian McKellan's majesty, Rita Ramnani's Arwen is the same cold fish as portrayed by barely-actress Liv Tyler (and seems to have even less reason to be in the movie), and the voicework by two actors for Gollum never rises above the level of basic imitation.Saddest of all, the way the film was directed is basically a transcription of Jackson's already repetitive style. Culling imitative music from sound libraries, the music department's main achievement is to betray the unoriginality of the original score itself. The battle scenes seem obligatory and are the area where the effects are at their least, well, effective. You can clearly see that the masks for the orcs in the second battle are recycled from the first.However, in a few areas the film is actually superior to Jackson's version of the later tales. That considering the budget is something to wonder at in and of itself. The main aspect that's improved is the locations. I like the fact that they filmed this in England, in the Epping Forest near Essex which very nearly matches what must have been Tolkien's own imagination of Middle Earth. There are a couple very nice scenes that build Gollum's threat in a way that Jackson never managed to do in the absence of "Hobbit" as a foundation stone, including one where Gollum snatches a fish from a farmer's window that's full of dire implications. For those fans of Jackson's "LotR" who have no familiarity at this point with "Hobbit", this fan film will serve to supply some more background on his nature and character. And since he's the most fascinating character by far that Tolkien ever created, this is also an accomplishment worthy of note in and of itself.The film cannot stand on its own, but it is a very nice treat for fans of Tolkien and fans of Jackson's films that are starved while waiting for the Hobbit film version. Considering that it was made available to one and all for free, there are hardly any grounds to complain. But being a bit of a purist, I can of course do so at great length and to the boredom of one and most. I think basically the big problem with this film is that it stayed true to Jackson instead of Tolkien. Jackson had to elide a lot of information from "Hobbit" and from the Appendices in order to make his version comprehensive. These film-makers felt the need to remain true to Jackson's version, in which these events are truly superfluous. In Tolkien, the whole reason that Gandalf wants to speak to Gollum (and in fact tortures him to obtain information) is because he's still trying to figure out if the ring found by Bilbo is the "One Ring" of Sauron. He needs to know how Gollum came to possess the Ring because it would help to confirm or deny the Ring's true identity. In this film however, he already knows that Frodo has the One Ring in the Shire, so tracking down Gollum is a pointless task except for the idea of preventing him from speaking to the enemy, which has apparently already happened since Gandalf waited so long. It makes Gandalf look like a right fool, as opposed to Tolkien's wise man who made the occasional error. If Gandalf had known that Frodo had the One Ring for certain, he would never have allowed the Ring to remain in the Shire for so long or for Frodo to be exposed to such danger. However, due to Jackson and his co-writers' need to elide certain details of Gandalf's activities around this time respective to Gollum and the Ring, these film-makers have followed his lead and provided us with missing pieces of a puzzle that had already been pasted hastily together without them.