"The Hunt for Gollum" fan made movie was released yesturday, and is free to watch at the: www.thehuntforgollum.com
It's well worth the 40 minute watch, and the actors are great! The best Strider sword fight scene to date!!!
It takes place between "The Hobbit" events, and the "The Lord of the Rings". Every LOTR needs to see this movie.

http://thehuntforgollum.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html

Well that was certainly worth it! 40 minutes is better than none. Always enjoy an escape to Middle Earth.
For a purely fan based and financed flick, I for one loved it!

The critics even liked it!

LOL at 33:51. ***? Ruined it.

A lot of this is pretty well done. Which is what bugs me. Access to such beautiful scenery, clearly some money, actors (although Aragorn's actor is terrible), and support, and they make a fan-flick that falls flat simply because they're trying to copy too much. If they made an original story with all of this I wouldn't be so critical.

And it's funny to see the sword changes during the battle. They DO make functional blades much closer to Aragorn's sword than the one they chose. Also too much 300-type fighting. This makes Aragorn look like a Spartan-Ninja.

Yeah, that was an interesting effort... good from far, but far from good.

They have the appropriate disclaimers in place with regards to Jackson's work, but it is plain to see that the visual elements are blatantly lifted right from the trilogy on many levels, right down to the direct use of Gollum's CGI work.

Aragorn was ok until he had to speak, and his eyes were so light in comparison to Mortensen's that I found the difference too distracting. Gandalf was ok, if a little disheveled, and Arwen, though a pretty enough girl, was certainly no Eldarin princess. As for the elf, was that supposed to be Legolas?!? At least the orcs were well done. I think Aragorn's sword was the UC version. If not, at least the scabbard was.

The director and producer states that they were obviously HEAVILY influenced by PJ's movies, and make no effort to mask that in any way. The entire movie was made for 6000 British Pounds. Everyone involved is a volunteer, and donated their time for their love of movies, and Tolkien's work. Looks pretty good to me for a bunch of amatuers volunteering their time to create something they're passionate about.

More info is available in the "Making of..." video on the site.

Perhaps I was a bit too harsh in my initial comments, focusing only on the negatives rather than also pointing out what was good about it. I certainly couldn't have done better.

I think the main issue for me is that exactly because the work so heavily resembles the original movies, that I can't help but sit there and make comparisons in my mind as I watch. When that happens, the lesser work is always going to appear flawed. However, if they had altered the appearance of things drastically in order to make them uniquely their own, would that not have been jarring to the viewer also? In the end, I think it is good they opted to maintain a consistent look so that we are surrounded by familiarity, and can more easily be drawn into the Middle-earth that we know visually. When you point out how little the movie was made for in terms of budget, that really does emphasize how well produced and realized it is.

You know, thinking about it now, it's a pity that the second Hobbit movie won't be a bridge movie after all, and that we most certainly won't get to see Aragorn's hunt for Gollum up on the big screen. If we had, it would have been very interesting to compare those scenes with what these guys have done.

[quote=""Valkrist""]In the end, I think it is good they opted to maintain a consistent look so that we are surrounded by familiarity, and can more easily be drawn into the Middle-earth that we know visually.[/quote]

They did an absolutely amazing job taking you visually back to Middle Earth. The panning mountain scenes, and lush foliage was perfect. Even the soundtrack, which is quite similar to Howard Shore's, does the trick and has the same feeling. Not to the same extent as PJ's, of course.

I'm not so sure I would have liked something that didn't have the feel of the PJ trilogy.
Obviously those who made it were inspired by PJ's LOTR.
I have to give them great credit for their effort and the choice of story to tell in such a short time.
I think I seen enough "B" movies fail to do much better with a lot more time and money.
And lets not forget it was FREE. Appreciate a thoughtful gift given.

You get what you pay for.



J/k! lol

[quote=""Sedhal""]You get what you pay for.

Actually, I was commenting more on the fact that I have payed for and gotten a lot less with other films. Nothing more disappointing than paying for a bad flick.

[quote=""Thranduil""][quote=""Sedhal""]You get what you pay for.

Actually, I was commenting more on the fact that I have payed for and gotten a lot less with other films. Nothing more disappointing than paying for a bad flick.[/quote][/quote]

So true.
I got what I paid for.
Werd.

OK, so now I have watched this film for the second time. The first time I watched it I had no critical mindset, I watched it for what it was. This second viewing was with a completely critical mind.
The least e xp ensive aspect is in the writing of the dialog in which it does fail to be original and in fact in the very end falls flat on it's face due to the presumption of what we all know happened afterward, which Gandalf and Aragorn would not know yet. Some of Gollum's dialog is way too plagiarized.
Make-up for orcs could have been better and Arwen's ears were pathetic. Blatantly showing Strider's UC sword wasn't exactly wise but I can't blame them as it added the effect that it is a part of the story we all know.
The landscape photography was definately its best aspect, I have to give them a 10 for that.
If this had been what New Line and PJ had delivered to us, well, we would all be puking our guts out and they would have been lucky to break even on the money they had spent.
So lets just say that if they hadn't made it we wouldn't have anything to criticize, but they did make it and it is what it is, and it definately could have been far better.

I only have two big problems with this: 1. The orcs/goblins could've looked much better, and the head orc actually looked a bit like Voldemort from Harry potter (eek!).

2. They had a good oportunity to use direct dialogue during the Aragorn meets Arwen in Lorien Scene, but instead they made some up, which I didn't like.

But, all in all it's not that bad for a private film. I did like the Aragorn and big ugly goblin with huge scimitar fighting scene, although the Aragorn-Nazqul one was a bit week. I liked the other dunedain, and Gandalf was pretty good. One things for sure, I couldn't have done it better. Good work, guys!