The Hunt for Gollum (2009)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

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.

An extremely well made film by the fans of The Lord of the Rings, both the book & Peter Jackson's film, The Hunt for Gollum is a 40 minute fan-made feature that showcases the 17 years between Gandalf the Grey leaving the Shire to his return to save Frodo Baggins after learning about the magical ring of Bilbo that Frodo has now inherited. It presents the events that was presents in the book but was skipped over by Jackson's film and concerns Gandalf meeting with Aragorn to hunt for the creature Gollum before the enemy finds it & learns the truth.The direction is very impressive & the amateur cast does put up a performance that is much more improved from what one generally expects from a fan film. Also, the shoe-string budget this film was made at retains an artistic fluidity of its own & is an admirable homage to Jackson's film & its production design, including the rendition of Gollum. On an overall scale, The Hunt for Gollum, apart from a different cast, very much looks like the missing part of Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring that didn't make it to the final print and is a remarkable work by the entire production team.P.S. The movie is free for all & is available on YouTube as well as their site. So if you're a fan of The Lord of the Rings, I suggest you give it a try. The Hunt for Gollum will surprise you in ways fan-films rarely do.

This Aragorn looks more Celtic than the original. Less 'dirty' and less 'savage'. But he shows great acting skills. The female also looks very convincing. And lovely. What a great starting point for their future acting careers!This story could be included as the original first part of the known trilogy pretty well... It matches with most of the visual and historical parts of the three movies.In what money and pros respects, I guess that this shows that fans have always played an important part of these LOTR films.Congratulations! You've made it! Good for all of us!