Overview

The Hunt For Gollum is first, and foremost, a fan film. It’s an important detail because the fact is, this is one incredible production – immediately more compelling, entertaining and well-crafted than the early Lord of the Rings films from Rankin-Bass and Ralph Bakshi. Indeed, the film is only surpassed by Peter Jackson’s vision of Middle Earth – and, at that, only because of the budgetary limitations of a fan film as opposed to a major motion picture. The Hunt For Gollum is a full-fledged movie, one that takes an important part of the Middle Earth saga and sets it to film. Impressive is, merely, the beginning of the conversation.

Analysis & Criticism

This tells the story of Aragorn’s lonely and desperate hunt for Gollum which takes place in the intervening years between Bilbo’s departure from The Shire and Frodo’s acceptance of his destiny. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a relatively minor subplot. But here it’s set to film in such an exquisite and captivating manner that it simply demands attention. Almost everything here is perfectly presented, from the stunning cinematography, to the musical score, to the special effects. If there’s a criticism to the film, it’s in the underlying purpose and message of the story – the relatively limited thematic and character work that is done.

In all fairness, there’s a little bit of work in terms of Aragorn, who, along with Arwen’s help, takes an important step toward accepting his destiny as the King of Gondor. But this is minimal, at best. If we accept this film as part of the Lord of the Rings canon – which, based on its obvious stylistic homage to Jackon’s films, is the intent – then we know that much of Aragorn’s true inner conflict about his destiny remains unresolved by the end of the story. Considering the exceptional care with which this film was produced, this is a relatively minor criticism. But the point is nonetheless valid.

Admittedly, though, most viewers won’t be watching for deep character or thematic explorations. While we wait, with great anticipation, for the Hobbit films from Jackson and Guillermo del Toro, The Hunt For Gollum fills an important void for fans in need of a Middle Earth fix. And because the film was created with such dedication and attention to detail, because it was crafted so closely to Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth aesthetic, there’s little doubt that The Hunt For Gollum should be well-received by Lord of the Rings fans.

Put simply, the relatively surface-level story can be forgiven because it is told with such attention to stylistic detail – from the orcs, to the Nazgul, to the characters of Aragorn, Gandalf and Gollum. Indeed, in terms of the film’s craft, there’s really only one misstep: the duel between Aragorn and the Nazgul. The scene works in terms of mood, but the darkness makes the action too confused and vague to really drive home the intensity of the battle. Compared to Aragorn’s battle with the orcs, it just doesn’t achieve the same level of success. Otherwise, everything else is almost perfectly executed – from the establishing shot of Aragorn at the Prancing Pony, to Gollum’s CGI, to the musical score which economically evokes Howard Shore’s compositions.

Overall Grade: B+

The Hunt for Gollum will likely be seen as a kind of watershed moment in the grand scheme of online media – a feature-film-level production, independently produced and released. There are some moments when the CGI is obvious, and the story isn’t quite deep enough. But otherwise, the care and craft of this production is worthy of a great deal of praise.

Bravo!

Topics: Fantasy, Film Review
Filed under: The Lord of the Rings

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