Movie Thoughts: The Hunt for Gollum (2009)

• Released: 3 May 2009
• Directed by: Chris Bouchard
• Running time: 38 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

Before the events of The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf sends Aragorn on a quest to track down Gollum.

My Thoughts

2009 really was a year for Lord of the Rings fan-films, wasn't it? First Born of Hope (which I've already looked at), now this one.

Albeit shorter, this one is the more competent one movie-making wise. Born of Hope wasn't bad by any means, but it had some awkward editing choices that held it back for me. The Hunt for Gollum had none of this, all of it felt very competent.

So one thing you will have to accept for this fan-film is that these characters are (obviously) going to be played by different actors. To me it was a bit distracting at first, but I got used to it quickly enough. They for the most part looked and sounded alike enough for me to accept them as being the characters from the movies. I particularly liked the casting of Arwen, although she appeared for only a short amount of time. The person voicing Gollum did a decent job, but I think they might've been able to get a better voice impressionist than the person they cast. I've heard better impressions of Gollum from many people. But I the person they got for Gollum wasn't bad, either. 

Despite Gollum (or rather, finding him) being the central focus of this short film, Gollum is cleverly kept out of sight for most of the duration of it. At first I thought this was distracting, but I later realized this probably was because they couldn't possibly have enough budget to create a good-looking CGI version of him for the characters to interact with. So for now he's mostly kept off-screen, in a sack, or in the shadows. He does appear in the very last shot of the movie, and he doesn't look awful, but I feel that if they'd continuously had a CGI Gollum on screen, it probably wouldn't have looked as good. 

The Orc makeup was once more well-done and there were quite a few thrilling action scenes in this one, despite the short runtime. We even get to see a Ring Wraith, albeit briefly. 

I'd say The Hunt for Gollum is the best Lord of the Rings fan-production I've seen so far. While obviously not being canon to Peter Jackson's trilogy, it feels like it could be a part of it, a midquel for between the Hobbit movies and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I definitely recommend this one.