The Hunt for Gollum

[Rikae]

Well,I for one am disappointed. The one advantage amateurs have is the freedom to be original and creative, and these folks lifted every line and every shot directly from PJ. One could have gotten almost the same result by piecing together clips from LOTR, to be honest.

"By fans for fans" clearly refers to movie fans - I eagerly await something by and for book fans!

[Gwathagor]

Originally Posted by Rikae

Well,I for one am disappointed. The one advantage amateurs have is the freedom to be original and creative, and these folks lifted every line and every shot directly from PJ. One could have gotten almost the same result by piecing together clips from LOTR, to be honest.

That's exactly the same impression I got. *shakes head* Heck, I probably could have written a better script.

[Erendis]

Oh,you are all such mothers-in-law!
Yes,there were inaccuracies.
Yes,Arithir looked like the spy in "at the sign of the pancing poney"(and why wouldn't he be?)
Yes,I didn't like the Elves-coming-after-the-fight-thing too.
BUT:

All the drawbacks of these realy cute film are almost the same with PJ's.Does any of you dislike the trilogy?
Also,they might have been more original,but I sense that if they had,the film wouldn't have recieved the critics it has.Afterall,like I said in the past,films like that are a motif for the movie-only fans to search more about the books.Guess what would have happened if it turned out to be like the midieval scenes in BBC's documentaries
Come on,guys,we should be supportive!

And let us not forget it is an amateur film!
On my behalf,congratulations!

[davem]

Those disappointed in HFG may be interested in Channel 4's new drama 1066: The Battle for Middle-earth (see me post on it here http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showpos...97&postcount=1

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Erendis

All the drawbacks of these realy cute film are almost the same with PJ's.Does any of you dislike the trilogy?

Of course. I think that's our duty

But anyway, hey, I approve of this film. *points up to previous posts* I think they were better than PJ, the only unfair advantage he had in contrary to them were some really good actors and also having the script practically written down by Tolkien himself. Who knows if PJ's script would have been any better if he wrote it all by himself (And if you take the moments where PJ changed the script in contrary to the books and showed his own initiative, one may really wonder )

But hey, thinking about it now with a bit of distance, I like the movie - especially the bag. And even the shots were pretty good, the setting, the environment, even the camera (the fainting scene). Those guys did a good job. Showing too little initiative in making it un-PJish: well, no can do. Because, who knows what would be the reception of the setting if it looked completely different from PJ's way of portraying things; one might complain "but Aragorn surely did not look like this" and stuff like that, but this way, you just take it like a prequel to the movies and know on which terms you are.

[Rikae]

Originally Posted by Erendis

All the drawbacks of these realy cute film are almost the same with PJ's.Does any of you dislike the trilogy?

You must be new around here.

Originally Posted by Lommy

I'm still wondering why Aragorn speaks Czech, though.

I'm quite sure he was speaking German!

[Tuor in Gondolin]

Originally Posted by Erendis
All the drawbacks of these realy cute film are almost the same with PJ's.Does any of you dislike the trilogy?

Liked FOTR, (except for Frodo's wimpishness)

But the other two.....Way too much tampering by PJ. When he and his girls
stick to JRRT all three movies are rather good (and scenery and
actor selection is generally excellent).

[Eönwë]

I hadn't watched it all the way until now, and I have to say that i'm impressed.

If you forget that it's meant to be related to LOTR and just imagine it as some short adventure it's not that bad as a short film. Of course, the acting/scripting wasn't that good, and the filming itself wasn't very clean.

And for an amateur film (costing only £3,000), I think I can forgive its shortcomings.

[Rumil]

Hi all,

well I got round to watching it at last,

First of all I reckon it's a magnificent achievement to put a film like this together on a budget of tuppence-hapenny and have it look so good. The crew and cast should be heartily congratulated for their hard work.

Thing I liked were, similar to PJ, the wonderful scenery - Misty Mts, Mt Doom, Woods, Mountains and Hills, the Gladden Fields etc. Gollum was spot on, I especially liked the 'bag-gambit', reminded me of Bilbo...

I came from the end of a bag, but no bag went over me

There will be some who dislike it for following the PJ approach, but I think there was no alternative really, and I quite liked the 'look' of much of the Trilogy (naturally, while muttering and spluttering about the bits PJ made up while leaving so much else out, oh and the giant Hyenas etc etc etc ).

However, there were quite a lot of 'could have done better' moments. The Random Ranger - whats that all about? Should have been a Woodman or Beorning by rights. After the Gladden Fields there was little sense of Middle Earth location. I guess it was mostly supposed to be around and about Mirkwood, the difficult thing with a solo mission is that there's little scope for exposition. Basically Aragorn gets to stare at the ground a lot and look for footprints - not so exciting. I was rather hoping for some action on the margins of Mordor (though I guess trip to Waikato was over-budget!) and a Dead Marshes scene.

The plot was overall pretty weak. Unless you know, there's little indication that Gollum has already been captured and set loose by Sauron, who's hoping to follow him to the Ring. Also there's little feeling of the epic scale of Aragorn's task, it seems as if he pops out for a bit of a stroll and comes back with Gollum a week next Tuesday. Was it just me or were Arwen's ears a bit weird?

Some extra bits I did like were the direct book quotations, the poisoned dart scene (was that plant Elanor perhaps?), Gollum thieving fish from the woodmen (although the cottage was a little too high-tech with its Rayburn grate).

Still I think the main thing is that LoTR fan movies CAN be done, high hopes for the future!

[Gwathagor]

Originally Posted by Rumil

First of all I reckon it's a magnificent achievement to put a film like this together on a budget of tuppence-hapenny and have it look so good. The crew and cast should be heartily congratulated for their hard work.

You're absolutely right about that!

[Macalaure]

First of all I reckon it's a magnificent achievement to put a film like this together on a budget of tuppence-hapenny and have it look so good. The crew and cast should be heartily congratulated for their hard work.

I can only second that.

It looked a bit like a copy pf PJ's Middle-earth, but that's not bad at all - the visuals were great in his trilogy.

If only they hadn't also copied PJ's script-writing. Some lines didn't sound Tolkien-like, but Jackson-like, which I found to be a little out of place. I felt like there were several occasions where, with only a little more care or subtlety, this film could have been much, much better. From the top of my hat, I remember Gandalf failing to explain that Gollum knows where Bilbo came from, but not where that land lay. The encounter with the first two Orcs was great, but that mass-Orc-fighting scene later made absolutely no sense. The appearance of the Ringwraith could have been much better, too, if there had been any significance to it. (Were we even told that they were searching for the Ring, too, and were following Gollum therefore?) I might be mixing up the timeline now, but why not let the other ranger tell Aragorn that Osgiliath had been raided and that ominous riders in black had passed the bridge (and then let Aragorn count one and nine together for the viewers)? Also, Aragorn could have been a bit more afraid during the encounter - they are terrible, after all.

I would have liked to see more of Gandalf's interrogation of Gollum. Considering the darkness in that room, it wouldn't have been too hard on the CGI-ers, I think. It was great to hear about the ghost that drinks blood, but I missed Gollum telling us about his new very strong friends, and Gandalf putting the fear of fire into him.

Nevertheless it was very nice to watch it, especially considering that, after all, it was free.

[Nazgûl-king]

I just finished watching this now, it's not bad for a fan film. I think Born of Hope was better, but this was still good. The scenery was great!

[Erendis]

Brand -new ,actually,dear Rikae!

Well,guys ,why such an attack to my words?-Yahoo!I made impression!-

Talking about the trilogy like this derives firstly from my great love for it ,since it was th reason why I read the books and secondly from the fact that it was an amateur work,made for all types of fans,not just the more sophisticated ones.
Oh,yes,Gwathagor,I crave to see an accurate trilogy too,but since nobody has so much money to waste,I 'll continue watching the trilogy.


P.S.Sorry if I sound too embarassed;it's my hormons going quite wild!

[Gwathagor]

Originally Posted by Erendis

it's my hormons going qyite wild!

Yeah, Lord of the Rings does that to me, too.

[Erendis]

Yes,it does indeed!But girls have also some others,not so pleasant reasons.....

[Gwathagor]

Originally Posted by Erendis

All the drawbacks of these realy cute film are almost the same with PJ's.Does any of you dislike the trilogy?

I dislike those drawbacks.