The fan-film model of “The Hunt for Gollum” takes place within the years main as much as “The Fellowship of the Ring.” It opens with an compulsory narrative exposition throughout an overlay of epic Center-earth landscapes earlier than panning as much as a title shot. Within the 40 minutes that comply with, there’s some primitive CGI (bear in mind, we’re speaking a couple of minimally funded undertaking created 15 years in the past), but it surely’s a tasteful undertaking and leaves many of the work to the creativeness.
The story begins with Gandalf (Patrick O’Connor) and Aragorn (Adrian Webster) discussing unfinished enterprise with Gollum, who’s on the free and on the lookout for his Valuable. Aragorn commits to searching Gollum down earlier than he may cause additional injury and proceeds to trace the wretched creature, seize him, after which carry him all the best way to Mirkwood. There, Gandalf interrogates him and finds out that he has already been captured by Sauron and spilled the beans about his historical past with the One Ring and “Baggins.”
The story largely comes instantly out of “The Lord of the Rings” books, the place Gandalf and Aragorn tag staff telling the Council of Elrond about their hunt for Gollum and its dire penalties. In true adaptive style, the movie makes a number of inventive additions and changes. Aragorn meets a fellow ranger, confronts orcs, tussles with a Nazgûl, and has a flashback that includes Arwen. A number of of those seem like homages to Peter Jackson’s trilogy, and the affect of these movies is clear all through. Aragorn even sports activities a non-canonical beard — a Jacksonian function that isn’t Tolkien-approved.
The massive query shifting ahead is whether or not Warner Bros. can put collectively a film that each traces the hunt for Gollum and truly improves on the fan movie expertise.