Born of hope is a Lord of the Rings fanfilm I came across on youtube recently. I had never cared much for fanfilms, and although I did wait for and watch "The Hunt for Gollum" when it first came out it didn't leave me with a very lasting impression. It was good, but I remember thinking that all it really took was one actor and a couple of orcs and a Gollum-in-the-bag, so I wasn't too impressed although I did enjoy it for what it was.
This time, however, I found myself impressed by the level of professionalism that I found in "Born of Hope". It wasn't without it's flaws, of course, but the quality was excellent and the scope much larger so it got me thinking about the potential of fanmade films. Fantasy is not an easy genre to portray, but with online collaboration and the huge fanbase that Tolkien's Middle Earth has - and alot of dedication! - the team behind this project managed to pull it off beautifully.
The film is based on the story of Aragorn's parents, and the precarious position of the Dunedain rangers. The rangers are in an especially dangerous position because they are the heirs of Isildur, the heirs to the throne of Gondor, and Sauron fears their power. They are constantly attacked and hunted by Orcs and their survival is at stake. The film focuses on Aragorn's parents meeting and on Aragorn himself as their hope, but to be honest this main storyline is not what kept me watching. I feel that, plotwise, there needed to be a little more to it than just making sure the line of Kings survives... especially since we already know that Aragorn does survive and become King. I was, however, impressed by some superb acting, the visuals and the smooth way in which this film fit in with Peter Jackson's trilogy.
The actor for Arathorn was not only an excellent actor, he also really looked the part. The resemblance to Viggo Mortensen, who played Aragorn in LoTR was just close enough to make it completely believable that this person was his father. In fact, when I first spotted him on screen I felt like I recognized him. The other rangers were also excellently portrayed and I was very glad to see them develop some of their characters along the way, making them each unique and fleshing out their relationships and motivations.
The battle scenes were amazing. The orcs were, again, realistic, and the fight scenes were very well done in terms of both acting and special effects. The fight at the end, and the fates of some of the cooler characters, were very well done, and the emotion comes across to the viewer.
The weaknesses of this film were mostly, in my opinion, with the main plotline. With a slightly tighter plot this could have been epic. I admit I'm not so huge a LoTR fan that I've read the appendices this was based on, so I'm not entirely sure how true to the original story they were, and how much of the plotline weakness is even their fault. I mean the appendices are appendices and Tolkien didn't write them as novels with a complete story arc... I'd be interested in hearing the opinions of people who have read the appendices, please leave a comment if you have!
Other than the plot weaknesses the actress for Aragorn's mother failed to capture even a tiny bit of my interest/sympathy. I think that she was cast mainly based on the narration, but her performance on screen was, at times, very annoying. I think it would have been much better if she just did the narration and someone else played that role. The director and project leader Kate Madison, who played a female ranger, was much more impressive as an actress and I found myself following her storyline more than the main one!
Overall, this film was an excellent achievement. A few weaknesses, but it was good enough for me to watch a second time - good enough in comparison with many high-budget "official" films out there. A must see for any Tolkien fan.
I give "Born of Hope" a rating of Great on the world-building scale. It missed out on awesome for two reasons: first of all, it can't really be said to be original, having stuck so close to Peter Jackson's portrayal (not that I object to this), and also the plot wasn't up to par with the acting, the special effects, and the rest of it and that hurt the believability and vividness of the experience overall.
I would LOVE to see the same team (actorsatwork productions) tackle one of the more gripping storylines from, for example, Unfinished Tales or the Children of Hurin, and I will be watching out for their upcoming projects!
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