This sounds really good -- and I like that Gollum spends lots of time in a sack. I think one of the disappointing things about big budgets and unlimited CGI is that the directors end up giving you their (substandard) 'vision' of some special effect where some clever creative shortcut (like putting the monster off-screen or spending screen time on the inside of the starship) would have been much more interesting.

Yeah, a few reviews bitched a bit about it, but I think it works perfectly. It's quite a wriggly sack too - they didn't get lazy and just fill it with potatoes.
Definitely worth a look :-)

Having just watched it, I now have an actual basis for the comments I'm making -- and I pretty much have to agree with you, Sonia. On the one hand, the writing's not great -- especially in the sententious scenes with Aragorn and Gandalf it's pretty clunky -- but it's not bad, either, and the scene where the two rangers meet is, I think, pretty well done.

On the other, you're absolutely right about the gorgeous visuals, the well-executed choreography, and the tracking scenes. It's definitely at its best when it's focusing on Aragorn alone, and when it does that it is simply good, not just good for a fan effort. Factor in the fan effort and low budget and it's amazing.

Ah hah! Thanks for the reminder to watch this. I've been intrigued since you linked to the trailer. It does look amazing. In some ways the stylistic similarities to the Peter Jackson films annoys me though - I wish they'd done some imagining of their own. But that's probably not a fair comment.

Writing-wise, I think the Aragorn-Gollum sort-of-dialogue was good enough to make up clunking elsewhere, which didn't really bother me. Though I wonder if any was lifted from Tolkien or if it's all new...?

But that's probably not a fair comment

Hmmm... I think it's a tad unfair. It's not like they set out to make an original story and ended up with a Jacksonesq version because they lacked imagination - it's a clear artistic choice. And had they decided to go a different route I wonder if the Jackson shadow would have been just too big, magnifying every chance similarity.

Maybe in a few years someone else will break away with a different style. I favour stop-motion myself :-)