Josh Reviews The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is the new animated film set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy world.  Set two hundred years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, the story focuses on Rohan, the kingdom of horse-lords first introduced in The Two Towers.  King Helm Hammerhead is the ruler of Rohan, and his daughter Héra is a brave and independent young woman who loves to ride and fight as much as the men in her family.  When the arrogant lord Freca arrives at Edoras and demands the hand of Héra for his son, Wulf, Hammerhand rejects the offer as an obvious power-grab.  Things escalate into man-to-man combat, and King Hammerhead (accidentally) kills Freca.  Several years later, an embittered Wulf returns, having amassed allies among the wild tribes, and attacks Edoras.  Those loyal to Hammerhand are forced to retreat to the fortress of Helm’s Deep, and Héra must find a way to survive a brutal siege and protect her people.

I loved Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I still love it!!  Fellowship still stands as the movie I’ve seen the most times in the theatre, and I continue to rewatch the films (in their Expanded Editions) often; they hold up well and continue to be masterpieces of moviemaking.  Yes, the Hobbit films were a disappointment, though I think they’re fun and far better than their mostly mediocre reputation.  I was excited for this franchise to return with a new movie, but The War of the Rohirrim is just… fine.  (This movie was made independently of Amazon Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings series… which I just wrote about yesterday when I reviewed season two!)

The War of the Rohirrim has its good qualities  It’s a pleasure to be back in the world of The Lord of the Rings, and specifically that world as envisioned by Peter Jackson and his collaborators.  This film is set squarely in the continuity of Peter Jackson’s films, utilizing aspects of the design iconography, the music, and we even get to hear Miranda Otto reprise her role as Éowyn, narrating the story.  I love this world, and it’s fun to see a new story in this setting, and the Rohirrim are a wonderful culture ripe for further exploration.  There’s some beautiful imagery in the film and some exciting action.

However, on the other hand, the film is surprisingly superficial.  Five minutes in, I could see exactly how this story was going to go, and there are very few surprises.  I’d have appreciated had the plot had some more twists and turns.  The characters, similarly, are mostly one-dimensional.  They’re all familiar archetypes, and the film doesn’t allow anyone much depth.  Take the villain Wulf, for example.  He’s an arrogant, spoiled brat from the moment we first meet him.  The idea of an incel as a LOTR villain might have sounded interesting on paper, but there’s no jouney for Wulf, and no drama or tragedy in his villainy.  We’re told that he and Héra were once close friends, and we get a glimpse of that for a few seconds in an extremely brief flashback, but the film doesn’t give us nearly enough for us to feel the tragedy of Wulf’s turn to evil.

There’s a familiarity to the film that hurts it.  We’ve already seen an assault on Helm’s Deep in The Two Towers, and nothing here tops that.  And Héra is extremely similar to Éowyn.  I was hoping for some exploration and expansion of the culture and society of the Rohirrim, but we really don’t learn anything we didn’t already know from watching Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films.  That’s a bummer.

I’ll also freely admit that I don’t much care for this particular style of Japanese animation.  The design of the characters feels silly to me and kept me somewhat at a distance from the story being told.  (To pick one obvious example: where is Hera’s nose?  I know this is a look common to Japanese animation, but it rings false to me.)  The film was directed by Kenji Kamiyama, who has been involved with a number of acclaimed productions, including Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and the animation was created by Sola Entertainment.  I think it’s well done for what it is; it just isn’t my speed.

I’m unclear how much involvement Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, and Fran Walsh actually had with the production of this film.  Ms. Boyens has a story credit, and Mr. Jackson and Ms. Walsh are credited as Executive Producers, but that doesn’t make clear whether or not they were directly involved.  Was this film made just as a way for Warner Brothers & New Line to hold onto the LOTR film license?  It doesn’t feel to me like there was a strong creative reason to tell this story and make this film.  That’s unfortunate.  A new Lord of the Rings film should be a huge event, which this film is not.

Still, I don’t want to be too hard on this movie.  I had fun watching it on a big screen and eating popcorn.  I was happy to be back in the world that Peter Jackson had created, and I loved hearing the strands of Howard Shore’s wonderful themes again.  They’ve done a great job replicating the look of Edoras and Helm’s Deep (two iconic locations from the LOTR films), and the design of the Rohirrim.  I liked Héra; it’s nice to see a strong female hero at the heart of this story.  (I just wish they’d done more to differentiate Héra from Éowyn.)  Gaia Wise does a nice job voicing her character.  Brian Cox (Manhunter, Braveheart, X2, Succession) is a hoot as the gruff, fierce old king Helm Hammerhand.  I really liked the character of the aging shield-maiden Olwyn (voiced by Lorraine Ashbourne), who remained sharply intelligent and a brave warrior even into her later years.  (This character might have been a more interesting main character for this story!!)  And it made me smile that Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd (who, of course, played Merry & Pippin in Peter Jackson’s films) were included in cameos, playing a pair of doomed Orcs.  There’s also one line of dialogue from the late Christopher Lee, incorporated from archival recordings.  That was cool!

If you love Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, you might have fun watching this animated adventure.  I just strongly advise you to moderate your expectations.

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