The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is an interesting beast to review and one where I have so many thoughts about how this film (and IP) could be handled better. 

It's directly in the same world as Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings (best trilogy ever made) and Hobbit films (lesser, but still entertaining). That's not to be confused with the Amazon Prime series, The Rings of Power that shares a lot of similarities, but I'm not sure has ever been fully confirmed to be "tied" to Jackson's magnum opus of the Tolkien masterpiece. 

In that regard, it's exciting to get more "Lord of the Rings" in this universe, but I'm perplexed why War of the Rohirrim is what we got. My mind immediately recalls the rather-fantastic Animatrix that released alongside the Matrix sequels that told various stories across different animation styles. The world of Middle-Earth feels ripe for this similar treatment as a anticipated series on Max or Prime (or wherever) streaming. Instead, this anime version of War of the Rohirrim was elevated to a full film that gets a theatrical release, of all things. The weekend is still young, but I'd be dumbfounded if this makes any sort of dent in the box office, so then one must ask the question: why was THIS the choice for this story? And in terms of how I grade the film, I won't hold the business decision against it, but there are several other choices that hold this back. 

The first of which is the animation. I'm not anime's biggest fan aside from perhaps Invincible, so I found the animation of War of the Rohirrim pretty rough. The environments, vistas, and world are impressive, but otherwise the characters and other elements feel dated right from the onset. And as someone who's catching up on Arcane right now - where the animation borders on jaw-dropping - I can't help but wonder why anime was the route chosen. Hell, I'll be honest, I would have even taken a Lego version of this before anime. It just feels outdated and unfitting in this world, not to mention I don't even believe it to be good anime animation...rather standard, basic stuff for something as epic as Lord of the Rings.

The elevation of the material to a full length feature film also hinders it, despite how much I enjoyed the overall story of Helm Hammerhand and Hera of Rohan. The movie is 2 hours and 14 minutes (!!!) and it shouldn't have been a second over 100 minutes long. The story is engaging almost right away, but loses steam at various parts that feel confused about where to go next. A particular portion where Rohan citizens are holed up in Helm's Deep to outlast winter feels particularly overdrawn when a "3 months later" (or something of the like) would have been enough to move the story forward. There's also some shoehorned moments to connect it to Lord of the Rings, including two orcs randomly looking for rings in the snow, that I could have done without, though to be fair these only add a couple minutes to the film. 

The issues I have with War of the Rohirrim are unfortunate because I really loved the story as a whole and it was fun being back in this world in various ways. The story - while overlong - is captivating as some back history and sets the stage of its drama and conflict well. It's surprisingly much darker than I'd assumed it would be - there are PG-13 elements for sure - and the action sequences can be impressive, despite the animation. The characters are a little thinly written, but given I'm asking for a shorter film, I take less issue with that. From a performance perspective, I enjoyed Brian Cox's Helm Hammerhand (who's an utter badass) the most. There's something magical about seeing Middle-Earth again through the design of Jackson and his Weta team. Sure, it's animated, but the design still holds well. And perhaps the best part of the whole thing? The original score remains largely in tact, complimenting well-written newer elements with callbacks to Howard Shore's original iconic score. 

Though I enjoyed Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim enough as a one-time viewing, I cannot get over my confusion of the "why" behind it. I think anime was the wrong animation choice and wasn't impressive (and I'd venture to say hardcore anime fans would agree) and that in turn may disappoint Lord of the Rings fans. Strangely, it makes me want more animated adventures in Jackson's world, but in a wiser fashion, a la the Animatrix, and with better animation that takes advantage of the tools/skills/artists we have in 2024. 

Rapid Rath's Review Score | 6/10