The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim brings back J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterful fantasy world to the big screen after a decade since the end of The Hobbit series, but it fails to capture the magic expected from tales from the legendary world of Middle-Earth.
The War of the Rohirrim is set in the same universe as the previous films from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogy and tells the story under two centuries before events of The Hobbit, and focuses on the affairs of Rohan, with occasional mentions of the familiar locations of Gondor and Isengard. With a 10 year absence of any Tolkien-based film in cinemas, The War of the Rohirrim definitely places high expectations from fans eager to experience a new Lord of the Rings movie in theaters.
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Anime Middle-Earth
The film takes on a fresh creative direction by opting to feature a fully animated film instead of live-action. While watching a beautifully animated story set on The Lord of the Rings is novel and sounds brilliant on paper, the novelty of it all wears off very quickly and the film ultimately fails to provide justification on the departure from live-action. The animation style, strongly governed by Japanese elements with thanks to Director Kenji Kamiyama, not only changed the format but also affected the familiarity long-time fans had regarding the world of Middle-Earth and its characters, from the manner by which they talk to the sudden vibrant colors used in this film running in contrast to the bleakness medieval portrayal from the previous films. The animation is hand-drawn and are stunning in stills, but ends up looking messy and jittery during the numerous fast-pace action battle scenes. Without picking apart the creative freedom of this entry to the world of Tolkien, one then has to ask the question – was the shift to this style of animation necessary?
Lore
The War of the Rohirrim tackles the story of the Rohirric royal family two centuries before the events of the mainline films and finally reveals the origin of the name of Helm’s Deep- the setting for the grand battle from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. However, taking the perspective of the audience that is not a die-hard fan of Tolkien’s work, the film falls apart and becomes a generic, even forgettable, medieval civil war set on Middle-Earth. The story struggles with pacing, moving back and forth between high stakes action to laborious story telling.
The stories of Tolkien is known to contain complex and deep story elements, with songs and side stories peppered to breathe life to Middle-Earth far and beyond any fantasy writer, but both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit series of films were able to masterfully provide the backstories without dragging the audience through endless world-building narratives. Without prior knowledge of any of this, The War of the Rohirrim’s story ends up bland, and at parts, difficult to keep track of.
But hey, now we know why it’s called Helm’s Deep.
Suffice to say, The War of the Rohirrim harbors plenty of story easter eggs which is an absolute delight for Lord of the Rings fans to spot. The film even features Eowyn’s voice actress Miranda Otto narrating the story, and fans would be quick to pick up on her voice from start to finish. Since The War of the Rohirrim tells the story of Eowyn’s ancestors in her homeland of Rohan, the inclusion of this easter egg, along with many others, becomes both appropriate and tastefully handled. All the winks to the camera serve as proof that despite the change in appearance, the film and the people who worked on it are still as invested in the world of Tolkien as much as any of the fans out there.
There is certainly enough in The War of the Rohirrim for a Lord of the Rings fan to enjoy. But for a theatrical release intended for both fans and newcomers, the film ended up pondering on nostalgia and familiarity of long-term fans and risked alienating newcomers from looking up the rich world of Tolkien beyond this iteration. In true Rohirrim fashion, sitting through the film was akin to riding horseback, jumping up and down between gripping action, stunning stills, to dull, difficult to follow, and at times lacking world-building.
Score: 6/10
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