The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)
It’s been a long time since we’ve had a really good Lord Of the Rings movie. The Hobbit trilogy could have stood a LOT of trimming, like maybe an entire movie, although the parts that came directly from Tolkien weren’t at all bad, and the movies improved on the novel’s ending. Rings of Power, was and is, of course, one of Amazon’s most expensive blunders and a PR disaster.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim redresses the balance quite a bit, even though a LOTR anime probably wasn’t on too many bingo cards. Having Peter Jackson’s production company, Wingnut, behind it automatically gives it quite a bit of cred, not to mention there are some familiar names in the credits.
Set about two hundred years before Bilbo found the One Ring, the story follows Hara, the only daughter of Helm Hammerhand and a bit of a wild child. She’d rather be out riding her horse and befriending eagles than sitting at court or dreaming about getting married, and while the people hold her in awe, some of her fellow royals think her priorities need a reset.
There are bigger fish to fry, of course. Dunleading lord Freca comes to offer his son, Wulf, in marriage to Hara, to which Helm is suspicious, thinking Freca’s more about gaining the throne of Rohan than about an alliance between two houses. Hara’s not keen on the idea because she doesn’t want to marry anyone, and Wulf is highly affronted because the two of them were childhood playmates.
Helm’s suspicions are correct, and he and Freca engage in hand-to-hand combat outside the Great Hall. While Freca initially lands some well-placed punches, Helm accidentally lays out Freca with a strong right to the jaw and kills him. Wulf is incensed and vows revenge, so naturally Helm bans him from Rohan territory.
Things go from bad to worse pretty quickly, although it’s a slow burn, and Hara is soon thrust into a role she didn’t ask for despite being well-suited for it. There are some pretty strong nods to some familiar lore, and the movie sets up Jackson’s previous trilogies.
The acting’s great. Overall, the story is great. It’s easy to get caught up in. The animation’s a little goofy sometimes (When Freca issues his ultimatum to Helm, for instance, he looks as if he’s doing the Twist). For the most part, the film looks and sounds wonderful. Some have criticized it for having “painty” backgrounds while the figures are traditional anime, but older Disney films did the “painty” thing all the time, such as in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.
My only beefs with Rohirrim were these: The film states in the beginning that Hara’s name isn’t known to the Rohirrim, although her deeds were mighty, but it’s not clear if this is because the writers blame the patriarchy or because (partial spoiler alert) Hara chose to take herself out of the picture. I’m inclined to go with the latter, because Hara has the respect and love of both the men and women in her life and doesn’t hate men as a general thing. She just doesn’t want to get married, that’s all. I’m still curious to know why she and Wulf quit hanging out.
The other thing is that it’s a little bit long, or maybe it should have been split into two movies. What’s there is easy to follow, but there’s a lot to follow. We can only take so many scenes of Wulf brooding or stomping around, and it feels like there’s slightly too much padding going on.
No, Rohirrim’s not perfect, and it’s certainly not on the level of the original LOTR trilogy, but it’s not too shabby, either. Be jealous, Amazon. Be very, very jealous.
Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is currently in theaters. Rated PG-13.
My grade: B
Principal Cast: Brian Cox, Gaia Wise, Miranda Otto, Luca Pasqualino, Lorraine Ashbourne, Shaun Dooley, Benjamin Wainwright, Yazdan Qafuri, Laurence Ubong Williams, Michael Wildman, Janine Duvitski, Bilal Hasna, Jude Akuwudike, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Alex Jordan, Bea Dooley, Elijah Tamati.
Directed by Kenji Kamiyana.
Written by Jeff Addiss, Will Matthews and Phoebe Gittens.