The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
First and foremost, I want it to be understood that this is not so much a review as it is my attempt to dissect the good and bad of the latest entry into the world of Tolkien. With that being said, any or all of this may be considered spoilers…this is the warning.
I am a huge lover and follower of Tolkien’s Legendarium, as well as a collector of all the hardcover books I can get my hands on of his. Since seeing the Peter Jackson films in theaters as a kid, and falling in love, I have been reading the trilogy over and over ever since…probably from before I could even understand it all. I have (I think) six sets of the trilogy to date.
So to set the stage for this one, as I have heard literally no one talking about it, this is a loose adaptation from the Appendices that they held the rights for, primarily Appendix A. And New Line Cinema fast tracked the production so that they wouldn’t lapse and lose the rights to the novels (never really a good start). The information is real sparse, therefore they pretty much had free reign to write the movie however they wanted to. The majority of that information can be read here if you’d like to check it out (or you know, in the back of The Return of the King). The movie is directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) and is ‘presented’ by Peter Jackson. Jackson and Fran Walsh (who co-wrote the trilogy) are credited as executive producers. It also has Miranda Otto reprising her role as Eowyn to narrate. Therefore, this is the same ‘world’ as the one seen on Jackson’s screen–Rohan, the Rohirrim, and Edoras all continuing the detailed designs created for the films. I’ll share some of that below…
Now to cover the obvious, this film is not live action like the others. And perhaps a hot take, but I am not a huge fan of animation, and especially anime…just not really for me. Although, due to its already lackluster performance, maybe more people agree with me than I realize. So since its announcement I was kind of iffy, but of course I knew I’d see it in theaters to support, as I am a firm believer that new content is better than no content. Although that does not mean that all content is good content. So, what’s it about?
Synopsis
Set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films, “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” tells the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan. A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg–a mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep. Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation, Héra, the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.
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Not a lot to go on, but after refreshing myself on the Appendix A, the thing that struck me was how they decided to go from an unnamed daughter, only mentioned once, to turning her into a main character. I feel as if this was done on purpose to counter those arguments of how little women were involved in tLOTR. And honestly, she’s badass, so I have no counter arguments. Below is the lore they created for her, and while I don’t really feel like the name they chose was all that Tolkien-esque, the character itself is cool.
From The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim Visual Companion which you can check out here
Now one of the things that really stood out was that in some scenes its very clearly 2D characters set over some absolutely brilliant set pieces. It makes the difference stick out like the sorest thumb, and it makes fast character movements look almost incomplete.
Another oddity was that some of the character designs seemed very clearly anime. As in they don’t follow anything seemingly Tolkien, and they stuck out as other from the Peter Jackson design. Not the biggest deal, but some cohesion would have been better?
Then there are the tropes. Hera is being pushed to political marriage…she does not want to marry at all. After the deaths of both her brothers, she is seemingly now super important to her father. While in no way new, it does makes sense for her character. And while tLOTR is in no way without tropes, when I look back on when they were published it feels kind of like he was the one inventing those tropes? So to me this kind of felt like a bunch of fantasy tropes thrown together with a Tolkien setting slapped over it. And then of course the nostalgia of it all…
One thing that will always be the hardest, although it’s not really something they can tackle, is that they are making something new out of something beloved. Something that so many of us have nostalgia attached to. I believe that it’s the problem with today’s sequels and reboots in general, you just really cannot recreate or continue something that makes us feel a certain type of way without people feeling that they have this inherent claim to it. I personally don’t believe that means they shouldn’t try at all, it’s just something that we need to be cognizant of.
And while of course this predates The Two Towers chronologically, we obviously got that story first. So another battle of Helm’s Deep feels like a callback a la The Force Awakens. And speaking of callbacks, this film has many. To the point where I wondered if they really thought they were doing it as fan service, because it didn’t really read like it. (and they made the Watcher in the water look like a Pokemon.)
With all of that being said, hell yeah…with The Rings of Power, The War of the Rohirrim, and the announced The Hunt for Gollum, we are so back baby. And this is by no means all bad things.
With how sparse the source material is I’m personally okay with what they ended up with. It’s by no means perfect, but it is a pretty solid and loyal take on what Tolkien included.
Tight fight sequences, tense battles, and heart wrenching family loss. The voice work is well done and the actors definitely gave it their all. The appearance of Saruman, as well as the name drop at the end of the film, all made for a nice close. If it wasn’t for the crappy box office, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they continued to make more. Which I would have seen, as I think they can approve upon things. Personally I gave this one a 6/10, not great, but there’s watchability and enjoyment to be found. And of course, the biggest piece of all, the introduction of Tolkien to a new generation. I saw this in theaters with my niece, who had never seen the original trilogy. She enjoyed this so much she is now watching the extended editions of the films with me! That’s what it’s all about really, same with the Star Wars sequels, that torch passing. Maybe giving that sense of nostalgia to the younger generation.
I just really think fantasy needs a big budget and live action to sell. Call it the Game of Thrones effect, but huge scenes and special effects just capture that epic feeling so much better.
I hope any and all of this makes some kind of sense. I am known for losing the point as I run on…thanks for getting this far!
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