The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim Review - An Uneasy Middle-Earth Epic

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The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim launched from an unenviable position. Divorced from the rest of reality, it’s an anime adaptation/expansion of a two-page substory from J. R. R. Tolkien’s notorious appendices. Unfortunately, it’s also an arm of the Warner Bros. corporation, which just keeps bungling its profitable IP. You can feel this one struggling against those impulses and just barely winning.

Director Kenji Kamiyama is a fascinating voice in the world of anime. He’s worked on some of the biggest projects ever made, including Akira and Kiki’s Delivery Service, but only in small roles. His more impressive directorial work includes Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and its sequels. He’s clearly a visionary talent, but with works like Blade Runner: Black Lotus under his belt, Kamiyama’s work remains a mixed bag.

The Back of the Book

Hera from War of the Rohirrim — Image Source: Warner Bros. Pictures

As most fans know, The War of the Rohirrim is a loose adaptation of a brief historical tale from the back of The Lord of the Rings. The film shuffles the story around as a necessity, given that the source material would barely fill a single episode of TV. It follows Hera, the daughter of King Helm Hammerhand of Rohan. Helm’s daughter didn’t get a name in the original text, freeing up the film’s writers to give her a narrative. As in the book, Helm is the proud and noble monarch of an uneasy nation-state. Freca, one of Helm’s many underlords, proposes a strategic marriage between his son Wulf and Princess Hera. Helm objects via an old-fashioned sanctioned fistfight, then kills Freca in one blow. Wulf swears revenge, eventually leading to the titular armed conflict.

Borrowing heavily from Princess Monoke and the rest of the Ghibli canon, War of the Rohirrim is a multifaceted story. It’s a wartime epic and a more personal adventure film, much in the same way that Peter Jackson’s films were. After Helm kills Freca with a right hook, the pressure builds rapidly, and the widespread conflict gets increasingly desperate. Massive forces meet each other on the battlefield, forcing multiple advances and retreats. Lords betray one another in pursuit of power. A huge percentage of the plot takes place over the ages it takes for an army to construct a siege tower. I really like a lot of the nuts and bolts of the war. It reminded me of some of the finest episodes of Game of Thrones at times, though far less complex, as the considerable runtime still reins some things in. The more personal journey is slightly messier.

Inventing Hera

The characters will make or break your enjoyment of this film. I can already hear the rumblings of insufferable “fans” complaining about Hera’s existence and willfully misinterpreting the film to paint her in a negative light. She’s a new character with shades of familiar figures. I’d compare her to both Ashitaka and San, the protagonists of Princess Mononoke. She’s a charming character, though she’s far from groundbreaking. That statement applies to most of the cast. Helm Hammerhand stands out, truly selling the epic nature of his in-text feats. Wulf is a suitable villain, though he often feels unbelievable in his cruelty. Most of the other main characters have to make do with limited character traits. Hera’s cousin Fréaláf, for example, comes across as the Smash Bros. depiction of a Fire Emblem character. The funniest character is Michael Wildman’s General Targg, who exclusively exists to issue Wulf advice he ignores.

The voice cast elevates a lot of the script’s lackluster beats. Gaia Wise has the starring role, but she’s relatively new to the vocal booth. She brings a lot of spirit to Hera, keeping things lively during the considerable time the movie spends with her. Bryan Cox will likely get the bulk of praise for the film, and he definitely deserves it. His booming voice brings Helm to life with the Shakespearean quality he requires. Luke Pasqualino delivers a compelling performance as Wulf, selling his villainy with a consistent growl. The film is an interesting showcase for lesser-known English talent, all of whom carry their weight.

Techincal Difficulties

Hera and Wulf from War of the Rohirrim — Image Source: Warner Bros. Pictures

Looking at The War of the Rohirrim is often extremely frustrating. Certain shots are absolutely jaw-dropping. I lend my voice to the overwhelming chorus of viewers thrilled to see hand-drawn animation in 2024. It’s so rare to see a team like this one put resources like these behind work like this. Unfortunately, it also uses a ton of bizarre 3D VFX that often look flatly terrible. Pretty much all of the backgrounds and non-organic elements are 3D, and if they’re ever asked to move a lot, they look like PS2 animations. This creates a jarring clash between breathtakingly fluid humans and low-poly buildings. Some shots look like they belong in moving image museums, but others look like they belong in YouTube parodies. It’s irritatingly inconsistent.

Those visual issues pair nicely with some of the most bizarre editing and dialogue pacing I’ve ever seen. You’ll notice characters leaving unbearably long pauses between consecutive lines of dialogue almost immediately. It’s a problem that feels woefully outdated, clearly resulting from some sort of editing issue. Similarly, some moments cut between shots in a way that completely fails to communicate its intended message. It feels like they were running up against budgetary walls that prevented the inclusion of important shots. We don’t know how much WB spent on this, but I wouldn’t be shocked if we start getting horror stories out of this production’s staff.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is good, but not great. It has several positive traits, but its negative qualities threaten to smother them entirely. I wanted to love War of the Rohirrim, but I can only genuinely admit to liking it. Middle-earth still has plenty of stories worth telling; WB just has to figure out how to get them to the screen with a little more magic.