The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim – REVIEW

Still from The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim


It’s interesting to see how fast this movie came and went. Yeah, an animated fantasy movie aimed at adults isn’t exactly a wide audience in America, but just look at the title of this post. A new Lord of the Rings movie, the first ever since the Hobbit movies, hit theaters last December. Granted, I didn’t see it until now, maybe that proves just how well this ended up going. I’ve never been too into Lord of the Rings and all that, but I’ve enjoyed what I remember of those movies. I guess this is a reminder that I have to watch those again at some point. Either way, this isn’t just an animated movie: it’s anime, honest-to-god anime. When The War of the Rohirrim was first announced, I thought it would be anime-inspired, like elements of the Spider-Verse movies. I really didn’t think it’d just be anime, but once I saw that Kenji Kamiyama, the director of this, created the Ghost in the Shell series, Stand Alone Complex, that’s when I realized that this is going to be anime. In terms of the timeline, I know that Rohirrim takes place a few centuries before the live-action movies, and this movie is canon because Miranda Otto, the actress who played Éowyn in the original trilogy, narrates the film from her character’s perspective. However, let The War of the Rohirrim showcase a tale as old as time: Being canon doesn’t automatically mean being good. It’s not all bad, but there’s some very odd things about this movie. I’m not entirely sure how the production went on it, but the animation does feel very rushed, specifically when it comes to simple character movements. Whenever they aren’t in a battle, they move like characters in the old Legend of Zelda CD-i games. It looks very strange, which makes it even weirder because the battles look pretty great. The voice acting is mostly okay too, with Brian Cox being the standout. I understand why he wasn’t the main character and why the spotlight was on his daughter, Héra, but he’s a driving force behind some of the memorable parts of Rohirrim. Again, I’m not entirely a Middle-Earth/fantasy guy, but my thoughts on the movie really stop there. It’s perfectly serviceable, but I thought it was a chore. I also don’t want to think of watching movies as chores, so that’d also be a huge mark against it for me. Good elements, but it didn’t gel at all.


Ryan’s Grade: C