The Lord Of The Rings: The War of the Rohirrim Review

The War of the Rohirrim is not the first animated feature to bear The Lord of the Rings name, but it is the first to don the chainmail of anime. An art style originating from Japan, this film melds the typically Eastern medium with the Western source material of J.R.R Tolkien’s iconic novels to forge a story set 183 years before Peter Jackson’s cinematic adaptations. This allows the film to create its own distinctions, generating an immersive, if overly familiar, experience.

Long before Bilbo Baggins’ discovery of the One Ring, the Kingdom of Rohan was led by the monarch Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox), whose headstrong daughter Hera (Gaia Wise) serves as this story’s protagonist. A princess of Rohan, she cares little for politics or leadership, instead preferring to navigate the wilderness and befriend the creatures of Middle Earth. But when her father accidentally kills Freca, a disloyal subject,over a marriage proposal for Hera, Freca’s son Wulf (Luke Pasquino) swears revenge. Years later, Wulf has amassed a big enough army to declare the titular war, a war that brings Hera, Helm and their people to the breaking point.

From the beginning the film harkens back to Peter Jackson’s original trilogy. The soundtrack echoes many musical cues from Howard Shore’s score of the trilogy. Many of the locations, such as the Rohan capital of Edoras, are drawn to be identical to that of their live-action counterparts. Miranda Otto, who played Eowyn, returns to serve as a narrator, similar to how Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel narrated the trilogy. These callbacks serve to draw us in, and while the film is not overwhelming in its use of nostalgia, it does seem somewhat reliant on it as a potential fallback for viewers who may otherwise not be interested in the story.

This feels unnecessary as the film already has its visual medium to sell itself. Taking a page from the book of Hayao Miyazaki, the film boasts sweeping rural landscapes, a dazzling sense of scale and even attention to detail in its settings, such as footprints in the snowy terrain. Exaggeration in facial expressions and action scenes enhance the excitement of the central conflict; elements that the animated medium allow for. Blending 2D hand drawings with the occasional use of 3D panorama to heighten this sensation of vastness, the visual look of the film is endlessly colourful and scenic, even if the occasional mismatching between lip movements and dialogue proves distracting.

Pity this visual delight serves an overly familiar story. Hera’s arc is one of leadership – where she goes from someone described as “feral” and “wild” to someone willing to risk it all for her people and defeat a vengeful foe. As grand and immersive as the visuals are, the narrative they tell is painted by numbers, with the story boiling down to a couple of grand battles, a long siege and namedrops to people and places that hardcore Tolkien fans will relish. Jackson’s trilogy seems to be acting as a crutch, right down to the redrawn setpieces, something that takes away from this film’s own identity.

What keeps the film thrilling are its themes and leading characters. While Hera is reminiscent of characters like Merida, Nausicaa and even Eowyn, the voice performance from Wise imbues her with a charisma that elevates her into a heroine who rolls with the punches of the narrative. Wulf is a compelling, tragic antagonist whose bloodlust for revenge, and insecurity surrounding his own strength, transforms him into a desperate, entitled monster, despite the efforts of his top general, Targg (Michael Wildman), to meld him into a worthy king. One particularly captivating image sees Wulf looking at himself in a mirror, having seemingly achieved everything, but given that he is still alone in this mirror, it’s clearly not enough. This image is reflective of the film’s core ideas on responsibility, family, and the cyclical nature of revenge and violence – rich themes that are elevated through the art style and the stellar voice acting from Wise to Pasquino to Cox’s booming presence.

Following Jackson’s original trilogy is always going to come with some level of pressure, but this animated prequel just about stands on its own. Visually breathtaking and thematically exciting, it’s an entertaining, if somewhat redundant, spectacle that takes playful advantage of its anime medium. Whether you’re hungry for more Middle Earth stories, or just mildly curious as to how Helm’s Deep got its name, then The War of the Rohirrim proves a fun watch.