Lord of the Rings- The War of the Rohirrim Review: A Disappointing Entry with Inconsistent Animation and Plot

It has been over 10 years since a mainline Lord of the Rings film has been released to the big screen, with the The Hobbit trilogy coming to an end in 2014. Since then there have been several video game adaptations and Amazon’s Ring’s of Power filling that void. With the release of War of the Rohirrim, the franchise has been given new life in the form of an anime with Sola Animation taking over for animation, with a story cowritten by Philippa Boyens. Unfortunately, the film fails to reach the same heights as the original trilogies, barely adding anything new to the lore, reuses scenarios and concepts from past entries, and has inconsistent animation that pulls the viewer out of the film. The movie comes across as cheap and rushed, and does not allow itself to experiment with the medium of animation but rather plays it too safe.

The War of the Rohirrim takes place nearly 200 years before the events of The Hobbit in the land of Rohan. We follow Hera, the adventurous daughter of the King of Rohan Helm Hammerhand. She would rather ride her horse in the wild and tame the giant eagles than sit on the throne to be wed to foreign dignitaries. When the leader of a neighboring tribe challenges the Kings power, he is defeated by the King in one swift punch. This leads to a rampage from his son Wulf, who is a childhood friend of Hera and is interested in her hand in marriage. He is hellbent on getting revenge for his father’s death, gathering an army to defeat the King of Rohan and take Heras hand in marriage. Hera is determined to help, and she becomes the final hope of her people to survive the brutal onslaught by Wolf and his armies.

At times the animation can be beautiful, with detailed backgrounds and smooth character animations. Unfortunately the inconsistent shifts between animation and the contast between the painted backdrops versus the cell shading of the anime characters is jarring. The characters never blend with the background and always have a detached feeling, making it look cheap. Another issue I had with the animation is the jump of quality from one scene to another. For example, a character is walking down stairs in 30 frames per second, but within the very same scene the character animation suddenly jumps to a much more fluid 60 frames per second. This jump between frame rates is not uncommon in typical anime features, but the use of the higher quality animation is placed in odd parts of the movie, often mundane and unnecessary. It would have benefited the films style if they focused the higher frame rate animation during battle scenes, but highlighting during slow moments only adds to the jarring effect.

The story carries very little weight, with the narrator telling the viewer in the beginning that the main character’s name and story is lost to history, so it feels like a throw away storyline to be used. Hera’s story is based on some notes detailing the Kings of Rohan, and uses context clues to add in aspects into the film. While this could have been compelling, it fails to add anything new to the Lord of the Rings mythos, instead rehashing scenarios and situations done better in the mainline movies, such as a last minute save from horseback riders that could have been lifted straight from The Two Towers film.

The film is entertaining enough, with fast paced battles and cool creature designs. There are a few interesting moments, and easter eggs that barely connect the story to the main trilogy of movies. These moments feel more like afterthoughts rather than intricately planned details, making it feel cheap and unearned. There are many opportunities in the film to create something unique and inspiring, but unfortunately it feels like too many hands were involved, creating a movie specifically designed only to keep the distribution rights of the franchise rather than create a compelling and important story.

Pros

-Fun battle sequences

Cons

-Inconsistent animation quality

-Rehashed story concepts

Final Score: 4 out of 10