The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

• Directed by Kenji Kamiyama
• December 3, 2024
• Based on characters created by J. R. R. Tolkien

Voice cast

• Helm Hammerhand-Brian Cox
• Héra-Gaia Wise
• Wulf-Luke Pasqualino
• Fréaláf Hildeson-Laurence Ubong Williams
• Olwyn-Lorraine Ashbourne
• Éowyn as Narrator-Miranda Otto
• Hama-Yazdan Qafouri
• Haleth-Benjamin Wainwright
• Freca (Wulf’s father)-Shaun Dooley
• General Targg-Michael Wildman
• Lord Thorne-Jude Akuwudike
• Lief-Bilal Hasna
• Old Pennicruik-Janine Duvitski
• Saruman-Christopher Lee (archival recording)
• Shank-Billy Boyd
• Wrot-Dominic Monaghan

After the leader of the neighboring Kingdom of Dunlendings proposes marriage to his daughter, the king of Rohan accidentally kills him and starts a war.

I went into The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim with some hope. Given that it is set in Tolkien’s Middle Earth and a movie helmed by a talented director using a style ideal for the epic nature of that very world I assumed it would be at the minimum more good than bad. Sadly the film gets more wrong than right demonstrating while only showing a superficial understanding of the world they chose to dabble in. It is certainly a very beautiful film. The animation is fantastic. This is how an animated fantasy film should look. Hair moves. Clothing flutters in the wind or gets caught on a branch. It gets the beauty part down correctly.

The accidental death of a subject with tepid loyalty sets the story of the film in motion. One guy gets kicked out of King Helm’s hall and so things get settled with a fistfight. Who thought a man with the nickname of ‘Hammerhand’ might be able to kill somebody with one punch in a world of elves and magic? There is probably a reason the guy got the nickname!

From the start they go hard early on trying to tell the viewers how awesome Héra is. I would not knock them for it if they had done it far more artfully. The dialogue and moments are not much better than you would find in a Steven Seagal film. It is not that those around Héra are equal to her. They are just so much less than her. Far more egregious is how characters take time out to not so subtly hero worship the character. They basically acknowledge that they are less than she is.

She supposed to be some great and inspirational figure who is an integral part of this epic struggle but by the time of LoTR she’s completely forgotten and her father is the one remembered. Not once has she mentioned by anyone or even hinted that in the preceding films and was not reportedly even given a name by Tolkien.

Héra is the main character. You could argue the same of Frodo and/or Bilbo but in contrast here Héra is largely able to do it all on her own. She doesn’t really need her friends or very much help. Without that assistance it would probably just take her longer to do whatever. Occasional assistance saves her some time. It takes away the need for building relationships or creating character dynamics for drama purposes. I am not against power fantasies, but like any power fantasy they need to be fun and this is not fun.

This film tries to be deep and complex and visually it gets to that but it is nowhere near as rich of a story as the Lord of the Rings films or even The Hobbit movies are. It’s certainly trying to push a message in the hopes it can tell a good and sophisticated story. As I have said before in other posts you need to have a good story first.

It is so close to being something meaty, but it never quite makes it because he just doesn’t know how to. It’s often said your characters are only as smart or complex as those writing them. I don’t think the person that wrote this or any of the people involved are as smart and deep as they wish they are. Tolkien was born of a different time when heroes were strong and complex. This gets barely below the surface but never with any depth and never very long. 

It really drives home its theme/message when towards the end Helm abnormally apologizes to his daughter for not seeing how amazing she was before sacrificing himself. It’s not done in a fatherly way, but in more of a fawning and worshipful way. The scene communicates he is less than her and not she is more than he thought if you catch my drift.

There’s very little character development of Héra. This is one of those movies like many other movies today where the central character is already great. They just must show the world their greatness. Everyone around them knows they’re great it’s just time to show it.

I think this is something that I would’ve liked more if it didn’t have the LoTR name attached. It would come off to me like a Conan the Barbarian knock off. It wants to be in that world and does its best to emulate that world but it’s ultimately not part of that world. It’s a close approximation. It’s enjoyable but only good for passing the time.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim was a misfire. It’s something with only a surface level understanding of the source material. I don’t think you’ll feel like you wasted your time but it doesn’t have the meat of something with a significant amount of talking in it needs.