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

by Fanboy SEO · Published December 11, 2024 · Updated December 11, 2024

Here’s my Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review which opens December 11 from Warner Bros Pictures. The feature is directed by Kenji Kamiyama (“Blade Runner: Black Lotus” and “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex”).

This LOTR anime spinoff features the voices of Brian Cox (“Succession”) as Helm Hammerhand, the mighty King of Rohan; Gaia Wise (“A Walk in the Woods”) as his daughter Héra; and Luke Pasqualino (“Snowpiercer”) as Wulf. Miranda Otto, who delivered an unforgettable, award-winning performance in “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, reprises her role as Éowyn, Shieldmaiden of Rohan, who serves as the tale’s narrator. The voice ensemble also includes Lorraine Ashbourne (Netflix’s “Bridgerton”), Yazdan Qafouri (“I Came By”), Benjamin Wainwright (“World on Fire”), Laurence Ubong Williams (“Gateway”), Shaun Dooley (“The Witcher”), Michael Wildman (“Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw”), Jude Akuwudike (“Beasts of No Nation”), Bilal Hasna (“Sparks”) and Janine Duvitski (“Benidorm”).

For the record, this film caught my interest because it’s anime and LOTR and it would definitely cater to fans of both topics so it’s highly recommended to go see it on opening day.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim Trailer

The War of the Rohirrim centers around the young princess of Rohan named Hera, the daughter of the Rohan king Helm Hammerhand (sound familiar? We’ll get to that in a bit). It’s also placed 250 or so years before the events of “Fellowship of the Ring” so no Frodo Baggins or Bilbo Baggins. What started off as a standard call for marriage between Hera and the Dunlendings prince Wulf ends up as the opening shot for a full blown war between the wild men and the horse lords.

It’s an interesting time period that this film was set as it focuses on Rohan and their fortified structure known as Helm’s Deep. The same place where most of LOTR: The Two Towers was set with Aragorn and the people of Rohan holding their own inside the fortification while ensuring the relentless assault of the orcs and the uruk-hai. It’s through “War of the Rohirrim” that we find out why that place is called Helm’s Deep.

I sat down to watch the animated film with zero idea what to expect and because of that I did enjoy this to some extent. I have to be honest though the writing and plotting of the film could use some fine tuning especially since they really hardly connect. There were some moments in the film that didn’t make sense but the book or the source material could have easily explained it. But if you are looking for LOTR, high fantasy together with sleek and beautiful anime, then this is the film to catch before everything wraps up with the MMFF.

Also side note, it feels like old times having an actual Lord of the Rings project coming in December. Just felt like old times.

The cinematography in this feature is also spectacular with some awesome tracking shots and revolving shots with the speed that only an anime can hit. The music was nostalgic but they did take some time to provide their own beats in some scenes. Most of the time, it’s always that classic epic scoring that gets played in the background. The actual animation though suffers from hiccups here and there.

There were a number of unbearable plot points in the film and I suggest you extend your patience or just ride along so it won’t ruin the experience. On my end, all I had to remind myself is that this entire film was taken from like a handful of pages from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” around the point where the book’s characters were discussing about the history of Helm’s Deep and how it got it’s name.

I will complain about the stretching they did towards the end by the appearance and referencing of two key characters from the main movie and book. I know they have to tie that in but was that really the right thing? Shoehorning some key aspects to make it fit the bigger franchise. It could have been another thing but they really went with the ones that are familiar to everybody. But I guess, corporate synergy.

Lastly it was good to hear Miranda Otto’s voice again; Eowyn recounting the story of a former princess who also kicked ass back in the day was such a nice touch that LOTR fans might appreciate.

Character designs and creature designs were also par for the course. They serve not just to differentiate the bad guys from the good guys but also as a distraction when scenes are getting slow or boring.