Film Review: THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (2024): A Bland, Dreary and Dark Animated Film with a Few Strong Characterizations
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim Review
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024) Film Review, a movie directed by Kenji Kamiyama, written by Jeffrey Addiss, Will Matthews and Phoebe Gittins and starring Brian Cox, Gaia Wise, Miranda Otto, Luke Pasqualino, Lorraine Ashbourne, Shaun Dooley, Benjamin Wainwright, Yazdan Qafouri, Laurence Ubong Williams, Michael Wildman, Janine Duvitski, Bilal Hasna, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, and Alex Jordan.
The animated film, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, had plenty of potential to be even better than the original The Lord of the Rings movies from the early 2000’s. Unfortunately, despite its well-constructed plot, the animation here is mediocre with only a few of the characterizations truly standing out from the pack, making many of the supporting players here seem like they’re just taking up space in a film that feels at least twenty minutes too long. There’s plenty of plot to sustain this padded running time but the characters occasionally lack depth which makes them feel mundane. That against the backdrop of depressing scenes of characters being killed off and the absence of a suitable sense of humor hurts director Kenji Kamiyama’s very distinct vision of the story he wanted to tell.
True, there’s not much funny in this dark and dreary tale but a light-hearted scene or two could have helped make it more kid-friendly and less deadly serious. Even the old movies had laughs every now and again. This new picture is set 183 years before the War of the Ring. So going that far back, people rarely laughed or so it seems.
That’s not to say that the lead character lacks spunk and pizzazz. On the contrary. Héra (voice of Gaia Wise), the central female protagonist of the movie is at the heart of the picture. It’s nice to see a strong female character lead a male-heavy, action-oriented film whether it’s animated or live-action. Héra doesn’t want to settle for a marriage she doesn’t want which makes her cliched in some respects and admirable in others. It’s rare to have a female voice lead a male-friendly action movie and the movie does something different by focusing mostly on Héra who went on to live a noble life after the end credits roll, suggesting the filmmakers knew they needed to tell us that information because they were aware this picture would probably not be good enough to warrant any sequels.
Brian Cox lends his very recognizable voice to the other main character, King Helm Hammerhand. This is another very crucial character to the movie’s story line. Helm accidentally kills Freca (Shaun Dooley), the dad of Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), a potential suitor of Héra’s, which complicates the plot in more ways than one. You see, Wulf and Héra were old pals and things could have potentially worked out between them had she been more accepting of his hand in marriage. That didn’t work out and the death of Wulf’s father isn’t going to help matters much.
There are some time-filling, yet awe-inspiring scenes of monsters which look like a warped elephant and octopus, respectively. This is where the movie shows promise but the sequences are only on for a short time as Wulf seems hell bent on revenge and becomes the primary bad guy of the piece. Watch for those old friends who want to marry you after having a strong childhood together because they can become real creeps. Héra is joined by her family members, cousin Fréalaf (Laurence Ubong Williams) and aunt Olwyn (Lorraine Ashbourne), in her attempts to steer clear of the wicked Wulf.
Helm’s other kid, Haleth (Benjamin Wainwright) also gets knocked off mid-movie to create more tension within the story line. The movie goes through a series of confrontations with Wulf before ending with Héra’s search for Gandalf to link the stories of this film and the other earlier pictures. I won’t tell you what happens to poor King Helm. I can say, however, Brian Cox offers the character everything he can possibly bring to it here. It’s an especially strong characterization by the fine actor.
Gaia Wise is decent as the voice of Héra who changes outfits to fight the big, bad Wulf. Wise seems like she adds the proper subtext to the characterization and sounds sophisticated just like the character she is portraying. She looks like a princess or a queen through the animation which works particularly well in its presentation of Héra and her family members. Other than that, the look and tone of the movie are just too dark, as previously stated, which detracts from the quality of the film as a whole. The supporting characters are, in a word, flat.
That being said, I’m glad I saw The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. It takes risks and I respect it for that. For those entering the franchise for the first time, this could well be a suitable movie but in contrast to its predecessors, it certainly pales in comparison. Two-plus hours is also way too long for an animated movie with only a couple of relatable characters. This is a close call but I’m going to give this one a slight miss due to the problems that have been discussed in the aforementioned paragraphs. This film gets brownie points for trying, though.
Rating: 6/10
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