The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)

[phantom000]

I like this movie. I'm not much of an expert on Tolkien lore so I have no idea how well its ties in with his history/mythology of Middle Earth but I think they did a good job. The story and the characters are all great Tolkien elements, while not vital to the story, are some well handled set pieces.

So I was not at all disappointed with this movie and I hope they do more of these or similar works.

[stryke]

I liked it too, and did a review here: https://boxd.it/83HsTv

Do think it's a shame how much it's bombing in terms of performance, as while I do think it's got issues, it's a hell of a lot more worthy than a cut up tv series like Moana 2.

[CharlesPhipps]

I want to see it with my wife in theaters but kind of wish it had been a streaming to begin with.

I just saw it by myself.

[phantom000]

I liked it too, and did a review here: https://boxd.it/83HsTv

Do think it's a shame how much it's bombing in terms of performance, as while I do think it's got issues, it's a hell of a lot more worthy than a cut up tv series like Moana 2.

I wonder if it has to do with the advertising. I lost count of the ads I've seen for Moana and Mufasa but I think I only saw 1 ad for War of The Rohirrim and that was back in August.

You'd think with it in theaters they would ramp up advertising to try and get more people to go see it.

[Winter]

Got to see it just before it was taken out of theaters. I really enjoyed it, it was well paced, interesting and likeable characters and I do like that the pretty much acknowledges that it's not really canon in the first 3 minutes.

On a scale of 1 to 10 with one being Rings of Power and 10 being the Lord of the Rings I'd rank this as a 8, about the same as the other animated films of Middle Earth.

As I mentioned in another post this film kinda inspired me to make my version of Lara Croft a ginger thanks to Hera in this film.

[CharlesPhipps]

I did my own review

https://beforewegoblog.com/movie-review ... -rohirrim/

The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim is an adaptation of one of JRR Tolkien’s mythological history of Middle Earth. Specifically, it is an adaptation of the story of Helm Hammerhand, King of Rohan, as well as his tragic fall from grace. There’s some unfortunate issues with this, not the least being that the movie doesn’t actually follow the story of Helm Hammerhand but his daughter, Hera, who is only mentioned in the story as Helm’s daughter. I don’t mind stories inspired by their source material versus direct adaptations but the liberties taken with the story are something that will come up constantly in this review so be forewarned.

The premise of the original legend is that Helm Hammerhand is the King of Rohan but someone who is deeply prejudiced against the Dunlendings. Lord Freca is a Rohirrim lord with much Dunlending blood in his veins who also holds great wealth as well as ties across the border. Helm wished to marry his daughter to a Prince of Gondor while Lord Freca wanted to wed her to his son, Wulf. A council full of petty insults degenerated into Helm striking Freca and due to the force of his blow, killing him outright. This led to a brutal civil war (or just war since Freca employed many foreign mercenaries) and Helm’s nephew, Frealaf, ends up becoming king. No further mention is made of Helm’s daughter.

The depiction in the Appendices is not a flattering one for either side. Helm and Freca behave in a foolish self-aggrandizing manner that escalates tensions between them repeatedly. Helm treats Freca’s suit dismissively and Freca brings far more men at arms to the council (which he calls) than is appropriate. It’s a tragic accident that results in a civil war that neither side is willing to back down from and leads to thousands of pointless deaths. A tragedy like Hamlet or MacBeth with no clear good guy or bad guy. Like most national myths, the Rohan ignore just how much they’re at fault for things going south.

The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim is clearly the same story but it’s a shift in perspective and, well, the morality of the story. The Rohan are clearly the good guys here and the House of Freca are not just scummy but about as detestable as House Frey crossed with the Lannisters. While Freca is just loathesome from the beginning, Wulf goes from now being Princess Hera’s childhood friend to being a man who breaks every single rule of combat as well as parlay as exist in Middle Earth. He’s also someone who wants to marry Hera by force, which is something the original tale did not imply.

The character of Hera is fine. She’s clearly based on Eowyn, though redheaded now, and is heroic as well as kind. She’s also not interested in marriage and some viewers may take it as well as other clues that she’s a queer interpretation. Whether she is or not, she plays a far vaster role in this version of the story than in the original legend. Wulf is obsessed with marrying her, she is the only voice of sanity, and is involved with several action sequences that depend on us wanting the Rohan to triumph. Which most Tolkien fans do but that was never the point.

The animation is okay for this movie and there’s great scenes from beginning to end. It’s a distinctly Japanese take on European fantasy, though, and that might not be to the taste of every viewer. The animation is a bit choppy in places but this can be forgiven for a beautiful set of visuals. Sadly, there’s precious little in the way of monsters with only a couple of orcs to hint at the larger conflict against Sauron.

In conclusion, this is a fun movie but it’s not really an adaptation of Helm Hammerhand’s fall from grace. It’s more the story of a spunky princess who flees from an arranged marriage to an evil man and her family gets horribly hurt by them. That’s a fine story and one I’ve enjoyed many variants on. If you keep that in mind, I think you’ll enjoy this movie a lot more.

[Winter]

I did my own review

https://beforewegoblog.com/movie-review ... -rohirrim/

The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim is an adaptation of one of JRR Tolkien’s mythological history of Middle Earth. Specifically, it is an adaptation of the story of Helm Hammerhand, King of Rohan, as well as his tragic fall from grace. There’s some unfortunate issues with this, not the least being that the movie doesn’t actually follow the story of Helm Hammerhand but his daughter, Hera, who is only mentioned in the story as Helm’s daughter. I don’t mind stories inspired by their source material versus direct adaptations but the liberties taken with the story are something that will come up constantly in this review so be forewarned.

The premise of the original legend is that Helm Hammerhand is the King of Rohan but someone who is deeply prejudiced against the Dunlendings. Lord Freca is a Rohirrim lord with much Dunlending blood in his veins who also holds great wealth as well as ties across the border. Helm wished to marry his daughter to a Prince of Gondor while Lord Freca wanted to wed her to his son, Wulf. A council full of petty insults degenerated into Helm striking Freca and due to the force of his blow, killing him outright. This led to a brutal civil war (or just war since Freca employed many foreign mercenaries) and Helm’s nephew, Frealaf, ends up becoming king. No further mention is made of Helm’s daughter.

The depiction in the Appendices is not a flattering one for either side. Helm and Freca behave in a foolish self-aggrandizing manner that escalates tensions between them repeatedly. Helm treats Freca’s suit dismissively and Freca brings far more men at arms to the council (which he calls) than is appropriate. It’s a tragic accident that results in a civil war that neither side is willing to back down from and leads to thousands of pointless deaths. A tragedy like Hamlet or MacBeth with no clear good guy or bad guy. Like most national myths, the Rohan ignore just how much they’re at fault for things going south.

The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim is clearly the same story but it’s a shift in perspective and, well, the morality of the story. The Rohan are clearly the good guys here and the House of Freca are not just scummy but about as detestable as House Frey crossed with the Lannisters. While Freca is just loathesome from the beginning, Wulf goes from now being Princess Hera’s childhood friend to being a man who breaks every single rule of combat as well as parlay as exist in Middle Earth. He’s also someone who wants to marry Hera by force, which is something the original tale did not imply.

The character of Hera is fine. She’s clearly based on Eowyn, though redheaded now, and is heroic as well as kind. She’s also not interested in marriage and some viewers may take it as well as other clues that she’s a queer interpretation. Whether she is or not, she plays a far vaster role in this version of the story than in the original legend. Wulf is obsessed with marrying her, she is the only voice of sanity, and is involved with several action sequences that depend on us wanting the Rohan to triumph. Which most Tolkien fans do but that was never the point.

The animation is okay for this movie and there’s great scenes from beginning to end. It’s a distinctly Japanese take on European fantasy, though, and that might not be to the taste of every viewer. The animation is a bit choppy in places but this can be forgiven for a beautiful set of visuals. Sadly, there’s precious little in the way of monsters with only a couple of orcs to hint at the larger conflict against Sauron.

In conclusion, this is a fun movie but it’s not really an adaptation of Helm Hammerhand’s fall from grace. It’s more the story of a spunky princess who flees from an arranged marriage to an evil man and her family gets horribly hurt by them. That’s a fine story and one I’ve enjoyed many variants on. If you keep that in mind, I think you’ll enjoy this movie a lot more.

Thinking it over, I'd say that this is perhaps the second best LOTR adaptation, though admittedly it's not much of a contest here, as I went back and watched the other animated films of Middle Earth and while I do still enjoy them I have more issues. The Rankin/Bass are fun but have issues in pacing and Ralph Bakshi's LOTR is underrated IMO it's also has pacing issues and the animation is... an acquired taste. Some shots look amazing and other are a little awkward though I still feel it has the better Frodo and Aragon.

But War of the Rohirrim I think is paced pretty well, the animation is solid and since it's a standalone story meant to be a one and done deal that means it has a complete story.

And again keep in mind that I like the Hobbit Trilogy but even I will admit that it's flawed and not as good as it could have been.

My only issue is the film doesn't feel like film, it feels more like a miniseries shortened down to a 2 hour movie.

[stryke]

I like the Hobbit films too. I think the first one is pretty much flawless, and the second film has Riddles in the Dark which it nails to the wall. Mirkwood is fantastically well done as well. I even don't mind the barrel escape it's very silly, but it's a fun roller coaster of a scene with a ton of energy.

The problems only really start with the end of the second film. The fight against Smaug is just plain bad, and ending where they did was such a WTF. I distinctly remember sitting in the cinema with such a bad taste in my mouth over that.

Then the third film alas is desperately in need of a Jar Jar Binx style cut for the assistant for the mayor of Laketown, and not even does his over the top death in the extended edition justify so much time spent on his painfully unfunny antics.

For me War of the Rohirrim is basically an appendix to the Jackson trilogy rather than something that stands on its own as a seperate entity. Not really needed, but it's some nice additional info, introduces some new likeable characters, and it was lovely hearing that score again.