Il Signore degli Anelli - La guerra dei Rohirrim

I am a long time (40+ years) Tolkien fan, and arguably fall into the category of being hard to please. I saw this film on IMAX and I must say that it looks pretty nice, with the scenery being exemplary. The animation style might put some people off, depending on preference, but I think it holds up. In summary, overall production value is up to expectation for me (picture, sound, voice acting etc).

Now, where it falls short is definitely on the script side, and I join the (growing) crowd who has a hard time understanding why they decided to change the storyline from the book instead of just building on it. I get the motive and all, but it is still a mystery why they decided to go in this direction, despite the fact that they know EXACTLY what will happen when it hits the Tolkien fandom.

Filmmakers could easily have done more or less the same story, including the Hera perspective, but without tampering with the source material and they would have gotten through this in a much better shape.

I guess it is a sign of the times. Sadly.

The Rohirrim War unfortunately, the end result is a film that struggles to engage the viewer, offering a flat and predictable narrative.

The anime-style animation lacks depth and often appears confusing. The character designs also appear generic and unmemorable, failing to leave a mark on the hearts of viewers. The story, centered on the defense of Helm Hammerhand, is a wasted opportunity to explore the internal dynamics of Rohan. The narrative drags on wearily, lacking twists and moments of true emotion. The dialogues are often banal and repetitive, failing to convey the complexity of the characters and their motivations.

The film suffers from slow pacing and excessive length. Many sequences are unnecessary and artificially dilate the duration, boring the viewer. The lack of pace and memorable moments makes it difficult to remain involved in the story.

The lack of originality and courage in the narrative is the biggest flaw of this feature film.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rohirrim War" is a film that disappoints on every level. The boredom, the flat plot and the uninspired animation make this film a disappointing experience for fans of the saga. A wasted opportunity to explore a fascinating period of Middle Earth.

This movie is based on a one-page story (mostly) about Helm Hammerhand from Appendix A of the LoTR book (which is a pretty nice read btw). The book's dialogue and events are actually kept to quite an extent, with only minor alterations in detail. The film does an especially good job capturing the epic character of Helm Hammerhand, as depicted in the books. However Hera, introduced in the movie, is not in the books at all and some of her deeds are actually done in the original work by her cousin, Fréaláf.

What many people like about Tolkien's universe is its pre-industrial, simple world, where this simplicity highlights the theme of human nature/values and the moral order of the universe. In the 'classic' movies there is a lot of wisdom hidden in everyday conversations, like "All we have to do is decide what to do with the time given to us" (LoTR) or "It is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep darkness at bay" (Hobbit), which I would say are timeless truths about our world, and these are lines I think about sometimes even after the movie ends.

However, this movie has nothing to add in this front. It introduces modern issues (feminism), into Tolkien's world in a way that feels both foreign and forced, ultimately undermining both Tolkien's vision and the cause of feminism it seeks to support. It's not as bad as RoP, but still shows. Of course it's not about that women can't do any of the things depicted in the movie, or that the book should be followed exactly. It's just that it's not guided purely by the love of Tolkien's work and legacy, and it really shows.

But besides that, it's not a terrible movie. I would say it's worth a watch.

The difficulty with spin-offs is always that they are based on an original work which brings the problem of how to make them stand on their own? Usually it requires that they are cohesive and artistically distinct and unique. Making an anime based on the Peter Jackson's trilogy seemed like a mad idea but it certainly tackles this problem well.

The director Kenji Kamiyama is best known for his recent directive work on the Blade Runner anime spin off as well a the classic sci-fi Ghost in The Shell Stand alone complex -series (which is also a spin off from an original anime film). He has also worked on classics such as Akira and Princess Mononoke (which is certainly the most important reference point for War of the Rohirrim) in smaller roles. The animation style in terms of anime is generic (safe for western audiences) with a mix of 3D graphics with drawn animation at times. The quality varies a lot from one scene to another and on can see that the there was a limited time frame available for some specific scenes. Given that this is an anime film, it would've needed some more dynamism and creativity how it was used. The film very much follows the Jackson's story board formula with some anime tropes but I think the possibilities of an anime style were underutilized here. If one decides to make an anime film, it does not really make it any better for any audience if the end result seems a bit too subtle. The score from Howard Shore brings the epic feel of the original PJ trilogy, though otherwise the universe here feels a bit different as a more high fantasy setting.

The story is based on a short appendix text from Tolkien himself so it's a very universal classic storyline, though very predictable. Aside from the main character, there are really not other interesting ones. The designs are very interesting though. I also liked the English voice acting overall.

The film manages to be its own thing with it's style and story, but it is hampered down by being too safe for western audiences, as well as some of the sub-par production. I'm not sure to who was this made for? A lot of Tolkien fans are nerds who are familiar with anime so being too safe here with the style does not really make sense here. Making the animation more bland does not make it more appealing for audiences who would not like it anyway, and makes the overall film less memorable and more like a generic action animation. It's not a bad film but not a very memorable either.

What can you do when you have Lord of the Rings, having a crossover with anime cinema, and exploring a new era in its universe?

This new Lord of the Rings movie is still, in some ways, an adventurous movie: it's exciting, colorful, tense, and engaging. Sola Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation provides a colorful, adventurous design and presentation there with some well-constructed character designs and battle sequences. Many of the sound designs and action sequences are bright and tense, for LOTR's thrill standards, it still sells out what the world is like. The world J. R. R. Tolkien has created is large and ambitious, there are many approaches and styles that can be explored to see many different aspects about their world and setting.

However, instead of making a wonderful and classic narrative and world of what made Peter Jackson's Lord of the Ring approach. War of the Rohirrim is the definition of a beautiful mess, a mess that still both impresses and fails to impress me at the same time. It suffers from what both modern Anime cinema and Hollywood suffers. Crafted with static colorful animation, ambitious concepts, and great action sequences, but phoned in with the cliche bad aspects of character development and engagement, uneven writing, and phoning the tiresome anime tropes that run the well dry. It lacks what made Jackson's LOTR amazing, because unlike Jackson's approach, many of the characters are not interesting and you don't connect nor remember them on an emotional level. Almost as if it repeats some of the worst aspects about The Hobbit Trilogy.

It's a shame because the beautiful character designs and background are breathtaking, despite some use of poor CGI. The voice performances are all pretty good, alongside the musical score and thrill moments. With the concepts and world, things could have been approached pretty well. But for a LOTR narrative, it doesn't really feel like a LOTR story. You can name it anything else and I would have believed it was something new and different from LOTR.

But let me say this, nobody asked for anime and LOTR to become a thing. Yet it happened. I do applaud the studio and filmmakers to actually do it.