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Taking place nearly 200 years before the War of the Ring, The War of the Rohirrim is the story of Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox), the legendary king of Rohan. Helm has two sons, Haleth (Benjamin Wainwright) and Hama (Yazdan Qafouri), while his daughter, Héra (Gaia Wise), is rebellious and adventurous. Freca (Shaun Dooley), a Dunlending lord, visits Rohan's great hall to forcefully request that Héra marry Freca's son, Wulf (Luca Pasqualino). However, Héra is wholly uninterested in marrying Wulf, and Helm insults Freca, leading to a fight outside the hall that results in Freca's death from a single punch. Wulf vows revenge, departing Rohan for years and becoming the High Lord of the Dunlendings, a tribe of Wildmen who live on the plains of Dunlend. After Wulf invades Rohan, Héra evacuates the city, leading the people of Edoras to the stronghold of the Hornburg, where they intend to make their last stand against the Dunlendings.
Turning to the appendices to explore more stories within Middle-earth, the four credited screenwriters (Jeffrey Addiss, Will Matthews, Arty Papageorgiou, and Boyens's daughter, Phoebe Gittins) expand mere ideas into a complete narrative, moving away from Frodo, Bilbo and the One Ring to explore Rohan's past. The War of the Rohirrim is at its best during the first twenty minutes or so, with the screenplay closely adhering to the material from the appendices, down to Helm insulting Freca's weight. The first act also establishes how Helm earns his "Hammerhand" nickname in a highly badass moment, and Cox's vocal performance is exceptional, bringing regalness and authority to Rohan's great ruler. Unfortunately, the movie does not concentrate enough on Helm, relegating him to a supporting character in his own story. There are memorable highlights when Helm engages in combat, but the picture glosses over one particularly crucial moment in the third act, abruptly cutting to the aftermath of what should be a stirring extended battle featuring the legendary king fighting scores of Dunlendings.
The screenplay strives to recreate the style of dialogue from Tolkien's novels and the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, but this sometimes results in the movie straight-up copying dialogue ("His eye will be fixed on me") or conspicuously rewording iconic lines ("We will paint the dawn red"). The recycled dialogue is obvious to the point of distraction for die-hard fans of the trilogy. Additionally, The War of the Rohirrim's storytelling lacks gravitas, with the pace slowing down tremendously during the second half, making the 134-minute runtime sometimes feel like a slog. Unfortunately, Héra is not a sufficiently compelling protagonist, and it makes no sense for her to be smarter than the battle-hardened male warriors surrounding her. Plus, the narration positing that the old songs exclude Héra makes no logical sense as she is the narrative's key driving force, achieving more than her father. There is a groan-worthy, uneasy implication that Héra's gender resulted in her exclusion from tales and songs despite Middle-earth stories featuring numerous female characters (Elwing, Lúthien, Tar-Ancalimë, Aredhel, and so on).
Thankfully, pieces of The War of the Rohirrim do work, including the characters spreading rumours about Helm becoming a supernatural being and the climactic siege of the Hornburg. The picture connects to the Lord of the Rings trilogy with little touches that fans will appreciate, such as including two orcs (voiced by Billy Boyd and Dominic Monahan) searching for rings under orders from Mordor. Saruman the White also appears in a brief cameo, with the team using an archival recording of Christopher Lee's distinctive voice. Miranda Otto is another significant connection to the trilogy; her inclusion is among the movie's biggest assets. The narration is wonderfully poetic and involving, with Otto providing a spirited and involving vocal performance. Fortunately, the rest of the voice cast gives it their all, with British actor Luca Pasqualino giving Wulf an effective villainous edge while Gaia Wise is an engaging Héra. The material and pacing do not always serve the performers, but the cast makes a positive impression nevertheless.
The visual design of The War of the Rohirrim is striking, as the picture faithfully recreates locations, sets, creatures and costumes from the Lord of the Rings trilogy (old Wētā models were even used for reference), making it all the more disappointing that the movie is not live-action. However, the animated characters are not as successful, with the animation alternating between serviceable and extremely slipshod. The characters were brought to life through motion capture instead of rotoscoping, but character movements in some scenes look alarmingly unnatural and stiff. More than 60 companies worked on the animation to complete the picture on time, making the mixed quality somewhat unsurprising. Despite the release date delays ostensibly implying the filmmakers wanted the time to execute the film to the highest standard, it still looks incomplete at times, though it still does deliver some awe-inspiring visuals at times. Although the battles are not on the same level as the Peter Jackson films, director Kenji Kamiyama (Blade Runner: Black Lotus, Star Wars: Visions) executes a few fluid and exciting action beats, and it is undeniably thrilling to see Rohirrim soldiers battling the Dunlendings. However, even though the music by Stephen Gallagher (who was the music editor for the Hobbit trilogy) occasionally works, it, for the most part, sounds like a pale, uninspiring imitation of Howard Score's iconic compositions from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
Hoping to cash in on the popularity of the still-popular Lord of the Rings films, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim amounts to a mishmash of popular elements from the original trilogy, from a Rohirrim charge (complete with dialogue mirroring what Théoden said during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields) to a siege of Helm's Deep and the inclusion of familiar Middle-earth creatures, such as mûmakil, the eagles, Crebain from Dunlend, and a Watcher in the Water. However, although the prequel fills in some gaps and delivers a few worthwhile sequences, especially when revisiting familiar locations, it does not coalesce into a satisfying or emotionally stimulating whole, resulting in an uneven 134 minutes that struggles to maintain interest. For a movie about battle, it lacks urgency. The movie is simultaneously not as bad as fans might have feared, but it is not the masterpiece it had the potential to be.
6.0/10
