One of the main appeals of the trend of recent anime adaptations of Western material is the wondrous beauty of the animation. Unfortunately, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, a Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell, Ultraman) directed film, written by Jeffrey Addis, Will Matthews, Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, and inspired by the Appendix in JRR Tolkien’s fantasy novels seems to have been rushed out and feels like a missed opportunity. At points the standard of animation from respected artists is quite noticeably under-sketched with jerking physical movements and the screenplay is far too bogged down in the tropes of women overcoming warring male egos that it becomes entirely predictable.
Events play out 200 years before Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth trilogy (Jackson also executive produces) and feeds into the same narrative as those films. Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan even voice a couple of the characters. There is a later voice cameo which is jarring though. What does work in the film’s favour is the great voice cast with Brian Cox’s booming King Helm a joy to watch as he battles in armed and hand-to-hand combat on snowy mountains and becomes full of murderous rage following a grief-stricken period.
Cox is joined by Gaia Wise as daughter, Hèra who is described as ‘headstrong’ in overdone narration by Éowyn (Miranda Otto reprising her role from the trilogy). Hèra’s uncompromising attitude and her refusal to marry the villainous Freca’s (Shaun Dooley) son Wulf (Luca Pasqualino playing his role like a bratty nepo-baby who doesn’t get what he wants) kicks off what eventually leads to war. It’s the bigger battle sequences that are lacking in the thrills and strong visuals but the film does show early promise with some creative creature design and sound work in a chase sequence with a rabid Mumakil.
The War of the Rohirrim is intermittently entertaining but stagnates due to an uninspired screenplay that plods along at a slow-pace and plays out mostly dispassionately. It may have an epic run-time but it doesn’t deliver on those epic highs like Peter Jackson’s exhilarating films.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will be released on 13 December
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