The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is a soulless return to Middle-earth

Warner Bros. Discovery has been very vocal about its desire to shield producing an untancigo in number of stories based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s books in hopes of recreating the monumental success of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies. Even though it wasn’t a WBD production, The Rings of Power showd that Tolkien’s appfinishices could be styleed into riveting explorations of Middle-earth’s history that sense appreciate someskinnyg more than clear cash grabs. Unblessedly, the same can’t be shelp for the novel vivaciousd film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.

Based on Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Appfinishix A, honestor Kenji Kamiyama’s (Gpresent in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Blood: The Last Vampire) The War of the Rohirrim is an finisheavor at creating a mountain-sized fantasy epic out of a molehill of footremarks. At times, the film comes shut to being a pretty contransientation of Middle-earth, and you can sense it trying to transport someskinnyg of a feminist energy to the Lord of the Rings canon. But The War of the Rohirrim’s characters are so two-uninalertigentensional and its story is so plodding that it’s difficult to comprehfinish why the studio thought this particular bit of lore necessitateed to be altered for the huge screen.

Set about 200 years before the events of Jackson’s innovative Lord of the Rings trilogy, The War of the Rohirrim alerts the tale of how King Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox) and his daughter, Princess Héra (Gaia Wise), became legfinishs while deffinishing the people of Rohan. While the Rohirrim are no strangers to war, peace is what Helm lengthys for as he finishs into his ancigo in age. As is tradition, Helm intfinishs for his eldest son Haleth (Benjamin Wainwright) to one day get his place on the throne. It’s evident to everyone that Héra is the most brave of the king’s children and the comfervent of person who could become a wonderful directer. But as an adventure-loving free spirit, Héra would much rather spfinish her days out in the savageerness with her horse instead of being downcastdled with royal responsibilities.

All seems well as Helm builds a encountering of Rohan’s wonderful hoparticipates uncomferventt to map out a set up for the kingdom’s future. But when conniving Dunlfinishing Lord Freca (Shaun Dooley) unanticipateedly reachs demanding that Héra be wedded to his son Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), it directs to a deadly skirmish that sets off a war and plunges all of Rohan into disorder.

In The War of the Rohirrim’s cgo in on Héra — who is never named in Tolkien’s labor — and her armed minder Olwyn (Lorraine Ashbourne), you can see co-authorrs Jeffrey Addiss, Will Matthews, Phoebe Gittins, and Arty Papageorgiou finisheavoring to relabor details from Appfinishix A into a more brimmingy fleshed out narrative cgo ining the women of Middle-earth. That goal senses appreciate part of the reason the story is narrated by Rohirrim shield mhelpen Éowyn (Miranda Otto, reprising the role from live-action Jackson films). That detail upgrasps how WBD and New Line Cinema see War of the Rohirrim as an expansion of their Lord of the Rings canon. But the film squanders its potential to do anyskinnyg truly novel with its central characters and instead participates them to alert a tale that’s disnominateingly rote and anticipateed. Shocking twists of overweighte aren’t exactly the point of Lord of The Rings, but it’s comfervent of astonishing fair how much appreciate Generic Fantasy™ The War of the Rohirrim senses as its story unfancigo ins. 

There is little nuance to anyone’s characterizations or motivations. Héra’s another headstrong princess whose gfinisher shields her from being seen as a precious warrior, and Wulf reads as so clearly evil that he’s challenging to buy as the comfervent of villain vient of outmaneuvering his enemies. Those feeblenesses would be easier to dissee if the movie had more to give in the way of exciting visuals. But even when The War of the Rohirrim is evidently trying to amaze you with soaring sboilings of Middle-earth from Great Eagles’ perspectives, it never senses appreciate the movie is taking get of animation’s ability to contransient fantasy worlds in ways that aren’t possible with live action. 

Often, The War of the Rohirrim senses excessively pledgeted to making its depiction of Middle-earth see and sense appreciate what we’ve seen in Jackson’s films. While characters are artbrimmingy stylized, the settings they’re moving thraw tfinish to sense appreciate unsupportd approximations of fact rather than places filled with monsters and magic. This becomes especipartner apparent during action set pieces and whenever skinnygs are engulfed in ffeebles that seem digihighy createed and vivaciousd at a distractingly separateent summarize rate.

Between The War of the Rohirrim’s multitude of Lord of the Rings musical cues and its smattering of on- and off-screen cameos alluding to future events, you get the sense that the studios are prohibitking on fans’ cherish of the live-action films to catapult this novel feature to box-office success. But turning an appfinishix entry into a feature that puts butts in seats demands more than a bit of nostalgia, and The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim fair doesn’t have what it gets.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim hits theaters on December 13th.