Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim

I had been wanting to see this, despite my aversion to all things Rohirrim, and this was the week I finally did it. Why do I think poorly of a toxically masculine, hyper anti-woman culture? It’s a mystery, I know.

Encouraged by some of the names on the opening credits, especially writer Philippa Boyen, I was then crushed when the film opened with one of my pet peeves. Like those horror movies that begin the film showing the Final Girl and then flashback to the actual beginning of the story, this time we get a voiceover by the narrator saying of the heroine, “Do not look for tales of her in the old songs. There are none.” So, why bother watching a movie about a long forgotten person? At the end she’s just gonna disappear as if she never existed, so why bother? Maybe mention that at the end of the movie.

Set two hundred years before Bilbo finds The Ring, this is the story of the horse people at the start of a factional war set off by an accidental death, jealousy, vengefulness, and power mongering. You know, typical Lord of the Rings stuff. Héra, daughter of Helm Hammerhand is the hard riding, sword swinging princess who must be protected by the men around her, because she’s a girl. During the war, they are forced to endure the humiliation of her being as heroic as they are. I mean, they keep sending her off to be protected, followed shortly thereafter by her saving the day. More than once. Essentially it’s Éowyn’s story all over again. If I didn’t think I’d break a molar, I would have been grinding my teeth.

Beyond this super annoying aspect, it’s not a bad film. There is a lot of borrowing from the original films, from themes to plot lines to imagery, including returning characters like some monsters. Helm’s sons are named Haleth and Háma, which gave me a pat-myself-on-the-back moment because I quickly remembered Haleth son of Háma from The Two Towers. I expected a lot of overlap, so it didn’t bother me as much. The animation is okay, and a couple of times put me very much in mind of that old movie Wizards, which included groundbreaking crowd animation. I do enjoy the visual aspects of Rohan, especially Helm’s Deep, and it never got so dark I couldn’t tell what was happening.  

The voice acting is good, with Brian Cox (Succession) as Helm and Gaia Wise (A Walk in the Woods) as Héra. While watching the credits I noticed Miranda Otto (Éowyn in the Lord of the Rings movies) plays Éowyn. It took much googling to figure out she was the one narrating the film, as Éowyn, for a movie set more than two hundred years before that character is born. Odd, but at least I figured out she wasn’t portraying one of the eagles. Christopher Lee (Saruman) is also credited on the movie, and listed as “voice archive” in the IMdB. This is reassuring, as the actor died ten years ago, but I found the listing both very endearing and super creepy at the same time.

Oddly enough, I found the writing to have a recurring weakness. When the plot calls for fast action, people would stand around and stare at each other or utter some unneeded exposition. You have an enemy force three seconds from finding you and cutting your neck. Do you stand around staring and muttering? Once is a dramatic crutch to up the ante, but more than once is weak writing.

Overall, I wasn’t disappointed by the movie – except for the whole teeth gritting aspect. It looks good enough, it’s a very Tolkienesque story and the voice acting is good. Héra actually appears in one of Tolkien’s massive Middle Earth tomes, though because she’s a girl he didn’t give her a name. There is a lot of action, a lot of high emotion, and a lot of nostalgic use of the classic literature and live action movies. If you like that universe, by all means make a point of seeing this film. It’s a mostly fun revisit to an immense and deeply historical fantasy world.

Triggers: War and violence, sexism

Available on: Max

LINKS:

• Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim – Official Site
• Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim – IMDB
• Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim – Wikipedia

CFR: In Addition

Oh Cranky. Cranky, Cranky, Cranky. Of coruse it was going to be sexist. Phillapa Boyens and Peter Jackson added a lot of sexist nonsense to the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. They added stupid idiot scenes and ruined opportunities to add women. So am I surprised at the sexism in this movie? Nope.

No before I continue I must write that I, CFR, am a Tolkien fanatic. I love Tolkien beyond description. His work will always hold the biggest part of my Geek heart. So will I see this movie? Well actually yes because I write this I have a friend coming over in two days who wants to watch so I will indeed put it on. I’ll roll my eyes at the unnecessary sexism and remember that Tolkien wrote some damn amazing women.