By Mark Fields
Entertaining but Unnecessary Adjunct Middle-Earth Story
I suppose there are some Lord of the Rings fanboys (and girls) that will leap at any opportunity to return to Middle-Earth. Certainly, J.R.R. Tolkien’s son Christopher found ways to cull his father’s notes and sketches into a seemingly endless library of LOTR books.
In that spirit, some of the people behind Peter Jackson’s trilogy of films – though not Jackson himself (except as executive producer) – have plumbed the depths of Tolkien lore and conjured The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. This expansion of an obscure backstory, the legend of Helm Hammerhand, is presented not as a live action film but rather an animated movie in the anime style.
LOTR: The War of the Rohirrim tells of a conflict between factions of the horse-riding race of Rohan during the reign of King Helm (voiced by Brian Cox), and focuses on the courageous Hera (Gaia Wise), daughter of Helm, as she takes on a fight against Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), a disgruntled and vengeful noble. The rest of the story plays out in a series of confrontations stunningly rendered in anime. Although the animation lends itself well to a movie filled with large-scale fight scenes, it undermines the character development that would make all the violence compelling.
The film is beautiful and well-paced, but ultimately underwhelming. It lacks the existential conflict at the heart of The Lord of the Rings; without that, it is just another unnecessary fantasy adventure film. The many attempts to connect this story to the beloved trilogy (character name-dropping, hints of Howard Shore’s soaring musical themes, some return casting voice-overs) just make this film seem all the weaker by comparison.
Die-hard Tolkien fans may find the story an interesting adjunct but film fans will likely be less than impressed.
