We are faced with yet another adaptation of one of the stories taken from Tolkien’s pen, from his imaginary archetype, which we all know as The Lord of the Rings but which is none other than the end of a cycle of stories that began millennia before, narrated in legendary books, unfinished works and manuscripts lost over time. War, it’s strange to talk about it these days but we are called to the review: The Lord of the Rings – The War of the Rohirrim will be a not exactly pleasant journey so, in the saddle, we return to Edoras.
Red like a sunset in the winter mountains
Hèra rides across the plains and hills of the kingdom of her father, Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan. The girl is beautiful: thick red hair, an enviable physique (perhaps too busty for the Tolkenian style but, what can you do? Modern times) and an innate riding ability. After all, being the daughter of the Lord of Horses brings her and her brothers into the saddle sooner than into the cradle. Hèra (voiced by Gaia Wise in the original) is a strong girl but of marriageable age and this is why a “problem” looms on her horizon.
Freca, a huge man who has long languished in the Political Council of Minas Tirith in Gondor, returns to Rohan with the intention of marrying his first-born Wulf to the young Hèra. King Helm, however, has a completely different opinion: the man does not want the two lineages to unite (luckily for him, not even Hèra has the slightest intention of doing so) and a scuffle between the two men of war occurs; Helm kills Freca with one punch, after all his nickname Hammerhand was not accidental. This event marks a downward spiral in which the Dunlending Wulf contemplates revenge.
Although the story is basically taken from the pages of Tolkien, a personal rewriting is evident, the problem is not this all things considered: we are faced with yet another (unholy!) choice of wanting to forcibly insert one or more characters who are not present in Tolkien’s books. The protagonist herself, Hèra, is barely mentioned in an appendix to the books, dismissed with a single line and not even a real name. All this must be added to the fact that the film is a copy/paste of The Two Towers, and we will soon see why or how.
Two hundred years before Frodo
We are two hundred years before Frodo obtains the One Ring from Bilbo, his uncle, and thus begins the journey of The Fellowship of the Ring. In this historical context, the friendship between Rohan and Gondor is present but forgotten: the two peoples do not face each other but neither do they help each other and here we can understand the words of King Theoden heard in the trilogy that everyone knows (although some time after these events ) “(…) we are alone!”. Aesthetically, the work done in the film is as risky as the plot itself.
The entire film bases its aesthetics on a three-dimensional backdrop while leaving the protagonists of the story to classic 2D. Edoras, Helm’s Deep and everything that surrounds the areas such as mountains, hills and forests are masterfully recreated in 3D which makes the film, even just visually, dystopian. In the film Helm (voiced by Brian Cox) has an aptitude for war, in fact he never misses the opportunity to be on the front line when battle is to be fought.
All in all, the aesthetic result is enjoyable, although the latter is not enough to make a film unforgettable even if we are talking about The Lord of the Rings which, in itself, should make everything epic but which here fails not only in this. Let’s look at the problems of the film in detail.
A copy/paste war
The Lord of the Rings – The War of the Rohirrim follows The Two Towers in a disarming way: not only are there all the elements to cry metric plagiarism, even though the author of the originals is the same, here the situation is summed up with “nephew chased away due to (presumed) incompetence, people under siege who take refuge in Helm’s Deep, evening war, morning resolution with the nephew who returns and saves everyone”. If they read that plot to you, you would think that it was talking about The Two Towers, but no, we are faced with this story that has been reworked as much as necessary.
Another problem (at least in English) is the totally wrong choice of voice actors: Helm Hammerhand is a very tall, well-built man full of muscles (despite his advanced age) and has the voice of an old man close to the grave. Hèra speaks like a schoolgirl worthy of the best Japanese Hentai, she was only missing one or two bolder expressions and they could have banned the film for minors, where she doesn’t mind putting the protagonist in skimpy poses every time she has the opportunity .
Ultimately, The Lord of the Rings – War of the Rohirrim is a film that will not interest anyone: purists will hate it as a non-existent and lackluster protagonist is presented to lead the film, those who are not passionate about The Lord of the Rings will hardly will go to the cinema, in fact it is more likely that they will not spend money on the big screen, more easily waiting for a viewing on the various streaming services.
