The IP-ification of the Lord of the Rings may have reached its apex with The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim. Sure, the Lord of the Rings is a beloved series that’s had its fair share of adaptations over the last half-century, but it’s only in the last decade that Hollywood has begun to mine the appendices of J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels to churn out “content.”
In theory, The War of Rohirrim’s novelty as an anime film set in the world of Middle Earth should help. But the film is so bound to Peter Jackson’s extremely successful adaptations of the novels from the early 2000s that it often seems like it may have been reverse-engineered from a checklist of callbacks.
While the use of Howard Shore’s score and voiceover from Miranda Otto as the character of Éowyn nicely tie The War of Rohirrim to Jackson’s trilogy, several plot points and dialogues too clearly echo that trilogy. Some lines of speech are awkwardly mangled to fit in keywords that will bring to mind lines from the original trilogy, and others are set so firmly in repeated plotlines that they haven’t changed at all.
Adding to the narrative problems, the animation itself isn’t beautiful enough to make this undeniably unique project enjoyable as a work of pure visual art either. Nothing is distinct about the art style, and several moments include poorly integrated 3D elements. It doesn’t look bad, exactly, but it’s fair to expect more from a $30 million entry into one of the most lucrative franchises of all time.
It’s unclear whether the film will play better with superfans who will recognize every callback or those for whom that relentless referencing won’t register, but it’s unlikely to play very well for anyone. PG-13, 134 min.
Wide release in theaters
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