‘War of the Rohirrim’— better off as an animated series

When it comes to Tolkien, nothing has really come close to what Peter Jackson achieved with the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy released almost a quarter of a century ago. “The Hobbit” was, to quote Bilbo Baggins, “stretched…like butter scraped over too much bread” and clearly something produced more for revenue than actual love and reverence for the source material. I felt even more so about “Rings of Power” with its rather grotesque budget of about $1.7 billion (including buying the rights) for the first two seasons.

“War of the Rohirrim” was made, at least in part, so Warner Bros. could hold on to its rights over the Tolkien IP it held. The source material for “War of the Rohirrim” was a section called “House of Eorl” from one of the appendices in “Lord of the Rings.” It tells the story of legendary king, Helm Hammerhand. “War of the Rohirrim,” places Helm’s daughter, unnamed in the appendix, but here given the name Héra, in the center of the action. So, there’s a lot of extrapolation and fan fiction involved. It also tells the story of how the Hornburg came to be called Helm’s Deep.

In the movie, Héra’s childhood friend and now rejected suitor, Wulf, wants to take the throne of Rohan in an act of pride and vengeance, and she must do what she can to protect her people and her father’s legacy.

The story takes place 183 years, before the events in “Lord of the Rings” and it’s narrated by Eowyn (Miranda Otto), using that all too familiar theme music which tries to help the audience tap into the magic of the trilogy films. The movie runs two hours and 14 minutes and has a lot going, including plot holes.

The film is directed by Kenji Kamiyama who is best known for working on animated TV series for the “Ghost in the Shell,” “Blade Runner” and “Star Wars” franchises. I felt the animation style used for “War of the Rohirrim” wasn’t a match for the story as I’ll always be associating it with cyberpunk, anime and science fiction. There’s been so much amazing animation lately — “Arcane,” “Blue Eye Samurai,” the “Spider-Verse” movies and “The Wild Robot,” I was surprised more effort wasn’t made to find a style to match the Western European, medieval, high fantasy genre of Tolkien. The Irish based Cartoon Saloon has done this perfectly for its films “Wolfwalkers,” “Secret of the Kells” and others.

With its length, style and scope, this movie should have just been a five to six episode animated series on a streaming platform.

One of the things this movie did get right is the casting of Brian Cox (“Succession”) as Helm Hammerhand. He marries his voicing skills and Shakespeare theater experience to bring this legendary character to life. And just came off playing Logan Roy, Cox could have done this in his sleep.

“War of the Rohirrim’s” real MVP though is Olwyn, “yaya” to Hera. She saves the day in so many ways, and is able to outmaneuver and stay steps ahead of the villain. She’s incidentally voiced by Lorraine Ashbourne aka Mrs. Andy Serkis aka Mrs. Varley on “Bridgerton.”

The next Tolkien / “Lord of the Rings” movie is “The Hunt for Gollum” directed by Andy Serkis who is also expected to reprise his role as Gollum. Because, you know, they have to hold on to the IP.