Good vs. Evil in Rohan: The War of the Rohirrim Delivers

Like a lot of Catholics, I’m a big J. R. R. Tolkien fan. I first encountered The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings way back in middle school, and they instantly became some of my favorite novels of all time. Since those formative years, I’ve also read a few of Tolkien’s posthumously-published works, like The Silmarillion and Beren and Lúthien, and of course, I’ve seen all six of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth movies. In fact, I think The Lord of the Rings is the greatest film trilogy ever made, so when I heard about the new animated movie The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, I couldn’t help but get excited. Sure, Jackson didn’t direct this film (although he is listed as an executive producer!), but I didn’t care. I’m always up for another journey to the magical world of Middle-earth, so I couldn’t wait to see what this new movie had in store.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim was directed by Kenji Kamiyama, and it stars Brian Cox, Gaia Wise, Luke Pasqualino, and Miranda Otto. The film takes place almost 200 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, and it recounts a devastating war between Rohan and a neighboring people called the Dunlendings. It all starts when Helm, the king of Rohan, and Freca, the lord of the Dunlendings, get into a fistfight.

At first, this brawl looks like it’s going to be a heavyweight battle for the ages, but it ends up being more one-sided than a Goldberg match from the old WCW days. Helm wins the fight with a single punch, but he doesn’t just knock Freca out. He accidentally kills the man, and Freca’s son, Wulf, is devastated. The poor guy can’t do anything about it just yet, but years later, he finally returns to take his revenge. He brings an army with him, and he’s intent on killing Helm and taking the throne for himself.

Before we get into the real meat of this review, I have to let you know that The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is very much a stand-alone story, so if you’re not familiar with the world of Middle-earth, don’t fret. You won’t have any trouble following the narrative. Sure, we get a few hints here and there of what’s to come in The Lord of the Rings, and there’s some cool fan service at the end, but none of these moments are terribly important to the movie. They're just fun treats for longtime Tolkien fans, so you don't need to understand the references to enjoy the film.

With that out of the way, let’s dive into The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, starting with the visuals. The land and the buildings are brought to life with remarkably realistic 3D animation, but the filmmakers employ a more traditional 2D style for the people and animals. That mismatch creates a jarring look that feels like bad CGI in a live-action movie, and at first, it really grated on me. I simply didn’t believe that these people were actually in this world, so I had a tough time buying into the story.

But then something unexpected happened. As the film went on, I found myself so engrossed in the drama and the action that I stopped noticing the hybrid animation style. It’s almost like I was able to see past the medium and directly into the story itself, so it almost didn’t matter how the narrative was brought to life. Granted, I still noticed the odd visuals every now and again, and they still bothered me whenever I did, but thankfully, those moments soon became very few and far between.

Moving on to the action, this is the one area where The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is just about perfect. When the movie picks up the pace, it’s absolutely riveting, and there are even a handful of times when it gets surprisingly brutal. For example, we see a couple of limbs get chopped off, and there’s a scene where an arrow gets shot through a guy’s neck. To be fair, these scenes aren’t particularly bloody (although they’re not entirely bloodless either!), so they’re nowhere near as savage as, say, Invincible or the new DC show Creature Commandos. But they add a realistically violent touch that I for one wasn’t expecting in a Lord of the Rings film.

Last but not least, we have to talk about the story. As great as the action is, this is the real heart and soul of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. At its core, this is a basic good vs. evil tale with (mostly) clearly drawn moral lines. On one side, Wulf and his crew are the villains, and they become more and more despicable as the war drags on. Wulf ends up being almost pure evil by the time the third act rolls around, so you can’t help but hate him with every fiber of your being.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Hammer and the Rohirrim are the good guys, and in typical Tolkienian fashion, they’re basically paragons of bravery and virtue. These people don’t back down when the evil invaders show up at their doorstep, and even when all hope seems lost, they still keep fighting for what’s right. In fact, the contrast between these two camps is so great that the characters on both sides end up being rather generic. There’s nothing interesting or charming about them beyond their moral standing, so unlike Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies, the whole thing ends up feeling a bit stiff.
But despite that big flaw, I still found this almost archetypal battle incredibly inspiring. Wulf’s loathsome actions allowed me to see the ugliness of evil with a stark clarity you don’t always get in modern movies, and the heroes of Rohan made me wish I could fight the evils in our modern world with half their courage and conviction. That’s a great way to feel walking out of a movie, and if you ask me, I’d even say it’s the best compliment you could possibly give a film. Movies can affect us in a lot of ways, but the best thing they can do is inspire us to be better people.
And The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim does exactly that. Sure, it’s not perfect, but it manages to overcome its weaknesses and deliver an amazing and moving experience. It’s what The Lord of the Rings should be, so at the end of the day, this movie gets a big thumbs up from me.