Film Review: War of Rohirrim, the underwhelming prequal nobody asked for 

War of Rohirrim fails to entice new fans and leaves an underwhelming adaptation that would make author J. R. R Tolkien drop his head in shame. 

By Rachel Meatte

Since The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) film trilogy finished in 2003, film studios have been trying to revive the historic Tolkien series, with several attempts aimed at longtime fans. In 2012, Peter Jackson tackled the prequal to LOTR, “The Hobbit: An unexpected journey,” which became one of the highest grossing film trilogies of all time.  

In 2017, Amazon acquired the rights for the franchise from the Tolkien estate and created the “Rings of Power” series. The response from fans and critics has been controversial and prompted many to ask, was this a necessary adaptation?  In 2024, Warner Brothers released an anime adaptation of the series titled “The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim.” It’s a film that has forced everyone to ask the same question.  

The anime is directed by Japanese filmmaker Kenji Kamiyama, who directed Japanese animes like “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex,” “Eden of the East” and “Blood: The Last Vampire.” His western works include directing the Star Wars series, “Star Wars: Visions“ (2021) and “Blade Runner: Black Lotus” (2021-2022) which is an adaptation of the 1982 “Blade Runner” film.  

The studios are seemingly allowing Kamiyama to continue his work in the West by giving him the green light to direct “War of Rohirrim” which is the most recent edition to The Lord of the Rings series.  

LOTR has had a few cartoon adaptations, but none were animated. The new version should have brought a fresh take on the classic series and allowed for world building that reached deeper levels which the live action versions weren’t able to achieve. Instead, the film tries to recreate the previous films without immersing the viewers into the impressive world Tolkien created. 

Tolkien is known for his incredible depth and intricate detail that helps plunge its viewers into the settings of his books, which is the middle earth. He incorporated history, geography and architecture into his world that helped create compelling locations and introspective set designs. While this adaptation has some impressive visuals, it fails to draw viewers into the atmosphere and becomes an insignificant location that the story happens to take place in. 

The worldbuilding is on par with its mediocre writing of characters, plot lines and resolutions. The main character is Héra, played by British actress Gaia Wise. She is the daughter of Helm, becomes the front runner of the story after her family members are killed by the enemy led by antagonist Wulf, who is played by British actor Luke Pasqualino. 

To protect her people of Rohirrim and restore justice back to earth, Héra leads the resistance and must find a way to win against him or die along with her people.  

Many fans were excited about the idea of a female lead since no female lead exists in the Tolkien series. The closest one we get to one is the character Eowyn in the LOTR trilogy who rises to the occasion of defeating the witch-king while destroying stereotypes about a woman’s place in war.  

If you remember, she says “I am no man” as she strikes down the villain in LOTR: “Return of the King.” This is a memorable, empowering scene that included a female voice within the Tolkien universe. In the War of Rohirrim, Amazon failed to give Héra enough depth to stand out or be memorable. Héra is the leader of this resistance, yet remains a sulking reluctant hero who is upset about her family’s murder and somehow magically finds a way to take up arms against the enemy.  

The film asks several questions that remain unanswered. Héra experienced this traumatic event but doesn’t grow or change. We don’t understand how she got to where she is now without a significant level of self-doubt, remorse or trauma.  

It’s more relatable to see characters grapple with distressful situations than come out perfectly fine or unchanged. 

Writers make characters lose themselves to find themselves and it’s a necessary process that adds depth and realism to the story arc. Héra explores none of these themes and remains the same one-dimensional character she started out as.  

Wulf is another sulking character who fails to become memorable despite having a troubled past. His father was murdered by Héra’s father, and he asks for her hand in marriage so their families could unite. She says no and promptly makes Wulf enraged. 

He becomes set on destroying everything Héra could ever love. As he begins to conquer and pillage her whole village, Wulf is still sulking at the fact that Héra refused him. Rather than explore deeper complex themes of loneliness or pent-up emotions Wulf probably had to conceal, the film makes him out to be a resentful incel who can’t find love. In the end, you won’t be bothered by anything that happens to him or Hera since they are about as complex as the settings they’re placed in.  

The film refuses to dive into deeper layers of the story that would help create the more colored world that Tolkien envisioned. Instead of exploring how Rohirrim people would react to an alternative conflict where their home is under threat, the film resorts to replaying the same schtick that we saw in Peter Jackson’s trilogy, with it being even less convincing.  

The opportunity of creating an incredible anime adaptation of The Lord of the Rings with a female lead is completely shot down in this under whelming deep cut, as it’s incentivized to only cater to new fans. 

If studios were considering adapting a new part of the LOTR universe, they should do that instead of recreating the LOTR trilogy. Everything you see here you’ve seen before, with it being only more underwhelming and less satisfying.  

If you would like to view this film, you can go to your local theatre or go to Fandango to see which theatres are showing “The Lord of the Rings: War of Rohirrim.”