Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of December 9, 2024
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
Rated PG-13 for strong violence
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 62% at time of writing
In Theaters
From famed anime director Kenji Kamiyama comes this prequel to Lord of the Rings that is set 183 years before the events that occurred in the trilogy. Telling the story of the legendary king of Rohan, Helm Hammerhead, the movie attempts to give us a nice lead up to saga we all know so well. When Helm accidentally kills the father of a young man who wants to marry his daughter, the son seeks revenge, holding the citizens of Rohan trapped in what will later be known as Helm’s Deep. Left to protect her people, the daughter, Héra, must summon the strength and wit to either lead or be left to die. While I’m not sure if Executive Producers Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson (and original filmmakers of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies) lent their talents to the making of this project, the fact that they are even listed as creatives here definitely throws credibility to it. So, I went in expecting a good story, decent animation and solid production, and I got just that. The film is a well-crafted drama that seems enough like canon to engage and keep your attention. Action-packed and full of tension, the script is focused and tight, with very little foreshadowing of events to come, but at least giving us a primer on where they might have come from. I rather liked the ambition of the project and its ability to entertain from the start. And while I’m not the biggest fan of this style of animation, its art is not lost on me, and the medium seems appropriate enough to help its audience follow the tale without distraction. While it is animated, it most certainly is a film designed for older teens and young adults, and will carry little interest for kids, unless they are already fans of the franchise. This might take a little away from the box office, but at least it never panders in order to try to broaden its audience. It knows what it is and plows ahead full speed without apology. B