Lord of the Rings returns to the big screen, but this time as anime

OK, I love Lord of the Rings.

Like, love, love, love Lord of the Rings. To the point that if someone were to say, “Hey, I’ve never seen those movies,” I’d immediately drive over to their house and bang on their door repeatedly until they let me in to sit down and watch them with them for the first time.

I’d be so invested in watching the trilogy for the 14 hundredth time that I wouldn’t even mention that Viggo Mortensen broke his toe while kicking an Orc helmet at the beginning of The Two Towers (IYKYK).

So imagine my thrill upon reading in 2022 that Middle Earth would once again be shown on the big screen! Thrilling right? Well, sort of.

Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim is set 200 years before the Fellowship of the Ring and tells the story of a civil war between the different houses of Rohan.

Again, this all sounds great. The only concern I had leading into the film was that it is, in fact, animated in the style of anime.

Before I continue, I want it known that I don’t hate anime.

I enjoy Studio Ghibli a lot, and I love A Silent Voice. I also encourage more hand-drawn animation in feature films. However, I was concerned because I don’t think this was the wisest choice of direction for a franchise that hasn’t had a film since 2015.

Anime is a hard medium to sell to audiences, especially in the West, and it was always going to be an uphill battle to get bums in seats for a film like this.

Unfortunately for the War of the Rohirrim, the animation was, in fact, the hardest pill to swallow about this experience.

The film itself was a lot of fun.

Seeing locations like Edoras and Helm’s Deep in animation was great and the music from the original films returns. It instantly transported me back to a simpler time when my biggest concern was, would Frodo and Sam be able to destroy the One Ring?

The story was interesting enough to warrant a return to Tolkein’s world, and the voice acting was also great. Brian Cox’s performance as Helm Hammerhand was a particular standout.

Again, and it pains me to say, the animation just didn’t serve this narrative.

The first issue was the movement of the characters, particularly the animals. Animators will know that drawing horses, elephants, and other four-legged creatures on the move is tricky. It doesn’t always look convincing, and the best way to hide that is to reduce the number of frames and deliver a ‘style’ over ‘substance’ approach.

The issue is that the people of Rphan are dedicated to horses, so many scenes require them on screen. This means that much of the movie looks like it’s filmed in slow motion to accommodate the animators, and it gets really frustrating really quickly.

On the other hand, the action is incredible, particularly when the combat is one-on-one with a big, fiery set piece in the background. The sound mixing adds to the immersion, too, as each punch landed or sword clacking really does feel heavy and impactful.

Aside from the animation, I did have some story-beat issues as well. If this movie were 100 to 120 minutes long, there would have been no problems. The issue is the extra 20 to 30 minutes of run time. There are scenes in this film that are purely there to pad out run time.

At one point, the Rohirrim retreats to a famous location within Middle Earth and instead of moving the plot forward, there’s a 15 to 20-minute diversion to an unexplained subplot and it really stalls a lot of momentum of the film.

In the original trilogy, we enjoyed the different crews and the characters within them, so when someone’s story was slowing down, another crew would pick up the slack and move the narrative forward. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case here.

The story of the Rohirrim is still very enjoyable, but it doesn’t need to be 150 minutes long.

Ultimately, this movie was good. Not great, just good.

If you’re a fan of Lord of the Rings, this is well worth your time. You will enjoy returning to this world and seeing familiar characters and places that you grew to love almost 25 years ago, or even longer if you’re a book fan. If you’re new to the franchise, maybe give this one a skip, as I don’t think the animation or the extended run-time will sit well for newcomers.

Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim is now showing in cinemas across the country.