The Lord of the Rings: The Battle of the Rohirrim is a soulless return to Center-earth

Warner Bros. Discovery has been very vocal about its need to maintain producing an untold variety of tales primarily based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s books in hopes of recreating the monumental success of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings motion pictures. Though it wasn’t a WBD manufacturing, The Rings of Energy proved that Tolkien’s appendices might be original into riveting explorations of Center-earth’s historical past that really feel like one thing greater than clear money grabs. Sadly, the identical can’t be stated for the brand new animated movie The Lord of the Rings: The Battle of the Rohirrim.

Based mostly on Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Appendix A, director Kenji Kamiyama’s (Ghost within the Shell: Stand Alone Advanced, Blood: The Final Vampire) The Battle of the Rohirrim is an try at making a mountain-sized fantasy epic out of a molehill of footnotes. At occasions, the movie comes near being a lovely presentation of Center-earth, and you’ll really feel it attempting to deliver one thing of a feminist power to the Lord of the Rings canon. However The Battle of the Rohirrim’s characters are so two-dimensional and its story is so plodding that it’s obscure why the studio thought this explicit little bit of lore wanted to be tailored for the large display screen.

Set about 200 years earlier than the occasions of Jackson’s unique Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Battle of the Rohirrim tells the story of how King Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox) and his daughter, Princess Héra (Gaia Sensible), grew to become legends whereas defending the individuals of Rohan. Whereas the Rohirrim aren’t any strangers to conflict, peace is what Helm longs for as he settles into his previous age. As is custom, Helm intends for his eldest son Haleth (Benjamin Wainwright) to at some point take his place on the throne. It’s apparent to everybody that Héra is essentially the most brave of the king’s kids and the type of one that might develop into an excellent chief. However as an adventure-loving free spirit, Héra would a lot relatively spend her days out within the wilderness along with her horse as a substitute of being saddled with royal duties.

All appears properly as Helm convenes a gathering of Rohan’s nice homes meant to map out a plan for the dominion’s future. However when conniving Dunlending Lord Freca (Shaun Dooley) unexpectedly arrives demanding that Héra be wedded to his son Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), it results in a lethal skirmish that units off a conflict and plunges all of Rohan into chaos.

In The Battle of the Rohirrim’s give attention to Héra — who isn’t named in Tolkien’s work — and her armed minder Olwyn (Lorraine Ashbourne), you’ll be able to see co-writers Jeffrey Addiss, Will Matthews, Phoebe Gittins, and Arty Papageorgiou trying to transform particulars from Appendix A right into a extra absolutely fleshed out narrative centering the ladies of Center-earth. That purpose looks like a part of the rationale the story is narrated by Rohirrim defend maiden Éowyn (Miranda Otto, reprising the position from live-action Jackson movies). That element reinforces how WBD and New Line Cinema see Battle of the Rohirrim as an enlargement of their Lord of the Rings canon. However the movie wastes its potential to do something really novel with its central characters and as a substitute makes use of them to inform a story that’s disappointingly rote and predictable. Surprising twists of destiny aren’t precisely the purpose of Lord of The Rings, nevertheless it’s type of shocking simply how very similar to Generic Fantasy™ The Battle of the Rohirrim feels as its story unfolds. 

There’s little nuance to anybody’s characterizations or motivations. Héra’s one other headstrong princess whose gender retains her from being seen as a helpful warrior, and Wulf reads as so transparently evil that he’s onerous to purchase because the type of villain able to outmaneuvering his enemies. These weaknesses could be simpler to miss if the film had extra to supply in the best way of thrilling visuals. However even when The Battle of the Rohirrim is clearly attempting to impress you with hovering pictures of Center-earth from Nice Eagles’ views, it by no means feels just like the film is benefiting from animation’s skill to current fantasy worlds in ways in which aren’t doable with stay motion. 

Typically, The Battle of the Rohirrim feels excessively dedicated to creating its depiction of Center-earth appear and feel like what we’ve seen in Jackson’s movies. Whereas characters are artfully stylized, the settings they’re shifting by way of are inclined to really feel like uninspired approximations of actuality relatively than locations crammed with monsters and magic. This turns into particularly obvious throughout motion set items and each time issues are engulfed in flames that appear digitally crafted and animated at a distractingly completely different body price.

Between The Battle of the Rohirrim’s multitude of Lord of the Rings musical cues and its smattering of on- and off-screen cameos alluding to future occasions, you get the sense that the studios are banking on followers’ love of the live-action movies to catapult this new characteristic to box-office success. However turning an appendix entry right into a characteristic that places butts in seats requires greater than a little bit of nostalgia, and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle of the Rohirrim simply doesn’t have what it takes.

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle of the Rohirrim hits theaters on December thirteenth.