The War of the Rohirrim (2024) Review: Handsome but Hollow

Is The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim worth watching?

Mostly no. The War of the Rohirrim has a promising idea and some beautiful backgrounds, but its animation is stiff, its characters thin and its siege story a pale echo of what Peter Jackson’s films did better. The strongest reason to watch is its heroine, a king’s daughter who gives an old appendix legend a fresh centre. The main problem is that the film rarely makes that legend feel urgent, and at over two hours it drags badly between its action scenes.

What is The War of the Rohirrim about?

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is set in Rohan some two centuries before The Fellowship of the Ring, in the reign of Helm Hammerhand (voiced by Brian Cox), a formidable king of the horse-lords. A political quarrel with a rival lord spirals into a blood feud, and the lord’s son, Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), comes back with an army and a grudge.

At the centre is Helm’s daughter Héra (Gaia Wise), a restless, capable young woman who once knew Wulf as a friend. As Wulf’s forces sweep across Rohan, Helm’s people are driven back to the mountain stronghold of the Hornburg, the fortress later known as Helm’s Deep, to make a stand through a brutal winter.

Kenji Kamiyama directs this English-language feature, a Warner Bros. production animated in Japan in an anime style. It runs 134 minutes and draws on a short passage from the appendices of Tolkien’s novel.

An anime style that never quite comes alive

The painted landscapes are the film’s best asset. Rohan’s grasslands, snowbound passes and the grey bulk of the Hornburg look genuinely epic, and there are striking wide images of horsemen and armies moving across open country. Those backgrounds consistently suggest a richer film than the one playing out in front of them.

The character animation is another matter. Figures often move with a stiff, weightless quality that undercuts close-up drama and makes some fights feel mechanical rather than desperate. Kamiyama’s staging of battle is competent, occasionally impressive, but the film seldom finds the lyricism or kinetic flair that the best Japanese animation brings to fantasy. The hybrid style ends up neither fully painterly nor fully dynamic.

Héra is the right idea, underwritten

Choosing Helm’s daughter as the protagonist is the smartest decision here. Tolkien gives her almost nothing, so the film has room to invent, and Gaia Wise voices Héra with spirit. Yet the script mostly moves her between set pieces rather than building an inner life, and her relationship with Wulf, which should be the emotional core of a war born of wounded pride, is sketched in broad strokes.

Brian Cox is the exception. He gives Helm a craggy, thunderous authority that makes the king feel like a legend in the making, and his scenes carry a weight the rest of the cast struggles to match. Wulf, by contrast, is a one-note antagonist whose grievance never deepens.

A siege story that leans on memory

The film constantly reminds viewers of Jackson’s trilogy, from the familiar fortress to visual rhymes and knowing nods, and the effect cuts both ways. The nostalgia is pleasant, but it also invites comparisons the film cannot win. The long middle section, as the defenders endure hardship inside the Hornburg, repeats its beats, and the dialogue often lapses into solemn pronouncements. Too much of it feels like lore dutifully illustrated rather than drama.

Who should watch The War of the Rohirrim?

It is mainly for committed Tolkien fans curious to see a corner of Rohan’s history on screen, and for animation enthusiasts interested in a rare Western fantasy property rendered in anime style. Newcomers do not need to have seen the live-action films, but they will get more out of it if they have. The battle violence is frequent but not graphic, suitable for most viewers from about 12 up.

Better options in a similar vein:

• Howl’s Moving Castle, a Japanese fantasy with war in the background and animation of real wonder.
• Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, for anime action that is genuinely fluid and emotionally committed.
• Rurouni Kenshin Part II: Kyoto Inferno, a live-action Japanese epic with far more kinetic fight scenes.

The verdict

The War of the Rohirrim is an honourable attempt to widen Middle-earth, with gorgeous scenery, a strong Brian Cox performance and a heroine who deserved a better script. The stiff animation, thin characters and repetitive siege leave it feeling like an expensive footnote. Fans of Rohan may find enough to justify one viewing; everyone else can skip it.

Rating: 2/5