I enjoyed the original Peter Jackson The Lord of the Rings movies and I did review Amazon’s The Rings of Power a couple of years back and talked about how I loved that. However, with The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim I was really not sure what to expect as I had not heard much about this movie, I had only seen a couple of trailers and it felt like it was being released at a very strange time.
How to Download The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim was released on December 13, 2024. You can expect it to become available for download or streaming from Max or other digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and check the availability.
The Movie Review
A New Chapter in the Middle-earth Saga
Warner Bros has decided to put The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim out right between Wicked, Moana 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and Kraven…. I kid about Kraven, but Mufasa is out as well right around the same time this is. If anything, Warner Bros wants to be happy that Kraven is out as well, as by comparison, I am sure this will look like a huge financial success.
Why Was This Movie Made?
I learned after I saw the movie that The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim was a movie of necessity. Basically, if Warner Bros wanted to keep the rights to the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings series, they needed to have a movie out by a certain date, and the movie we are looking at today, is that movie.
The Storyline of The War of the Rohirrim
This is an animated movie and it is pretty cool that this is set in the same universe as the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies, all being it many, many years before them. The plot of the movie is about Helm Hammerhead, The King of Rohan who has gotten himself and his people into some trouble. You see, he was having a dispute with a man from a neighboring tribe and killed him with pretty much one punch!
This man’s son, Wulf as you would expect is devastated and he vows revenge on Helm and the people of Rohan. Wulf disappears for many years only to return as a fearsome warrior and to make good on that promise of revenge. To be honest, this is a pretty awesome fantasy story and there are more than enough nods to the Lord of the Rings movies to make fans freak out. To be honest, I think you could even watch this and have fun with it even if you are not a massive fan of those movies.
The Visual Appeal
Now, we need to talk about the way that The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim looks. It has a kind of anime vibe to it and at first, it really did pull me in. There are some epic action scenes and when the jacked-up King Helm does his thing, I was so into it and was having a great time. However, it has more the look of a Netflix anime series than it does a big budget movie. I will say that I do think the movie does run a tad too long, some parts could have been streamlined and I think it would have flowed better and been more exciting for it.
A Theatrical Experience or Streaming Gem?
I will say that I am not so sure that this needed to be a theatrically released movie, but again, that could have been something to do with those rights issues. I think that Warner Bros with the time that they have released this have made it so that this is really going to struggle to find an audience at the theatre. I have a feeling that when this does hit streaming, it will pick up and people will give it a chance. I can tell you that I did like it a little bit more than the 1978, The Lord of the Rings movie, but I may be in the minority on that one.
