“All Middle-earth knows the tale of the War Of The Ring,” moodily intones Miranda Otto’s Cate Blanchett-esque voiceover at the beginning of The War Of The Rohirrim. But the story of Helm Hammerhand and his daughter Hèra, we are told, is “not a song you will have heard sung”. That’s partly because it’s a tale plucked from the depths of J.R.R. Tolkien’s appendices, set two centuries before Frodo was even a twinkle in Sauron’s Great Eye. It is almost literally a footnote, a feeling this spin-off film sometimes struggles to shake off — despite some impressive work.
Directed by Japanese anime master Kenji Kamiyama, this is the first Middle-earth feature-length film in a decade, and the first major animated outing for the series since Ralph Bakshi’s psychedelic 1978 adaptation. It’s an interesting match-up of people behind the camera — an odd fellowship of strangers from distant lands, as Elrond might put it. But the results can feel jarring. Kamiyama is clearly using Jackson’s film as a visual template — familiar locations such as Edoras, Isengard and the soon-to-be-dubbed Helm’s Deep swear obvious fealty to Jackson’s palette, and there are some gorgeous painterly backgrounds mimicking New Zealand’s mountainous grandeur. Anime interpretations of Western properties have a generally solid track-record (The Animatrix, Terminator Zero), but Kamiyama, an anime veteran of four decades, takes a somewhat old-fashioned, low frame-rate approach, mixing his traditional 2D style with some awkward 3D environments. (There are more swooping, spinning cameras here than in a Michael Bay film.)
Anime’s greatest strengths lie in action, and the battle scenes feel muscular, energetic and eye-popping.
With no Elves, no Dwarves, and no Hobbits in sight, there’s a danger of this feeling less, well, Lord-Of-The-Rings-y than it could, or should. The story, of warring horsemen and rival houses, a great battle followed by a great siege, seems influenced by Shakespeare or Game Of Thrones, but feels less consequential than the Middle-earth yarns we’re used to (despite a slightly tenuous attempt to weave rings into the tale).
What rescues this from feeling like a footnote are Rohirrim’s set-pieces. Anime’s greatest strengths lie in action, and the battle scenes feel muscular, energetic and eye-popping. (Like Samwise, you too will marvel at the Oliphaunts.) Helm Hammerhand (a full-throated Brian Cox) is a gargantuan, Viking-like leader, fiery and impetuous, and he earns a couple of instantly iconic moments which feel legendary and myth-making. Helm’s Deep, yes, but Helm’s thicc, too.
But this is really the story of Hèra (Gaia Wise), in a narrative about bloodlines and female strength. It wears those themes lightly but thoughtfully — the aural presence of Otto’s Éowyn nods to a patriarchy being challenged — all wrapped up in very Tolkienesque ideas about leadership from uncommon places. There are morsels of Middle-earth magic here. And when Stephen Gallagher’s score liberally borrows from Howard Shore’s ‘Riders Of Rohan’ theme, few spines will go un-tingled.
