“The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim” was released in cinemas this Wednesday, December 11, 2024. Fully animated, is the film worth a watch? Here is what the critics think.
Return to Middle-earth for cinema spectators. Among the releases for December 11, 2024, we include The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim. The plot takes place 200 years before Frodo Baggins’ quest, events depicted in the trilogy of Peter Jackson. Rohan is a peaceful kingdom there, governed by King Helm Hammerfist. Her daughter, Princess Hera, dreams of adventure, but she finds herself on the front lines of a legendary conflict that will shape Middle-earth: a Lord is determined to destroy Rohan and its inhabitants, the Rohirrim, after the death of his father.
If fans of Lord of the Rings are waiting or dreading this new journey to Middle-earth, the French press has generally been seduced by this animated film directed by Kenji Kamiyama, star artist in Japan who worked on Ghost in the Shell and, more recently, Hirume, waking dreams. Here he signs “an animated adventure with epic breath” “extremely beautiful” (South West), “sexy and flamboyant” (First), “as epic as it is aesthetic” and “effective and inspired” (Telerama).
Many critics praise the portrait of Hera, a figure mentioned in the work of JRR Tolkien but never developed until today, who is drawn in the animated feature film. The latter “gives even more body to the place of women in this particularly masculine fantasy universe”, according to The Huffington Post.
However, critics criticize the film for its dismissal of the original work. The animated film “cruelly lacks identity” for Wide screen and “remains too subservient to Peter Jackson’s trilogy to stand on its own feet”, according to. Too bad, but that doesn’t mean that the film is a failure, since it “impresses enough to make you want a sequel”, concludes Le Point Pop.
Synopsis – Faced with the sudden attack of Wulf, a vengeful and cruel lord, Helm, king of Rohan, and his people barricaded themselves in the fortress of Hornburg, renamed Helm’s Deep. In this desperate struggle, Hera, Helm’s daughter, must muster the courage to lead the resistance against an enemy determined to destroy her people…