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Post subject: War of the Rohirrim - Review (Spoilers Within)  Posted: December 16th, 2024, 1:50 am |
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Joined: 02 January 2007
Posts: 3649
Location: The Lakeshore of Annúminas
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War of the Rohirrim managed to keep their crayons pretty much inside the canonical lines of the couple pages of Appendix A that covers Helm Hammerhand and family. It handled fairly the major characters of the story... Helm, even though they turned the initial aggressor around; the brothers Haleth and Háma, cousin Fréaláf, Freca, who was made out to start the fight with Helm; and Wulf ... though despite a fair start for Wulf; he was soon reduced to a rage-boy edge-lord who wouldn't listen to General Targg (a movie OC), his older, wiser advisor and chief commander (I will give credit to him for organizing the alliances between the all Dunlending hill-clans, and the Haradrim).
The added little bits of development to some of the characters were different than how I see them, but this is PJ Boyens and co backing the project. Háma for instance was a bard, which I liked as a character-trait addition, and he seemed more culturally immersed than Haleth, his big brother and heir to the throne. It sort of had that Boromir/Faramir relationship vibe between them sans the hateful father bit. Helm loved all his children. Háma does get shortchanged with his capture and death I thought.
The depiction of 'the long winter' was good, and I liked what they did in portraying the Hornburg. The Eagles were a nice touch as well... it wasn't too far-fetched from PJ's Tolkien world. I worried the whole 'wraith' concept that was mentioned in the trailer would be a bone of contention, but it worked. He was only thought of as a wraith by the Dunlendings when he raided their camps in the snowy frozen nights. As far as Saruman goes, you see all there is in the Japanese trailer. They used a line spoken by Christopher Lee from his filmings decades earlier, and it was well done.
The story gets a bit reachy with the introduction of the Southrons and the Mûmakil. Outside of a question being asked "What are Southrons doing this far north?". There is no mention of how they got that far north, or how they managed to become allies with Wulf, etc. They just kind of 'appear' with Wulf's army of Dunlending hill-clans.
The animation was good for the most part. There were few noticeable flaws that shown through. The worst one of note was a dancing Mûmakil in the background during Wulf's attack on Edoras. It was more a nitpicky thing, and may have been amplified by my watching it at IMAX. Then again, maybe it was a hat-tip to Ralph Bakshi and his Lord of the Rings animated project of 1978? Who knows.
Ok, Héra... they had a blank slate to turn Helm's 'unnamed daughter' and youngest child into a good deep character... and this is what they came up with? No serious complaints on my part really. She just seemed ... flat ... two-dimensional. She was the primary character of the movie, and she portrays the part well for the most part, but I think there could have been... more ... to her.
The movie starts out with her riding free in the mountains and communing with eagles, and she has the whole cliché 'rebellious young daughter' vibe coming in to Edoras. She gets along with her brothers, and of course she is 'protected' and the whole Éowynesque 'I can fight' when not allowed to go to war by the king thing going on. Héra is central to the movie's storyline all through, yet I had a hard time feeling anything for her. Some of the minor characters had deeper development. She is just ... so perfect from start to finish, with little to no emotion or character development or flaws. She fits the definition, even if she is more 'girl' then 'boss'. At the end, she seemed to not really be bothered much by the death of her father and brothers. She just ... rode away happy onto some adventure and that was the end of it. No real major complaints; just seemed there should have been ... more. More feeling and depth to her since she was their central major protagonist original character of the movie.
As for the whole Order of the Shieldmaidens thing mentioned in the movie, it was just a loose string they hung on the wall. It didn't really come into play in the story other than alluding to Héra's maid having been a 'shieldmaiden'. Alqualisse developed a concept of a Rhovanion/Rohirrim Order of the Shieldmaidens from a roleplay-turned-fanfic starting in 2011. Also, they mapped the look of Héra to an original character 'Freja Fireborn' that was created in 2015 or earlier.
_________________ Hanasian
Annalist, Physician, & Historian
of The Black Company of the Dúnedain,
The Free Company of Arnor
~ ~ ~Durian: Dúnedain Ranger of the North: Rhudaurian Lineage- - - - Roleplay Repository
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Post subject: Re: War of the Rohirrim - Review (Spoilers Within) Posted: March 4th, 2025, 11:55 pm |
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Joined: 04 March 2025
Posts: 2
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