Why You Should Watch The War of the Rohirrim

Why You Should Watch The War of the Rohirrim Article was written by Bill B and Nathaniel S on 1/11/25. Published on Read Reel Reviews, this post contains affiliate links, you can find out more on our policies page or in the disclaimer at the bottom of the blog. 

Know Before You Watch The War of the Rohirrim

Movie: Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (watch Trailer Here)
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Anime
Length: 2 hrs. 14 mins.
Age suggested: 13 and up
Release Date: December 13th, 2024
Warnings: Death of family members, Violence, Fantasy Monsters, Battles with much violence and some blood

How Does The War of the Rohirrim Compare to Tolkien’s writings?

The bulk of Tolkien’s writing (and rewriting) was about the First Age. There is some material outside of the Lord of the Rings for the Third Age, but Tolkien did not spend a lot of time filling in some of the holes. So all we have to go on for the history of Helm Hammerhand is in the LOTR appendices.

The information in Appendix A matches much of the movie. Helm had a council, called Freca fat, hit him and killed him, and banished Wulf. Wulf returned years later and conquered most of Rohan. Helm retreated to the Hornburg. He went out at night alone, and there were legends among the besiegers that he was invincible. He did freeze while out. Frealof did come to their aid. 

The differences are that his sons died differently (although their names are correct, and both did die). Other than Freca asking for the hand of his daughter for his son, there is no mention of Hera (and she is not named). Wulf ruled from Meduseld, and Frealof killed him there. 

However, I don’t think the bad reviews are coming from the differences. There are two reasons:

(1) A lot of fantasy people still are misogynistic; and
(2) It is animated – and that has not sat well with LOTR fans .

Just for those two reasons, there are a lot of people who either will not see it or will review it poorly. Let’s try to dive into our look at why you should watch The War of the Rohirrim

Why You Should Watch The War of the Rohirrim

Kathy liked it which means it was pretty engaging. Voice acting was well done. The framing (using Eowyn to tell the story) was also a nice touch. The characters were generally well-developed, and there was care taken to make it all fit. The story was fast-paced and fit. As noted it is pretty faithful to source material. If I was rating it I would give it about a 7.5, maybe an 8.

The one thing that really struck me was Hera continuing to give Wulf chances to change. Even at the end she tells Frealof to stop the pursuit of the remainder of his army. In the movie version of LOTR we miss the end chapters (which adopt a merciful, forgiveness tone). The end of the movie harkens back somewhat to the end of the book and brings in elements (mercy) that are often missing in action-adventure.

The animation was off in places, mainly with landscapes and how people fit in them. I thought they went a little overboard on trying to make it LOTR (Rings of Power is guilty of this too). Great eagles, the war elephants (mumakil), the watcher in the water. With the mumakil the attack by Helm was very similar to Theoden (on purpose). Same with Frealof coming over the hill – made to resemble Gandalf (although there was enough difference here that I thought it was a nice touch).

Check out movie quotes from War of the Rohirrim here.

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