War of the Rohirrim First Trailer Released
jesslind | Aug 22, 2024 |
Warner Bros. released the first trailer of The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim today, and it was met with mixed reviews. On the one hand, many comments hope that this animated film will be far more tolerable than the abomination that is Rings of Power, whereas others automatically see how central the “girl boss” heroine is to the plot, causing much apprehension about the direction in which this story is set to go.
The War of the Rohirrim is set 200 years before the events of the War of the Ring. When Dunlending lord Wulf attacks Rohan seeking revenge for his father’s death, Helm Hammerhand and his people are forced to hole up in Hornburg, where they make their last stand against the Dunlendings. Within the lore, there are many intriguing characters in this story of Rohan legend, yet Hera herself had little to no story at all, which, in turn, caused the producers to be drawn to her over all else.
The opening of the trailer teases the viewer with scenes from The Two Towers and displays Peter Jackson’s name on the screen and “Back to Middle-earth” as well as voice-over of the lines taken from King Théoden’s speech before the Battle of Pelennor Fields.
Upon first glance, the animation and overall art style are very well done; however, after several shots of the oliphaunts or mûmakil, the giant war elephant-like creatures used in battle by the Haradim, it begins to feel more like something separate from The Lord of the Rings as a whole. If this were an original thought, there would possibly be more overall excitement, and to bring some comparison, the heroine, Hera, is very reminiscent of The Hobbit film trilogy’s original character, Tauriel. Strong-willed and defiant in several instances, she refuses the proposal of marriage from the Dunlending lord, which, in part, sets off the conflict between the two clans. I’m not saying this is necessarily a poor part of the plot, but once more flashes of scenes are shown, she is seen fighting just as fiercely with a sword as any man. Now, those who have seen the original films and read the novels, yes, there is the famous scene of Eówyn stating to the Witch King himself, “I am no man!” and stabbing him, or the very fact that she goes into battle in disguise to defend her uncle, King Théoden, whom she dearly loves as a father.
Will this heroine potentially have those same characteristics? One would hope so, but in this modern age, there is always the fear of the dreaded, overdone “girl boss” trope from the past decade in films, and The War of the Rohirrim, unfortunately, could fall into that category. A particular scene that stood out was that of Hera climbing up a steep slope of a mountain, which, while I’m not stating it was taken from the series, was very similar to Guyladriel in Rings of Power during the first episode before she took down an ice troll all on her own, which, as we who are loyal to lore know, never happened.
In truth, the story felt very promising from the start and, if done well, could be a huge hit. But if the plot and storyline focus solely on a character produced from a tired trope, there does not seem to be a path forward to success for this film in the eyes of a majority of Tolkien fans.
With all this said, what are everyone’s thoughts on this initial trailer? Do you believe it could be salvaged or that it’s already a lost cause? Please comment down below.
Comments (1)
Perked up at first when I saw that there was a trailer. Was a little bit let down once I saw that it was an animation, but animation does well when done right. Will the audience go for it though is the question?
The comments are very mixed.
As far as anything being salvaged, good content will always make it no matter how much damage or success of the past, but the problem is that we really don’t know how good something is until like 10 years down the road.
Can already see some people saying this is just gonna be Rings of Power in animation form.