'The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim' Deemed A "Boring Slog" And Reduces Helm Hammerhand To A Guest Star
Pop culture critic Gary Buechler aka Nerdrotic shared his review for Warner Bros. latest release The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim by deeming it a “boring slog.”
In a recent video upload, Buechler makes it clear the film does indeed feature a girl boss in the form of Helm Hammerhand’s daughter, Hera, who has no name in Tolkien’s original work and is only mentioned in a single sentence.
He says, “They went with a girl boss.” After noting the movie is not as bad as The Rings of Power, he says, “What [Warner Bros.] did manage to do was girl boss better.”
He explains, “War of the Rohirrim is about some unnamed daughter who ends up being the impetus of the story leading around a bunch of incompetent men who should have listened to her in the first place.”
“What could have been the story centered on Helm Hammerhand and the tragic events that led to the naming of Helm’s Deep turned into something else,” he added.
READ: 'The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim' Bombs In Its International Box Office Debut
Despite the criticism, Buechler did praise the first 20 minutes of the film for staying accurate to Tolkien’s writings, “To be fair the first 20 minutes or so started out close enough to the books.”
He did note, “The only major differences here is Helm didn’t seem sorry about it at all in the books, but in this he does.”
Later in the video, he did credit the art design, “At least the Rohirrim look like the Rohirrim. And the Dunlending look like the Dunlending. The costumes, Edoras, the Hornburg, and even Rohan look like they do in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, but that’s where the resemblances end.”
Buechler noted the animation was “choppy” and the dialogue was “not Tolkienian and very anime.” Nevertheless, he said it was “still better than The Rings of Power, but that’s not saying very much.”
As for the music he described it “as flat as the characters and the animation.”
Next, he stated, “This film’s biggest crime is that it’s a boring slog. It clocks in at over 2 hours cut down from 2 and a half hours when it was originally supposed to be 90 minutes.”
“Helm Hammerhand, the central character in this story, is essentially reduced to a guest star. And Helm’s big moment where he goes outside the Hornburg and starts slaughtering Wulf’s men by himself is relegated to just a few minutes and you don’t even actually see him doing it,” Buechler continued.
As for Helm’s sons Haleth and Háma, he said they were relegated to “barely side character status.” While he notes “their deaths are canonical unfortunately they’re framed in a way where they’re essentially fridged for Hera.”
He also noted that Fréaláf is banished, which does not happen in Tolkien’s writing, and then Wulf has an additional motivation other than vengeance for his father. He’s mad that Hera “put him in the friend zone.”
Nerdrotic also noted that Warner Bros. came up with a character named Olwyn who is Hera’s mentor and is able to take on both Wulf and General Targg without suffering any injuries.
After listing out the many accomplishments, skills, and achievements that Hera has in the movie. He notes that the film kills off Helm to simply “clear a path for … Hera.”
This is in contrast to The Long Winter and fear of Helm’s wraith that allowed for Fréaláf to launch a sneak attack on Edoras and Gondor to send aid in the books.
Instead, Hera is the one to save the Rohirrim by working with the Great Eagles and setting a trap for Wulf and killing him in one-on-one combat.
Buechler then claims that the movie implies that Hera as a lesbian, “She states quite loudly she doesn’t want to marry any man and in the end Hera takes off with her middle-aged female friend Olywn on a steed named U-Haul.”
Speaking specifically to Hera, “Is Hera as insufferable as Guyladriel? Not even close. She actually likes her brothers and her father. She’s just devoid of any personality or character and her only character arc is fixing all the men’s problems and then breaking the shackles of the patriarchy and then riding off with her female ‘friend.’”
What do you make of Buechler’s review of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim?
Hollywood needs to be nuked