Synopsis
My Thoughts
Yes, I gave this a pretty high rating. Look, I'm not gonna pretend that this is some kind of masterpiece or anything, but I think it's overall pretty solid and probably the second-best recently released Lord of the Rings movie/series we got. The Hobbit movies and Rings of Power are both just kind of messy and not very good. This? I think it's pretty good.
The highlights of this movie really are the animation and visuals, but also the storytelling is pretty solid and the stakes legit felt really high. I cared about these characters and their plight and wanted them to succeed so badly. If you know me you also know that Rohan is my favorite location in The Lord of the Rings, so being back there felt like an absolute treat. The voice acting was also quite good.
However, I am not without criticisms for this movie. One, I think that Héra, our heroine herself, could've been more interesting. Now, just to clarify, I do not dislike her and I was sympathetic to her throughout the story. But I just feel that her character overall is just kind of bland and lacking. She felt like a more dumbed down and simplified version of Éowyn to me. I really think she needed a slightly more distinct personality to be interesting, and, moreover, flaws.
The movie keeps telling us that Héra is this stubborn and impulsive young woman, but in the context of the story neither of these traits are really seen as flaws. This being because each time Héra acts stubborn or impulsive, she turns out to be in the right or the story rewards her for it in some way, making them not really flaws. The only time where it could be argued that these are flaws is when they lead to her being captured by the enemy, but due to this happening she is also able to learn about Wulf's evil plans and the betrayal of one of the lords, so even here she is in the end just kind of rewarded for acting headstrong and impulsive.
I honestly found the side characters to be a bit more interesting than Héra. I liked her brothers, I liked Olwyn, I liked Fréalaf. Not that they were the most amazingly nuanced characters, either, but they did have clear personalities and as side characters they don't need to be super interesting. Héra, as our protagonist, kind of needs to carry most of the movie which is a bit more difficult when her character is pretty bland and forgettable.
Next, let's talk about Wulf, the main villain. He's Héra's childhood friend whose father was (accidentally) killed by King Helm, Héra's father. This leads to Wulf's banishment, which prompts him to build an army in hopes of conquering Rohan for himself. And on paper this works...but again with Wulf I just felt this disconnect from the character because he's just not very interesting. He kinda came across more like a child throwing a temper tantrum at times. He's super stubborn and just makes some pretty bad or not-so-smart decisions even as a villain. But what I disliked the most about Wulf's execution is the way they handled his motivations.
See, you'd expect his want to take over Rohan to be an act of revenge for the loss of his father. And sure, that's part of the reason. But then in other parts of the movie he seems to insist that his main reasons behind becoming evil are "always having felt alone and shunned for his heritage". Which is like, huh? When was this established? Pretty much nowhere in the movie. We know he and Héra were childhood friends, plus he had a family (or well, at least a father), so his "always feeling alone" doesn't make any sense. And the whole discrimination of the Dunlendings is touched on briefly at the beginning of the movie but again so little focus is put on it that it really feels odd that this supposedly is one of Wulf's main motivations. The whole conflict with the Dunlendings at the start of the movie seems to more so be one of a power struggle than really one of discrimination. So again, Wulf could've been executed better. If I'd written the movie, I'd just have his father's death been Wulf's main motivation. And if I had to throw in the discrimination/loneliness aspect, I'd have established this using flashbacks, not just a random throwaway line here or there.
Finally, there's just some things in this movie that didn't really make much sense. First, what the heck is up with Helm after he vanishes and randomly starts killing Wulf's troops is never really established. How he suddenly got so inhumanly strong and seemingly doesn't freeze to death despite barely wearing any clothes (until the very end, where he does finally die like this) is never once established, so this is really something they should've been explained better. Also, in the climax, Héra decides to wear a bride's dress when facing Wulf. And just...why? I get that it's there for aesthetics, but in the context of the movie it just makes her look stupid because she's wearing impractical clothes to a deadly fight. What if she stumbled over the dress or something? Not to mention the fact it's a pretty revealing dress and they're in the middle of a freezing winter, I'd really have worn something warmer and more practical if I were her.
Ah well, despite these gripes I do think overall it is a solid film. Don't go in expecting the highest levels of quality, but it is rather good.
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