Rating: ***
Review Date: 12/15/24
Director: Kenji Kamiyama
Cast: Brian Cox, Gaia Wise, Miranda Otto, cameos by Billy Boyd,
Dominic Monaghan, Christopher Lee
"I am the bride of no man. I am the bride of Death."
Two hundred years before the War Of The Ring, King Helm Hammerhand's (Brian Cox) wild and headstrong daughter Hera (Gaia Wise) saved the people of Rohan and was conveniently erased from history. As Eowyn's (Miranda Otto) opening narration explains, "Do not look for her great deeds in the old songs. There are none." When Lord Freca dies in a challenge to Hammerhand's throne, his son Wulf swears vengeance and is banished. Naturally, Wulf and Hera were childhood friends and he wishes to marry her, but Hera's rejection twists his heart and fuels his hatred even more. As High Lord of the Dunlendings, Wulf raises an army at Isengard and attacks Hammerhand, forcing his people to evacuate to a keep that would later become known as Helm's Deep.
The film is essentially a retelling of the Battle Of Helm's Deep from "The Two Towers" and feels like a piece of fan fiction. It's comfort food for Tolkien fans and doesn't bring anything new to the world of Middle Earth, except for two strong and endearing female leads. Hera is a fantastic, but overly cliché Disney Princess character who fits comfortably in the fan fiction mould. She's young, smart, willful, endearing, independent, empathetic, and a skilled horse rider who is adept at hand-to-hand combat. She's also impossibly pretty and you can't take your eyes off of her. Gaia Wise's performance is perfect and makes Hera even more charming. She is the emotional anchor of the film and the voice of reason, which contrasts with Hammerhand's pride, arrogance, and stubbornness, and highlights how much of a ruthless and psychotic madman Wulf has become. In many ways, the story and characters reminded me of Hong Kong gangster movies. The film's biggest weakness is that it telegraphs everything so far in advance that nothing comes as a surprise and you know exactly how everything is going to play out.
It's a good-looking film for the most part, but the combination of 2D and 3D animation is jarring. It's also interesting that the 3D environments were all created and rendered with the Unreal Engine, which I've never seen credited in a film before. The characters have a very Studio Ghibli look to them, which gives the film an unintentional (or not) hint of Hayao Miyazaki's fantasy work. The music is appropriately dramatic and incorporates Howard Shore's original themes to great effect. Ultimately, it's an entertaining, but overly long standalone fantasy outing, but as a "Lord Of The Rings" tie-in, you have to question why it was made and what purpose it serves.