An unlikely prequel to fantasy cinema royalty tangoes with Will Smith on streaming

Fantasy has had no easy time of things on screen lately. Warrior Nun‘s survival depended on one of the most massive fan campaigns this side of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Harry Potter spinoffs haven’t kept up momentum even as a somewhat-dreaded television adaptation gets cooked up, and The Rings of Power has hardly been doing Peter Jackson’s original LOTR trilogy any favors, to put it politely.

Of that last point, the same could be said for The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an animated prequel that managed to snag a theatrical release, rare for an adult animated film set in a high-profile canon, before squandering it as meekly as possible. It’s since found its way to Max, where its middling current viewership chart status will likely go on to be a footnote in its tragically unceremonious lifespan.

Per FlixPatrol, The War of the Rohirrim is shuffling around sixth place on the United States’ Max film charts at the time of writing, vying for that relatively-coveted fifth place by going head-to-head with the incumbent, Men in Black (a franchise that would also benefit from an animated film, so long as that film is actually good).

Set roughly 200 years before the events of the original Lord of the Rings trilogy, The War of the Rohirrim stars Gaia Wise as the voice of Héra, the princess of the kingdom of Rohan, which is under siege by an army of Dunlendings led by her childhood friend-turned-enemy, Wulf. Torn between her yearning for adventure and reluctance towards her royal duties, Héra takes it upon herself to ensure that this dark chapter of Middle-earth’s history ends at least somewhat favorably.

A fantastic version of The War of the Rohirrim was sitting right there on a gigantic, sparkly plate; the two-dimensional, traditionally-animated frame invites a brand new perspective on the spectacle we so rightly expect from Tolkien’s world. A pair of childhood friends now stand on opposite sides of a deadly conflict, both characters touching upon the theme of duty. This film needed urgently to stick its landing, not only for the sake of The Lord of the Rings‘ cinematic legacy, but for the future of adult animated theatrical releases, which are in need of a reputational facelift.

There was absolutely no reason for The War of the Rohirrim to have manifested as weakly as it did. But at the end of the day, it just refused to put a finger on the pulse of any of its strengths, resulting in a lopsided chronicle of unearned pathos, combat for the sake of combat, a telling reliance on the Middle-earth stories that came before, and a Balrog-sized hole where a fully realized character-driven epic should have so triumphantly captured moviegoers’ imaginations.

And look, I get it — not everything can measure up to Peter Jackson’s behemoths of the early aughts, but that’s no reason to not try anyway.