more Lord of the Rings anime movies recounting standalone tales of Middle-earth. The movie depicts Héra (Gaia Wise), daughter of the King of Rohan, leading her people during a terrible war, centuries before some famous Hobbits leave the Shire.

War of the Rohirrim is turning out to be one of the lower-ranked Lord of the Rings movies, also falling generally below the acclaim of the prequel TV show The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. While die-hard Tolkien fans seem to be nonetheless pleased, there is no denying that the movie's reception is troubling. In a time when high fantasy seems to be focused on TV shows trying to replace Game of Thrones, offerings of actual movies are falling short, which is what happened the last time Lord of the Rings was in theaters.

War Of The Rohirrim Is The Second Straight "Rotten" Lord Of The Rings Movie

The Last Middle-Earth Movie Released In Movie Theaters Also Has A "Rotten" Score

The cut-off for being "Rotten" on Rotten Tomatoes is 60%, and Lord of the Rings featured multiple movies that were startingly close to this before the back-to-back Rotten releases of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and War of the Rohirrim. Peter Jackson's landmark Lord of the Rings trilogy hardly needs to be explained, its Oscar-winning status and standard-setting approach to its fantasy world well-known to fans and unfamiliar observers alike. No one would be surprised to double-check these movies' scores and find that they are all comfortably within 90%.

Jackson then transformed the story of The Hobbit into something tonally much more like his Lord of the Rings, which pushed it closer to the benchmark of 60% and ultimately below it. Middle-earth technically held its streak of "Fresh" scores — until The Battle of the Five Armies, when the bloated nature of the new trilogy seems to have caught up with it. War of the Rohirrim is the first Lord of the Rings-related movie to release since the last Hobbit installment and could have represented a small comeback. Instead, it has started a new streak with two back-to-back movies determined to be "Rotten."

Why War Of The Rohirrim's Rotten Tomatoes Score & Reviews Are So Mixed

War Of The Rohirrim Is Facing Unfavorable Comparisons To Lord Of The Rings & Other Recent Animation

Reviews for War of the Rohirrim suggest that it is a fine movie, but it is not going to change Hollywood the way its predecessors did. War of the Rohirrim failing to land with critics can be attributed to it being made more for Lord of the Rings fans than general audiences. Peter Debruge of Variety says: "It may please the faithful, but it's not quite epic enough to give less devoted viewers the same thrill they once felt from the live-action movies." Other War of the Rohirrim reviews highlight its stunning visuals while generally praising its story.

However, that comparison to the old trilogy keeps coming up. Pete Hammond of Deadline describes it as "not hitting us emotionally on the scale of the live-action films," while also saying that it fails to live up to other 2024 animated movies. Even beyond movies, the bar is high these days for adult animation thanks to shows like Arcane and Blue Eye Samurai. On the other hand, War of the Rohirrim simply not being as moving as Fellowship of the Ring resonates with the struggles of Gladiator II, another recent release brought down by the legacy of its predecessor.

Lord Of The Rings' New Rotten Tomatoes Streak Is Disappointing After How The Franchise Started

Lord Of The Rings Was Once The Biggest Thing In The World, & Completely Deserved It

There was once a time when it seemed like Lord of the Rings could do no wrong. The animated movie adaptations of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books from the late 1970s have their fervent irers, but once Peter Jackson entered the scene going into the 2000s, he changed the fantasy genre forever. Lord of the Rings was at the top of the world when the initial trilogy of movies was being released, embodying the platonic ideal of prestige fantasy and earning a seemingly endless string of nominations and awards, culminating in The Return of the King's historic Best Picture win.

In comparison, War of the Rohirrim's "Rotten" status may leave a bad taste in an old fan's mouth. It still proudly holds an 83% audience score, suggesting that there is something about it that impartial reviewers just don't get. Yet the Lord of the Rings movies have been sliding downward with The Hobbit hovering around the Rotten mark before finally stumbling. However, with the general praise for the TV show, new movies in development, and The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim proving to be a new beloved installment for longtime fans, the franchise isn't going anywhere yet.

Source: Variety, Deadline