“The Lord of the Rings” is a franchise that is beloved by critics and fans alike. Films set in Middle-earth tend to do well at the box office, gather streaming steam without trouble, and are considered top rewatching material by many. However, a recent addition to the cinematic Tolkienian canon has officially ranked on Rotten Tomatoes as a blight on the otherwise impressive “Lord of the Rings” track record.
“The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” has set a new “Lord of the Rings” franchise record low with a 48% on the Tomatometer. This is the critical consensus (as opposed to the Popcornmeter, which judges audience responses), and it has a lot to say for a Warner Bros. project that had the makings of greatness but couldn’t quite stick the landing.Â
“The War of the Rohirrim” was the first foray into the anime format for a Middle-earth film. The story takes place centuries before “The Lord of the Rings” and tells the tale of the creation of Helm’s Deep. While it has great music and features multiple cameos, the movie is hard for fairweather fans to follow at points and had a very low budget. Critics have responded with a decidedly middling rating. To be fair, the fact that a 48% score is a franchise low speaks to the popularity of Tolkien’s works and bodes well for other Middle-earth projects to come. For context, let’s see how director Kenji Kamiyama’s Rohirric anime compares to some of the other Tolkienian cinematic classics.
How does War of the Rohirrim compare to other Lord of the Rings Rotten Tomato scores?
Let’s start with the obvious comparison. How does “War of the Rohirrim” stack up against the original Peter Jackson-helmed trilogy? According to Rotten Tomatoes, the critic scores for “The Fellowship of the Ring,” “The Two Towers,” and “The Return of the King” are 92%, 95%, and 94%, respectively. It is a fitting trilogy of high scores that reflects the obvious aura that surrounds these iconic Middle-earth films.
The “Hobbit” trilogy, which is also a Warner Bros. project, is where things start to slip. “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” and “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” come in at 64%, 74%, and 59%, respectively, with the final piece of that trilogy marking a Warner Bros. low — that is, until the release of “War of the Rohirrim” precisely a decade later.
One other piece of the live-action puzzle that you could consider here is Prime Video’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.” This one’s tough to compare since it comes from a different studio and is in a serialized streaming format. Even so, it’s interesting to compare, as critics have had a warm response to the Second Age prequel, which has a Tomatometer score of 84% post-season 2.
How does War of the Rohirrim compare to other animated Middle-earth films?
Live-action films like “The Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” trilogies and “The Rings of Power” series are not the only on-screen manifestations of Tolkien’s world. Over the years, other studios have also tried to capture that Middle-earth magic in animated form, particularly in three full-length movies (some made for a theatrical run, others for direct-to-TV release). When you factor those into the equation, the race gets a bit tighter, even if “The War of the Rohirrim” does remain at the bottom of the critical ratings.
One of these animated counterparts is Rankin and Bass’ “The Hobbit,” which came out in 1977 and still maintains a kind-of impressive 71% Tomatometer score. In 1978, Ralph Bakshi released his take on Tolkien in the form of “The Lord of the Rings” (an animation that only told part of its titular story). That project was the lowest-ranked Middle-earth adaptation before “War of the Rohirrim,” with a 49% Rotten Tomatoes score (just one percent above the new anime). Finally, there is Rankin and Bass’ separate “The Return of the King” animation from 1980, which critics gave a 67% score. While technically above “The War of the Rohirrim,” these earlier projects are testaments to the overall lower reception of animated Middle-earth media. In a certain sense, they set a mediocre precedent, and the new anime simply followed suit.
How do audience scores on Lord of the Rings projects compare?
It’s a well-known fact that sometimes there are huge gaps between critics’ and audience’s opinions, and Rotten Tomatoes has made allowance for that with its Popcornmeter. This audience-based scoring alternative tells a very different story when it comes to Middle-earth movies and streaming series. Here are the audience scores for all 11 previously mentioned projects from highest to lowest:
- “The Fellowship of the Ring”: 95%
- “The Two Towers”: 95%
- “The Return of the King” (live-action): 86%
- “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”: 85%
- “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”: 83%
- “The War of the Rohirrim”: 82%
- “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies”: 74%
- “The Hobbit” (animated): 65%
- “The Lord of the Rings” (animated): 64%
- “The Rings of Power”: 49%
- “The Return of the King” (animated): 39%
There are a few interesting things to note here. First, “The War of the Rohirrim” jumps from second-lowest to the middle of the pack with a solid 82% audience score. We also get the lowest overall score of all, with Rankin and Bass’ animated “The Return of the King” dropping into the 30s. “The Rings of Power” series also nearly halves from a critically acclaimed 84% to a 49% audience score. The only sense of consistency between the two rating systems is the unsurprising fact that Peter Jackson’s original “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy remains at the top (albeit in a slightly different order), where it continues to set the gold standard, not just for Middle-earth adaptations but all cinematic fantasy projects of the 21st century.