I get why people call anti-woke grifters. You see retardation. I see a father sacrificing himself to save his daughter. Is it the best? No. Absolutely not. However thats the intent here and its clear and the fact you can't see it is... not even upsetting. I'm just sad that your this far that you can't see something so beautiful. Legit, I consider myself anti-woke but holy shit you've gone off the deep end. Please, get your head out of your ass and see reality.
Regarding Wulf's further motivation beyond the death of Helm and vengeance.....it would be simple...in the lore we know that Wulf proclaimed himself king so after the death of legitimate king the main motivation would be to basically maintain that power he seized. "The Rohirrim were defeated and their land was overrun; and those who were not slain or enslaved fled to the dales of the mountains. Helm was driven back with great loss from the Crossings of Isen and took refuge in the Hornburg and the ravine behind (which was after known as Helm's Deep). There he was besieged. Wulf took Edoras and sat in Meduseld and called himself king. There Haleth Helm's son fell, last of all, defending the doors." Power in itself would be motivation enough for him to be 'villain' in later part.. ;).
Wait, you're telling me that the character Tolkien wrote instead of the modern ideologues is the best character in it? What a complete and utter lack of a surprise! And the part they wrote for him basically ruins his character? Also not a surprise!
And nobody thought to go out and help...? I'm pretty sure if helm and some 120lb chick could pry open the gate, a strike force of a few dozen male soldiers could... It's just stupid.
I fkd up. I trusted that because it was Peter Jackson it would’ve been good. Little did I know, I was walking right into yet another Disney esque “man bad” female empowerment movie. Every man is portrayed as toxically masculine, including Helm, incompetent, like her brothers picking old slow horses to ride to war, or going on needless suicide missions. However, every single female in the film is 100% benevolent, from the little girls all the way to the crones. If she had just done what was asked of her, and made a personal sacrifice herself by marrying someone she “wasn’t in love with, none of the men would have had to make the ultimate sacrifice. She’s completely blank. No character development. No beginning, no end.
I really liked your analysis on why Hera's character is not written well. It's not actually due to her own actions, but rather the rest of the movie giving her attributes that she hasn't shown at all. Really great job on this review.
@@robotron2785these people just have a massive circle-jerk. The Hera character was the best thing about it imo. The movie was fine, I enjoyed it. But the story is not that interesting to begin with.
The whole point of her wearing the dress was so a girlboss could broadcast with her tattered wedding gown that she is a strong woman don't need no man. Painfully tropey writing.
Pretty sure they took that idea from the end of the first season of Buffy... They just keep trying to remake everything into Buffy... but a really dumb version of it.
Hey, at least they let women wear dresses. Disney Star Wars movies are badly marketed to females because none of them look pretty. Girls liked Sailor Moon because it was pretty.
For the same reason Helm didn't get transformed in pincussion by ennemy archers : because the story is narrated as dramatic legend where heroism and plot armor matter more than realism. In the same way, in the trojan war, everyone can make grand speeches lasting entire pages and have their epic duels without being sniped out by Paris lol (Achille in the only exception).
Guys, Helm made the conscious decision to fight alone when he closed the gate. Clearly he wasn't wanting backup or else he would have called for it he's the king. If they had thrown down a rope I don't think he would have taken it, he would have chosen to keep fighting at this point he had lost his mind to grief and rage. They probably could have shown that better in the movie to justify his decision. He does make the vengeful rage sacrifice in the book aswell. Granted it wasn't at the gate it was at the dyke instead which wasn't established in any of the movies.
Thanks for recommendation! Faraway Paladin s2 got quite Tolkinean too, btw. And even acknowledged it by having the dwarves use "baruk khazad, khazad ai menu" in a battle for reclaiming their mountain kingdom from a dragon 😂
I think the biggest reason people had hope for this is that the art style actually looked good and they didn't make her look ugly. She actually looks really good, which is unheard of in today's day and age.
I was cautiously optimistic, I watched the movie, I pretty much enjoyed it. Is it a perfect masterpiece? Not at all. Is it an overall good movie with quite Tolkienian mood? Yes, it is.
@@АнтонОрлов-я1ъ I’ve heard people say it’s ok or pretty good. I just find it annoying that they feel the need to change the story. By all means let them create their own fantasy
Tolkien's Helm: After one sortie, Helm went to fight and did not return; his body was discovered the next morning frozen in the snow still standing, dead, his eyes open, ready to fight WB Helm:
WB helm had a similar end, just with more sorties on his own before the end. I honestly can't tell if you are trying to make a point, asking about what happens in the movie, or just calling it worse.
@@chimera6485 Yeah his decision to go out and fight the enemy alone is 100% cannon. I don't think the decision goes against his character at all. It's the location of where they find his body that differs from book to movie.
@kelvanadams6523 that... seems like a very small detail to take issue with. To me at least. Putting aside that any movie adaptation will have differing details and sometimes full plotpoints, from a pure movie making perspective I think it is better for helm to be still standing outside of the gate. Like, which is a better send off, help disappearing into the night and we hear that he punched a bunch of people to death and was still standing frozen in place. Or is it better to find him still at the gate defending his people to the last? I at least like the second one more, though the continuity error where he had his hammer after being frozen in the movie was rather annoying.
Oh please don't get me wrong I completely agree with you. For what they had set up in the movies the logical place would be the gate. I actually really enjoyed the movie. I took issues with plenty of things but would still rate it at a 8 out of 10. 10 being the Jackson trilogy and 1 being the rings of power. The location of his death is not a big critique of mine. Though I would like to have seen them introduce the dyke.
Shills are blaming the medium for the movie’s performance when the animation studio and the director, Kenji Kamiyama, did their job based on what they were given. They are clearly avoid mentioning how the writing and marketing are the reasons for its poor performance. At least, Hera is an attractive redhead.
There was basically no feminist stuff in the movie honestly. The main character doesn't take the lead of anything until her father and brother aren't available and she is the least physically capable member of her family. I am trying very hard not to spoil anything because I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and was presently surprised that she wasn't a marry sue. If you don't want a spoiler don't scroll down. The most physically impressive thing the main character does is climb a mountain, or debatably beating the main villain in a very realistic way where she starts out with a sword and shield and his sword gets stuck in the wooden shield. Meanwhile her brother killed a mumakil on his own and her dad boxed a troll. Like I said she is the least physically capable.
@@chimera6485 everything you said is true, which is why she isn’t a girl boss. A Mary Sue is a self-insert character. Which Hera is. Her role was inflated and Frealaf sidelined so Hera, an unnamed daughter in the lore, could be the protagonist and steal the kill from Frealaf. She had no character development or arc. It’s the feminist trope of woman isn’t heard, her supporters constantly telling her how awesome she is (even though we don’t see it), I don’t need no man, the right to choose, and is shown to be correct all along; the power was always within her she just had to access it. She’s not a girl boss as you described, but she is a Mary Sue. I enjoyed the movie. I’d give it a 6.5/10. I’m just glad they didn’t ruin Helm. He was an absolute unit and kept his agency.
This had so much potential. First; cut back a bit on the modern feminism bs, second; have the heroine realize that to help her people have a chance at a better life, she needs to compromise some of her ideals and, as a daughter of a king, marry a Gondorian prince.
The movie was ok. There was little feminism bs. If,m i would critic more, that the oldery maid was able to hold her own again the men. What comnpromise? Except of 1 scene, was there no room of compromise. Condor wasnt even there. She never meeted anyone from there in the movie. She came back from her ride. And heared from Wulfs father, that her own father had talks about her marring a prience of Condor. Something, she never heared befor that. She didnt had time to meet anyone from there. She than tried to make a comrpomise. She asked Wulf, if he would stop his plan, if she would become his wife. But, he instantly stated, that, no matter what she would did, he wouldnt stop, until he had killed her whole family and had taking the throne. You could say, that there could have been some politic stuff in the off screen passed month (the movie is taking many month of event). But, in overall was there no room for her to do any politic stuff. And, after the movie ended, had she no reason to marry anyone.
@@hasseo195 also the fact that they decided to make a story about an unnamed character instead of adapting what was written. Granted that is expected nowadays
@@larosha1 As much as i had readed, wasnt there much of a finished written story. I had readed, that the whole source of this movie was a summarize of the lineage of Rohans king for the 3. Movie. And, from what i had readed, was the movie very accurate to it. The one prince died in battle. The other was supposed to vanish by the search of food. The movie gave him a more or less better ending. The king did his solo run and died than to. The only big change was, that they maked the princess to the mc and let her doing the stuff, that was supposed to be done by the next king. That can be a critic. But only, if you knowed about it. I as example didnt knowed anything befor i saw the movie. And with that, did Hera fitted in her role. And it doesnt changed much about the events in the movie. I even had explained in a other post, that Hera mostly was forced into the role she had to taking. She was the only one left, who noticed the betrayal and had the auhority to evacuate the cittizens. She was the only royal left, who was awaken in Helms klamm and had with that taking charge about the stuff. And, after the King died, was she the only one left, who could distract Wulf, while the others escaped (ok, she could have escaped to and close the hidden door, the mountain men would had raided the place, had probably found nothing and had than attacked Wulf by there own, but she wasnt able to knowing that). The movie is in my eyes ok. It stands for itself and was entertaining enough. At last, for random people.
Yeah there was very little feminism bs if any in this movie. Firstly she didn't take command of anything until her brothers were already dead and her father was effectively comatose. Unless you count her telling everyone to leave the capital in which case none of the men were there. As far as being physically capable compare her with her family, her brother killed a mumakil on his own and her father boxed a troll. She is one of the least physically capable characters in the main cast. Yes she climbed a mountain, but I say again her dad boxed a troll.
Where to start? Well, for one thing Helm was not a wraith when he went out alone at nights and killed the enemy on a regular basis. And when he died it was just appearing frozen, standing on the dike IIRC, one morning, so his death by freezing is accurate but it isn't as the result of a chase back to the Deep and going back out from that chase. His death was never witnessed. Men SAID that he continued to haunt the enemy. Do he did face the enemy singlehanded many times but not as you describe here. I hope Hera isn't said to kill Wulf? Quite apart from being a nameless daughter who is never mentioned again in the source; in fact Wulf is slain by Helm's nephew ( I think he's Frealaf IIRC). Wulfs father sought the daughters hand but was refused. They lived in a different area and hardly saw Helm etc al so hardly childhood friends. Wulf wanted to kill Helm, yes, because Helm killed his father Freca. But nothing in source says he had a vendetta against the nameless daughter though his army did conquer the Rohirrim and take over Meduseld. Thank goodness you take the pain of watching this nonsense so I don't have to.
Um ... you do know what a "ward" is in a medieval setting right? Its perfectly fitting for Wulf to spend a big chunk of his childhood with the Rohirrim as a subtle hostage.
@MrFallenone But not mentioned in the books, and as his father wanted nothing to do with Helm, very unlikely. Yes I know what a wsrd is - do you know what canon is?
Give them a break they gotta fill some stuff in to get a story out of two pages from the appendix. I for one enjoyed the movie I don't think it's a crime to give Helms daughter a name and a personality even if Tolkien didn't take the time to. I'm sure he would have if he had decided make this a full blown book. The movie really wasn't as bad as Shad makes it out to be.
@@kelvanadams6523 There's actually a LOT in those pages, more than enough story to make a movie, and they could have had the daughter narrate it. But to give her a name that doesn't fit the culture and a role that doesn't fit the story, and to generate a story that doesn't fit the details that Tolkien actually gave... and THEN to give the characters idiotic lines or traits, to add creatures that have no business being there, and so on and so forth, they created an ANTI-Tolkien story. Put it in another world, another universe, and let it try and stand on its own merits. But it doesn't belong in Middle Earth, we already have Tolkien's version to go on.
The best part of the movie was the hammer popcorn bucket at AMC. I didn't buy a ticket, I just went to the concession stand, bought the hammer, which came with a large popcorn, and left.
I just watched the movie (thoroughly enjoyed it btw you should put the bias and pre conceived opinions of it aside and give it a shot. There was little to no marry sue feminism in it despite what this video says) and now I wish I knew about that hammer popped corn thing.
Why, why, WHY didn't they just adapt Haleth's story!? She was the girlboss they wanted! She was based off Amazon warriors for Pete's sake! I'd be all down for watching her girlboss because she was supposed to!
@@aleksamrkela831I think he meant Haleth from the Silmarillion. She is a female warrior and becomes the chieftain of her people after her father and brothers die.
@@aleksamrkela831Haleth of the Halladin was most certainly not a man. Haven’t you read about the ongoing debate on whether she was the lover (potentially even wife) of Caranthir/Carnistir/Morifinwë’s, son of Fëanáro? Of course, according to the official timeline and lore it’s not exactly possible, but my goodness there are a thousand fanfics (well written at that) with that exact premise.
This is what makes me annoyed the most, they give a weak sauce excuse to why, even though you have this woman accomplish so much, her own nation decided to completely forget about her, and changed their history to support the new line of Rohirrim kings by giving Fealaf credit for what she did. That's just bad writing, insulting Tolkien's work by saying Rohan is so sexist, they erase parts of their history if their masculinity is threaten, even though in real life, no nation has even been that bad about acknowledging accomplishments of their women. What next, Rohan history books saying that it was Eomer who killed the Nazgul
Did they say that? When? According to the beginning, the story of Hera is still told in Rohan during long winter evenings. As far as I understand, she just wasn't mentioned in chronicles, but she wasn't completely forgotten.
@@АнтонОрлов-я1ъin the Appendices, there is only one line about Helm's daughter and she wasnt even named. Fealaf was the one who killed Wulf in a commando raid in Edoras. So the movie here is basically saying Rohan changed its history to hide a woman saved the day and didnt ever make songs about her. The narration literally started by saying you shouldn't expect to find any somgd about her. Pj said they wouldnt put their own ideas in Tolkien's work, yet that's what exactly they did here
I like this review of the movie because Shad didn’t immediately enter it with the assumption that Héra was a Mary Sue girl boss, like many reviews online have thus far. Even Disparu made a video reading major reviews where the “strong female character” wasn’t even mentioned as a thing. The only article mentioning that was written before the movie released to anyone. The biggest issue I take with many online critiques is that very assumption she was a girl boss, and the two biggest points were her killing elephants, “saving” Helm from the troll, and her discouraging Helm from open combat with the Dunlandings. To keep it simple: 1) her first elephant kill was just her leading it to another larger creature that killed her for it. The second elephant she killed with a near-point blank ballista shot. Both of those are no less unbelievable than if a male character did it, nor is it less believable than her brother scaling one with an axe, killing everyone on board, then chopping through its neck. 2) She didn’t just kill the troll and save Helm, she threw a spear at it, supporting her father from a distance. If that was done by any male character, it would be equally believable, especially when Helm is going hand-to-hand against the thing. 3) People forget that Frayloff (pardon the spelling) was also discouraging Helm, which was the moment the story turned him into an Eomer-esque banished character. Héra didn’t even realize the extent of the danger until she discovered one of the lord’s seals was also present in the enemy camp, which was information only she could have had up to that point. The narration and clunky dialogue definitely try to treat her like a girl boss, but the context of her actions contradict that notion, further lending to Shad’s critique that Héra doesn’t behave the way the story and characters treat her.
Going into the movie last night, I was braced for the worst, so I was honestly relieved there was as much to like as there was. Yes, Hera was a show-stealing girl boss, and there were definitely a number of eye-roll moments surrounding her, particularly towards the end of the movie, but as far as girl bosses go, at least she wasn't particularly unlikeable and didn't immasculate the male characters in the story. Frankly, I was more annoyed by the obnoxiously forced and unnecessary Easter eggs crammed into the story, like the inclusion of the watcher in the water that completely ruins the terror surrounding the creature in the original by making it an ordinary and apparently common creature, the orcs hunting for rings that serve no real purpose whatsoever, and the desperation to find a way to name drop Gandalf whether or not it makes any sense.
I would like to see a "good" movie concerning Aragorn fighting alongside Eowyn's grandfather. I have always thought that if I were in the world of Middle Earth, I would want to be either a Ranger of the North or a Rider of Rohan.
This is the most constructive review I've seen in this sector, everyone else is just screaming about woke and girlbosses without addressing actual dumb plot points
The War of the Rohirim is inferior to the Lord of the Rings and is approximately on the same level as the Hobbit. At the same time, the cartoon is clearly better than the Rings of Power from Amazon, and this is the pure truth!
Imagine this in the plot: Hera is ready to marry Wolf and dont throw a hissifit instead she quiet happy to do so but Helm stopping it as he sees womethign dark in him.... later you learn Helm was right. Wolf has anger management issues what Hera learn too make her realize her father could read this man a mile away and make her stand against him too at the end... The door is frozen but not in closed state but wide open. Snow storm and freeze blocking the view. Soldiers working on it to get it close. Helm do the last stand at the front of the path while Hera running up to alert the people and they try closing the door. Helm single handedly hold back the attackers while that is happening, but the storm gettign stornger. Hera organize a squad to go out help but the storm is too strong and they lose track where they are. They try their best but nature overwhelm them and they need to find shelter. when the storm cleared they onyl find the frozen king... No speech about how super special Hera and thats she is the ruller of the world and other crap.
For those of you who haven't seen the movie: Don't knock it till you've tried it. A matinee is 5 bucks where I live. Not a huge investment. My kids and I all loved it, BTW. We love both the books and the Peter Jackson movies. My oldest girls have even read the Silmarillion, if that gives you an idea of where they're coming from. We're an extremely traditional, religious, anti-Woke family, needless to say. For a good Second Opinion, see Men of the West's review.
The cave entrance got blocked by a rock slide during the troll fight… Also, I thought it a bit dumb about the Helm scene on the bridge. There should have been archers on the battlements, even one or two guardsmen - the rest would have been taking shelter from the blizzard, which I believe was intensifying from the time she exited the cave to point where Helm shoved her through the door. I think the movie went out of its way to tell us that Helm was something supernatural and that “the blood of the ancients” ran through his veins. He ALONE opened that door, help from Hera or her shield maiden was negligible. Was it still dumb? Yes, he could have came through, but Helm wanted Wolf to challenge him, he was there to do so but chickened out. Perhaps Helm wanted to end the siege with his last stand. Agree, weak point of the movie, but it didn’t ruin an otherwise great story and medium in which to tell it
I was heartbroken when I saw the trailer and how this turned out. I would love to have an animated series like this that focused on other mentioned adventures that happen in middle Earth. I mean there's years worth of material there but goddamn they keep killing it. And not in a good way.
@@ogar0524 No. She chugs potions like a witcher despite not going through the grass trials. It's BS. In a void I would be ok with her as a protagonist of her own game but it's 2024 and CDPR is infected with DEI so you know why they are making her a protagonist of a witcher game.
@@ogar0524 And mutagenes are basically like a light version of the gene-seed from 40k. So I would not be surprised if that was their excuse for making Ciri uglier.
In the actual story, Helm went out night after night after the great horn blows. He went and took down his foes with his bare hands. One night he didn't come back. He didn't die in a stupid suicidal way right in front of the gate. He went out into the storm and didn't return in the morning, and they found he died frozen, standing up surrounded by slaughtered foes.
I agree the whole narrative introduction is not only obsolete, but doesn't relate to the main character at all and the movie would be better off without it. I did enjoy the movie, even though there are a few dumb or bad written parts. Nonetheless I also had goosebumps at some other parts. I cannot follow Shad's view on Hera. In fact I enjoyed her being portrayed as a girl in a royal household not being prepared to immediately taking over responsibility without so much as a snip of her fingers. Does it make her bland and boring? From a modern actionridden perspective? Maybe. What do you expect from a young girl raised in a royal household with two brothers who are to be the future of the kingdom? So by not being a girlboss Hera becomes dull and boring by default? Yes, she is not the charismatic leader, because she was never taught to lead. Yes, there are several other characters who openly force their projections on her, which she tries to fulfill most of the time, e.g. her nurse cleary raised Hera as her own successor. Often these projections contradict each other. Most of the time Hera has to be motivated or shoved in the right direction. Honestly I think this makes her character so much more credible. There are only few scenes were she herself makes the decision how to solve the situation, at many others she is a bystander due to the circumstances, be they social or military. Does the story work with Hera as the main focus? Yes, it does. I loved the fact that the male characters had their chance to shine, both Hera's brothers, Helm and her cousin most of all. So they did not need to ridicule or nerf them down in order for Hera to be in the spotlight, which btw. is not the heroine who singlehandedly lifts the siege or destroys the main villain. It is more like they define a shield maiden in the movie: A woman to take up arms and fight when there is no other left. She is not even particularly good in this, but she nevertheless stands up to the challenge, because there is noone left to do it. Maybe this is what makes her a hero on her own, a hero out of necessity even though not the best to fill the role. I did like the fight of Helm with the troll, because for me it symbolises his fight with the beast inside. Not only is he described in the appendix of LOTR as having made his sorties clad in white like a snow troll. The troll did have a resemblance to him with both sporting a long white mane of hair and a giant, muscular figure. Only after he kills the Troll does he regain his senses so far he recognises his own daughter. Overall the movie is not that bad, but enjoyable to watch with both better and worse parts. I'd give it a solid 7 out of 10. Did it have more potential? Yes, of course. Still it is so much better than RoP or Wheel of Time or Willow (the series). When it comes to recent releases of the classic fantasy genre it definitely is one of the better creations.
This is literally just Fire emblem in middle earth. Right down to the protagonist losing all their family and characters defeating entire armies. The art style is even identical. This is not a compliment.
I mentally checked out pretty early. The scene where Hera gets kidnapped was so stupid that it genuinely pissed me off. She looked like she was being taken home from the bar after one too many drinks, not someone being taken by an armed enemy. Her hands were free the whole time and she only tried taking the bag off once, and then beat on the guy's back.
One thing about the film that won it over for me was the use of Anglo Saxon terms like "summon a Witan" that's a refreshingly bold thing to do as the Woke mob are trying to pretend the Anglo Saxons never existed.
I'm amazed people like you can say some insane bullshit with absolute confidence, when the movie is realized by the people who did Ghost in the Shell and Jin-Ro.
I thought everyone liked Ciri. Her being the protagonist of the next game makes sense to me. I would prefer if her witcher style was something new. One sword and more magic oriented maybe? Instead she's just Geralt with boobs.
Yeah, I'm glad for all the people who like to pretend to be girls. But I have no interest in that. To be fair, I also didn't like Witcher 3 that much either. I hate RPGs where I don't get to make my own character
I have to disagree with you though on 5:10 - In no situation would Hera - even with a Shield and a Sword - would be able to believably win a one on one fight against a much larger, faster and experienced warrior like how Wulf was implied to have been in the canon, he never fought this nameless daughter in canon and was killed by Frealaf, Helm's nephew, another strong male warrior. The few examples from modern open gendered tournaments you showed were carefully presided in modern time between protected modern weaker men and women, not a fight to the death between two medieval warriors who fought their entire lives on a medieval battlefield, so the comparisons are not correct. In Tolkien's canon, the only reason Éowyn managed to killed the Witch King was because of Merry's help, he helped her and used his magical dagger that weakened The Witch King and broke the curse which allowed her to kill him, but she didn't win alone against him. Tolkien didn't create these unbelievable situations in his lore. When "strong" female characters like Luthien won or got the upper hand against a major opponent it was because of their magic, or some kind of an outside help that allowed them to survive and escape their fate. Galadriel had strong magical powers and was a Noldor Elf from the First Age, the same with Luthien who had major accomplishments but were all achieved with her magical powers. Eowyn had outside help with Merry, she wasn't a Mary Sue nor would she be able to fight against bigger, faster and stronger opponents with no help.
Yeah Eowyn, let's be real, doesn't actually DO that much in LOTR. Her primary achievement is killing the Witch King. The main reason why that scenario even happens is because Tolkien was trying to subvert a Macbeth trope by having a woman (and Hobbit) fulfill the prophecy instead of some stupid twist about how the birth happened. The way the story handles Eowyn is by showing the Witch King's overconfidence, and Eowyn's strength of character for her to stand up against him. And its justified in-universe by Merry first stabbing the Witch King with a magical dagger.
@@jrconway3 indeed, Eowyn never overpowers the witch king in battle, she gets defeated by a single blow of his mace. Marry and the one who enables her to win by striking him with the only weapon that could wound him and make him vulnerable in all of Middle-earth
But is Wulf an experienced warrior though? His father died in one hit - one that wasn't even meant to kill him. We do not see Wulf fight a single time. He just had a lot of daddy's money far as I see it.
I don't agree with your review here. Are there some meh moments in the film? Sure, but overall I'd say this is a solid animated film that feels like Lord of the Rings. As to the narrator, the narrator is Eowyn, telling a story about a shieldmaiden of old (and given that Eowyn views herself as a shieldmaiden, it makes sense how she would talk this way). Hera is not a Mary Sue either. It is stated that she has been riding horses before she could walk (hence she is good at it), she played with swords as a child and her surrogate mother is a former shieldmaiden herself (giving reason why she would have skills with a sword), and she was raised as a princess (giving reason why she would have some political concepts). The only person she regularly bests with a sword is Wulf. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this film, and the character of Hera (I didn't find her dull at all), and I hope to watch it again in the future (probably not in theaters, likely streaming or on blu-ray). Helm's death was somewhat ridiculous, yes, but I think it fits if you consider that, again, this is a story being told by Eowyn, so embellishment likely exists (or that's how I viewed it at least), and they couldn't go back the way they came because a rockslide closed the cave when Helm was fighting the orc. Further, Helm must die because in the Tolkein text this is based... Helm dies. Here is the actual text: "'One night men heard the horn blowing, but Helm did not return. In the morning there came a sun-gleam, the first for long days, and they saw a white figure standing still on the Dike, alone, for none of the Dunlendings dared come near. There stood Helm, dead as a stone, but his knees were unbent." So... I don't think the way they did it breaks form the actual text there at all. In fact... reading the entire text, this film could easily fit into Tolkein's text with very little issue. Even your complain that Hera leaves fits in, as Frealaf is the next king (though I suppose in medieval times, the fact they are first cousins wouldn't prevent them from marrying.).
TLDR; The parts adapted from the original text is great, the parts pulled out of the writers collective posteriors was trash. I'm sure everyone is completely shocked by this.
All they had to do was make the movie about Helm Hammerhand and Helm's Deep's origins. That's it, no need to turn his nameless, pointless daughter, into some badass war hero was required
I agree, except that she isn't really pointless, she is the prize asked by the rich lord father of Wulf before the two start insulting each other and Helm kills him. Granted, Helm didn't kill Freca for asking for the daughter's hand, but she is at least part of the narrative there ;)
@@jamespeacock8665 Oh you mean like THE LORD OF THE RINGS where the number of prominent Female characters can be counted on one hand. Not everything needs to shoehorn in female characters to make the feminists in the audience feel better about themselve.s
This and Witcher 4 has put me over the edge this is just not lord of the rings and ciri story was concluded with geralt stop giving us girl boss shit and give me a new witcher or let me create a witcher my Witcher me as a witcher and have my own story and adventure
I love all the top comments on W4 blindly praising various elements as if it has anything to do with the trailer, yet somehow gets 15K - 25K likes. Total bot upvotes for studio posts. I have never seen so much pre-loaded cope for why it will not do nearly as well a W3.
@EnsignRedshirtRicky as you've clearly never played the games let me explain to your uninformed unknowing ass the game is going to be bad for the simple reason of zero innovation They're bringing back a character that had a complete story conclusion I don't need to see any gameplay to know it's going to be shit if we are having an entire game around a character who had their story finished with a fucking bow tie before you start speaking out your ass on topics you don't know or understand maybe play the games and understand why we're ranting well at least most of us do you have genuine critique some people just hate for the sake of hating touches yourself with this informed comment so do yourself a favour learn about the topic that's being discussed and stop talking out your ass good day God bless
@@ThorKill.Beowulvf the Witcher 4 trailer was… bizarre. Why is Ciri a Witcher when her powers were supposed to above and superior to Witchers. She was a good female character in W3. I hope they don’t ruin her.
Warner and Amazon in this shared IP custody, all this money and they are not capable of being better than a man who has been dead for several years, but blessed with all the talent. This is not Tolkien, so no thanks.
I kind of love the idea that the reason why a princess gets never ending compliments is because its the King's order. So even if she is the most annoying and spiteful brat the men are still following the commands. We need to see that story
This is very disappointing. I have been waiting for years for this film. I've always wanted to see an anime adaptation of the entire works of Tolkein. I thought this would be a good start. You know what you say about how Hera is an OK character but the people around her are making her insufferable reminded me of something I read. If you want people to hate someone and shun them, praise them excessively.
there are way to many cases of "wise strong men" having to die in stupid ways, its what made me stop watching game of thrones with starks death, viland Saga, etc.
Shad, great review. I had seen Gary's yesterday and Council ofvthe Rings the other day. This pretty much makes this a solid pass and i was so hoping for a good movie i could see over the holidays...guess I'll just replay my blu ray of LOTR instead
16:16 we are at a point in cinema where having a protagonist that is not a completely insufferable butt hole that ruins every scene they are in, is considered a positive trait of the movie.... This is just sad.
When a script is poorly crafted, it is not just the screenwriter who is to blame; the accountability extends to all individuals involved in the process above the screenwriters who give their approval. It is remarkable how many people play a role in the making of a lackluster production. Studio executives, producers, development executives, screenwriting agents, and the screenwriters themselves all bear some responsibility.
So in other words, it's the semi-tolerable result of an inexperienced writing team getting preferential treatment due to nepotism. The only part that I'm genuinely surprised about is the "semi-tolerable" part. I expected Hera to be way more insufferable based on the press interviews over the past couple of years.
As soon as I seen the trailer for this, I was waiting for this video lol. I'd burn a thousand agonizing deaths, before I'd ever watch anything western media produces.
They try to say all messenger birds got shot down and that's why Gondor is not coming? That's just idiotic. You can point to the lack of help to create further suspense throughout the besiegement, and at the end when Gondorians do come you can easily explain it by the war that Gondor itself was embroiled in. Because that is the reason given by Tolkien.
It's a shame. Whenever there's a female warrior main character, you can tell the story will suck, even though I'm an author who's main character is a female warrior. People don't know how to write women any more, even though in many cases it's women writing women. It's as if female writers (not be confused with ordinary women), have forgotten how to be women.
In a lot of cases it's women writing women, but for an audience of men. And they deliberately don't write her as a character that male audience will like, because they think that audience is wrong and should be shamed for liking interesting well-written women, and be reeducated into liking feminist girlbosses instead.
Feminists: fighting tooth and nail to be just like the toxic bad boy males they want to hate. No one in all of history has ever accused the female gender of logic.
@@radagast7200 It's as if they have a vague memory of buffy, and filled in the gaps with their own political beliefs. Then applied this hideos monstrocity to every female character they make.
Hera is not a female warrior to begin with. She wants to be or aspires to be a shield maiden and ride to battle to accompany her family. She is somewhat trained with a sword. However she never even claims to be a warrior and she does suffer from female limitations in combat.
They should've just animated the battle in dol guldur or in Dale during the war of the rings. It couldve given us more context and vision of the things that took place there, and they chould definitely insert original characters as long as they don't change and contradict major plot points. Instead what we got is a girl boss movie with lots of forced member berries like Saruman and the mumakils that were never mentioned by Tolkien in this story Lol.
Hera?... For the norse inspired culture... Then the cover art has a Romanesque... Kinda showing you didn't understand even the basics before you started unnecessarily altering events and fabricating a story.
Personally, I'm not a fan of the style of animation used in this movie. That being said, I'm a big Tolkien fan (although I couldn't watch more than two episodes of the Rings of Power). I broke down and went to see it today. I enjoyed it for the most part. I have many of the same issues that you do.
The big issue I have is that Hera never had a name in the lore and was not a main character in this story until now. All her accomplishments in this movie didn't happen and her killing Wulf or even fighting is all added for the sake of girl boss and intersectional Feminism. They took a story about Helm throwing Rohan into war thru rash action and his sacrifice for them after his sons death. Then they gave her the heroic deeds of Fréaláf who was the actual hero of Rohan leading his men to recapture Rohan after the long winter killed Wulf, then defeated the Dunling army outside the Hornberg with the help of Gondor and even captured Isengard where the Dunlings lived before handing it over to Saruman. They could have still enriched her story and stuck to the lore for example, after Helm's death the dunlings could launch and attack emboldened by the wraiths death. The men on the wall disheartened by the kings and his sons deaths all but give up when death is imminent. Cut away to where the woman and children are and several Dunlings have snuck in thru the secret entrance that Helm used earlier tipped off to its location thru the deaths of the orcs. They draw swords to kill them then Hera stands and kills one or two thru surprise, Flash back to Eowen say that the woman of Rohan long ago realized those without swords can still die by them then all the women grab dagger swords and spears left over from those men whom have died defending them and kill the Dunlings. Then following Hera they run out reinforcing the men on the wall Hera declares that in her father and brothers stead she will fight with them. They rally and hold the wall tell Fréaláf leads his arm down the hill and takes the Dunlings by surprise. She is applauded as a Hero and spoken in the same breath as her Father Helm and her Cousin the new King Fréaláf she can still go and do as she wishes no longer the Princess of Rohan but the one who faced the storm and lead the defense of Helms Deep. See not that hard to lift her up without making all the men around her dumb or incompetent, this way she still has no flaws a requirement for Heroines nowadays but also doesn't require the gutting of Tolkien's lore the suspension of disbelief. After all Hera is just Meredith from Brave with a sword instead of a bow.
Nah, just have her do as Eowyn did in THAT battle of the Hornburg - care for her people. A proper siege doesn't need siege engines, just time. Helm's forces were trapped and starving, hence the sorties throughout the winter to get supplies through during which Hama dies. Then Helm's sorties to just murder as many enemies as possible. Then others of his men carry on the tradition, keeping the myth alive of Helm's ghost harrying the enemy, possibly encouraged in this by the daughter. Finally, Frealaf's forces arrive and lift the siege and bring relief to the forces well protected but starving within the Hornburg. The Dunlendings weren't trying to breach the walls, had nothing to drive them like the Uruk-hai intent on wiping out the defenders, they would have remained comfortably out of bowshot the entire time. They might even have gotten word from Edoras of the death of Wulf and so abandoned the siege to go fight the enemy elsewhere. The daughter's courage comes from helping keep her people alive and spirited through the long winter in the face of slow eradication, giving them hope to last through until spring.
It’s a shame on how little do the writers and WB care about Lord of the Rings. Not surprised unfortunately, especially how they made Helm a side character and focus on Hera. But what gets me is how far they fell, especially after rewatching interviews from Peter Jackson back in the early 2000’s when talking about writing the films as a tribute for the fans instead of their own political views.
Isn't there a door right next to the main gate of the Hornburg that they could have "jumped" to? I mean it's specifically used in LOTR when Gimli and Aragorn used it to hold of Saruman's forces. Sure Gimli needed help to "jump the distance" but Helm could help his daughter jump the distance. Soooooo.... Helm's death was even more stupid and unnecessary than you say it is.
Visibility is one thing. Shooting arrows inside a STORM is another. I am fairly certain arrows which are light objects with flat surfaces at the back would have like 2 m of effective range to aim. They might could had throw stones from the top of the wall, but I would not want to be the guy who accidently smashes the king's head. You totally missed an important point about the gate. It wasn't two people who forced it open. It wasn't four. Or ten, counting the people inside who just the purpose built mechanism. Hera's contribution was insignificant there. ONE man opened that gate the slightest, so the girl the thickness of his wrist can slip through. That ONE man was Helm Hammerhand, reaching for his deepest reserves of strength and resolve. You can get another 20 men on other side and they could not do it because non of them are another Helm Hammerhand. Also maybe you have not noticed but Helm at that point was not exactly 100% a logic based machine. He was a walking mountain of grief just looking for the proper way to get his rest.
Oh yeah, you ain't shooting shit in that Blizzard when Helm died. Maybe if they had an elven hero I can buy that - but if they did, that would solve the whole movie on it's own. Helm went out how he wanted, and he never lost, he kept beating them until he froze. As you say - he was the only person who could possibly move that door at this point in time. And he was well characterised as being the "glory in death" type of guy, the whole movie could only happen because they knew Helm is too proud to ask for reinforcements
@@RancorSnp In the original story gondor was preoccupied with pirates, but I liked Helm's pride being involved, knowing his enemy gave a bit of cunning vibe to Wulf. The gate door slightly moved on the side the two women pulled it, however we don't know how the mechanism worked, probably they can only be opened in pair and we can regard their contribution as meaningless outside of motivation for Helm. I actually kind of liked how restrained the movie was regarding fantasy elements. No magic, dwarves, elves, hobbits, a little cameo of orcs and other fantastic things. Also the siege actually worked like a siege - except for the fantasy bridgelaying tower - it took long and both sides were unable to do much. One of the most realistic sieges you ever seen in a movie!
I really enjoyed this review and agree with almost everything. Killing off Helm at that point was necessary, as it was established lore that he died in one of his solo attacks, but it should have been done much better. Hera ignoring all the reasons to take the throne and rule, was just the writers lazy way of bringing the lore back on target by allowing Frealaf to become the 10th king, as Tolkien had written. The writers had allowed Hera to do most of the things that Frealaf did, so they then needed to write her out of the way, in the laziest way possible.
Tolkien would have never named a Rohirrim Hera since it's of Greek origin. This might be a minor nitpick to some, but I believe it's something important when talking about Tolkien's work.
I didn't watch it as I have become wary of new additions to beloved franchises like SW or LotR. When I heard that her name was 'Hera' I knew for sure that I didn't need to. Imagine you are doing a film in Tolkiens world and you want a name for a main character, a character that Tolkien didn't assign a name to. Tolkien, the man known for his REALLY thought-through worldbuilding and linguistics. HOW would you think a greek name - on top of that pulled straight from the main female 'deity' of the greek pantheon - would do the job for a princess of Rohan, which is a kingdom fashioned linguistically and culturally after Germanic influences? That immediatly shows that the creators either didn't get Tolkien and/or european cultures at all or that they didn't care at all. Both options are not good news for their product. Would Frigg (the 'deity' of the old Germans that is - kinda - in Heras place as wife of the main 'god') be a good fit? NO. Because many, many people know that name and associate it with the 'real' deal. You wouldn't want to name your random fantasy character Zeus or Mars or Thor either. Even though it at least fits the culture, it is not derivative of it, it is REALLY straight from reality, as in: people in the real world associated something real or concretely imagined with that name already. Tolkien pulled inspiration from cultures, he didn't directly use whole chunks. Imagine the name of the lost king of Gondor wouldn't be Aragorn but Arthus. That's lazy and breaks all immersion. So why not only a greek inspired but a real greek name for the daughter of Helm? All alarms are ringing with choice number one and choice number two is DEFCON 1. But okay, let's even grant that. Moving on: Why Hera? I'm not an expert on greek polytheism but even I know that Hera is the 'deity' of MARRIAGE, FAMILY and MOTHERHOOD. Not really something that this character is about I think after watching this video. Could you make it less fitting if you wanted to? No? Good enough for Netflix then. You could have went with Athena (a 'deity' of war, amongst other patronages) or Penthesilea (the famous queen of the amazons). And yes, I know both names would be very lame. But not as lame as using Heras and at least you would invoke 'warrior'. Or are they being sarcastic? Can't even tell at this point. Just ... no.
This movie makes a lot more sense if you think of Olwyn as a prequel Wormtongue. "You can only be free if you remain wild" "If you don't have twigs in your hair and mud on your clothes, you will waste the rest of your days stuck with a man who oppresses you" I grant that: Helm himself did his daughter no favors when he promised her that she would not inherit anything of Rohan but would spend the rest of her life with a man she never met in a country she has no love for, but she could have insisted on a marriage to Wulf to avoid that. Olwyn manages to convince an impressionable young lady to live and die as a spinster. Because the movie ends with the two of them riding off to meet Gandalf, I can imagine that our favorite wizard failed to save Hera from being poisoned unto death (to which she is now canonically betrothed) by a Wormtongue figure, and he took the painful memory of that with him when he rescued King Theoden from a similar kind of poisoning.
*eating popcorn while listening on this scolding*... Beautiful. I love listening to these while I'm powering up my device by Tolkien's grave, because hell Tolkien is a very effective dynamo after rings of power and this thing.
Use code KNIGHTS at the link below to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan: incogni.com/knights
spelled with a HAGE! 😁
This is someone in Drag pretending to be Tolkien, regardless of how many times "respecting the lore" is claimed.
Ideological reason needing girl boss starting the war!
I get why people call anti-woke grifters.
You see retardation.
I see a father sacrificing himself to save his daughter.
Is it the best? No. Absolutely not.
However thats the intent here and its clear and the fact you can't see it is... not even upsetting. I'm just sad that your this far that you can't see something so beautiful.
Legit, I consider myself anti-woke but holy shit you've gone off the deep end.
Please, get your head out of your ass and see reality.
Regarding Wulf's further motivation beyond the death of Helm and vengeance.....it would be simple...in the lore we know that Wulf proclaimed himself king so after the death of legitimate king the main motivation would be to basically maintain that power he seized.
"The Rohirrim were defeated and their land was overrun; and those who were not slain or enslaved fled to the dales of the mountains. Helm was driven back with great loss from the Crossings of Isen and took refuge in the Hornburg and the ravine behind (which was after known as Helm's Deep). There he was besieged. Wulf took Edoras and sat in Meduseld and called himself king. There Haleth Helm's son fell, last of all, defending the doors."
Power in itself would be motivation enough for him to be 'villain' in later part.. ;).
Telling someone she could rule the world is not a compliment in Middle Earth
So fugging true
In place of dark lord you would have a queen!
@@scottybreuer"Not a Dark Queen but a Queen of Color, Beautiful and Powerful to raise the mOdErN aUdIeNcE, the world will be silent to my will."
Tolkien kind of was against domination and conquest
Feminists and leftists dont understand that though. It's all about the power and it basically makes them Sauron/Saruman.
I'm just surprised she was allowed to be a redhead instead of made a black woman.
they did change Fealaf's appearance.
Holy shite, you're right...
Hey its 2024. Haradrim can be Rohirrim now 🤪
Lol well it was not Disney.
I see it as they knew that the movie would bomb, so they did so in order to blame redhead characters.
Wait, you're telling me that the character Tolkien wrote instead of the modern ideologues is the best character in it? What a complete and utter lack of a surprise! And the part they wrote for him basically ruins his character? Also not a surprise!
We need a bingo card
I suppose next you're going to tell me Shelob isn't a hot woman who can turn into a spider that was betrayed by Sauron...
@@nathansteinfromarkham7109🙄
@@nathansteinfromarkham7109 the only saving grace of that game was the nemesis system. aaaaand its patented so nobody else can use it now
@@thefool8224I'd still take that version of Celebrimbor over the RoP version any day.
Ok, let's accept that the gate couldn't be opened further... Nobody thought to toss Helm a rope from the battlements to let him climb up?
They were fresh out of badass elves to pull him up lol
Because the writers haven’t written much of anything before this.
And nobody thought to go out and help...? I'm pretty sure if helm and some 120lb chick could pry open the gate, a strike force of a few dozen male soldiers could... It's just stupid.
Too much thinking
@@silverhawkscape2677yeah, not allowed to think, just blindly consume.
I can't believe that Helm Hammerhead's nameless daughter got her own movie. Who's next? Smeagol's grandmother?
"I'm gonna cook some potatoes precious, yes yes, pota-to pota-to."
You keep nasty chips!
Boil em, mash em, stick em in stew. Pota-to pota-to
Hey! Don't be insulting Smeagol's grandmother. Her cabbage stew was legendary!
Smeagol's grandmother would probably be far more interesting XD
boil em, mash em, stick em in a cashgrab prequel.
My wallet identifies as notbuyinany
cringe
@@yuzumeowonly as cringe as “identifying” as anything.
Shoulda just said Non-Buynary
@OmniDan26 good call. That one eluded me somehow. I knew it wasn’t great, but I threw the attempt out.
I fkd up. I trusted that because it was Peter Jackson it would’ve been good.
Little did I know, I was walking right into yet another Disney esque “man bad” female empowerment movie.
Every man is portrayed as toxically masculine, including Helm, incompetent, like her brothers picking old slow horses to ride to war, or going on needless suicide missions.
However, every single female in the film is 100% benevolent, from the little girls all the way to the crones.
If she had just done what was asked of her, and made a personal sacrifice herself by marrying someone she “wasn’t in love with, none of the men would have had to make the ultimate sacrifice.
She’s completely blank. No character development. No beginning, no end.
I really liked your analysis on why Hera's character is not written well. It's not actually due to her own actions, but rather the rest of the movie giving her attributes that she hasn't shown at all. Really great job on this review.
Even her name doesn't fit the setting.
they keep praise her as she have the ability to rule as the king, while 120 minutes of films, she doesn nothing more than just fighting and riding.
@@robotron2785 Hey, just out of curiosity, did you actually go watch the movie? Or did you only watch this video?
@@kelvanadams6523 Nope, I might see it when it comes to streaming. I just like reading and watching people's analysis on movie writing.
@@robotron2785these people just have a massive circle-jerk. The Hera character was the best thing about it imo. The movie was fine, I enjoyed it. But the story is not that interesting to begin with.
The whole point of her wearing the dress was so a girlboss could broadcast with her tattered wedding gown that she is a strong woman don't need no man. Painfully tropey writing.
Pretty sure they took that idea from the end of the first season of Buffy...
They just keep trying to remake everything into Buffy... but a really dumb version of it.
Hey, at least they let women wear dresses. Disney Star Wars movies are badly marketed to females because none of them look pretty. Girls liked Sailor Moon because it was pretty.
Why didn't they do what they did with Aragorn and Gimli (in the films) in literally the same location and throw a rope down?
For the same reason Helm didn't get transformed in pincussion by ennemy archers : because the story is narrated as dramatic legend where heroism and plot armor matter more than realism.
In the same way, in the trojan war, everyone can make grand speeches lasting entire pages and have their epic duels without being sniped out by Paris lol (Achille in the only exception).
Too much thinking
@@silverhawkscape2677then it must have been too hard for Tolkien to give her a fucking name then!
Guys, Helm made the conscious decision to fight alone when he closed the gate. Clearly he wasn't wanting backup or else he would have called for it he's the king. If they had thrown down a rope I don't think he would have taken it, he would have chosen to keep fighting at this point he had lost his mind to grief and rage. They probably could have shown that better in the movie to justify his decision.
He does make the vengeful rage sacrifice in the book aswell. Granted it wasn't at the gate it was at the dyke instead which wasn't established in any of the movies.
Just another product where my wallet identifies ans nonbuynary...
gold pun, mate.
@@jacktheomnithere2127 It's not his
@@scarocci7333 Still funny tho
Lmao
@@scarocci7333 get over it, it's the internet. It doesn't belong to anyone.
Record of Lodoss War OVA is a better LotR anime than.. this
Thanks for recommendation! Faraway Paladin s2 got quite Tolkinean too, btw. And even acknowledged it by having the dwarves use
"baruk khazad, khazad ai menu" in a battle for reclaiming their mountain kingdom from a dragon 😂
@@Tallorian reminds me o finish second season of Faraway Paladin.
i’m more surprised people could still be cautiously optimistic about this kind of thing.
Hope springs eternal. Generally people want to like stuff.
I think the biggest reason people had hope for this is that the art style actually looked good and they didn't make her look ugly. She actually looks really good, which is unheard of in today's day and age.
I was cautiously optimistic, I watched the movie, I pretty much enjoyed it. Is it a perfect masterpiece? Not at all. Is it an overall good movie with quite Tolkienian mood? Yes, it is.
it was because it was being made in Japan, the woke has only recently gotten there
@@АнтонОрлов-я1ъ I’ve heard people say it’s ok or pretty good. I just find it annoying that they feel the need to change the story. By all means let them create their own fantasy
The fact that they have binoculars in Middle earth now changes everything...
It was a spyglass wasn't it?
@@MatthewLoom it's regarded either way... spyglasses didn't come about till MUCH later time periods.. like around the gunpowder/pike & shot era.
Legolas' elf-eyes not so impressive now 😂
Plus, an OLIPHAUNT in Rohan.
@@SEKreiverYeah, my first thought when I saw that was “how the hell did an oliphaunt get to Rohan???” It makes zero sense for it to be there.
Tolkien's Helm: After one sortie, Helm went to fight and did not return; his body was discovered the next morning frozen in the snow still standing, dead, his eyes open, ready to fight
WB Helm:
WB helm had a similar end, just with more sorties on his own before the end.
I honestly can't tell if you are trying to make a point, asking about what happens in the movie, or just calling it worse.
@@chimera6485 Yeah his decision to go out and fight the enemy alone is 100% cannon. I don't think the decision goes against his character at all.
It's the location of where they find his body that differs from book to movie.
@kelvanadams6523 that... seems like a very small detail to take issue with. To me at least.
Putting aside that any movie adaptation will have differing details and sometimes full plotpoints, from a pure movie making perspective I think it is better for helm to be still standing outside of the gate. Like, which is a better send off, help disappearing into the night and we hear that he punched a bunch of people to death and was still standing frozen in place. Or is it better to find him still at the gate defending his people to the last? I at least like the second one more, though the continuity error where he had his hammer after being frozen in the movie was rather annoying.
Oh please don't get me wrong I completely agree with you. For what they had set up in the movies the logical place would be the gate.
I actually really enjoyed the movie. I took issues with plenty of things but would still rate it at a 8 out of 10. 10 being the Jackson trilogy and 1 being the rings of power.
The location of his death is not a big critique of mine. Though I would like to have seen them introduce the dyke.
Yeah the hammer in his hand did bug me too
Shills are blaming the medium for the movie’s performance when the animation studio and the director, Kenji Kamiyama, did their job based on what they were given.
They are clearly avoid mentioning how the writing and marketing are the reasons for its poor performance.
At least, Hera is an attractive redhead.
Dang cute indeed
She a cute red head thanks to Japanese animation
Yeah, Kamiyama wrote Blade Runner Black Lotus, Ghost in the Shell, and Blood the Last Vampire. No way this was his fault.
Imagine that, the parts of the story that are Tolkeinian are good and the parts that are feminist are not.
Who could have possibly foreseen this?!?
Gandalf: Foreseen and done nothing!
There was basically no feminist stuff in the movie honestly. The main character doesn't take the lead of anything until her father and brother aren't available and she is the least physically capable member of her family. I am trying very hard not to spoil anything because I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and was presently surprised that she wasn't a marry sue. If you don't want a spoiler don't scroll down.
The most physically impressive thing the main character does is climb a mountain, or debatably beating the main villain in a very realistic way where she starts out with a sword and shield and his sword gets stuck in the wooden shield. Meanwhile her brother killed a mumakil on his own and her dad boxed a troll. Like I said she is the least physically capable.
@@chimera6485 everything you said is true, which is why she isn’t a girl boss. A Mary Sue is a self-insert character. Which Hera is. Her role was inflated and Frealaf sidelined so Hera, an unnamed daughter in the lore, could be the protagonist and steal the kill from Frealaf. She had no character development or arc. It’s the feminist trope of woman isn’t heard, her supporters constantly telling her how awesome she is (even though we don’t see it), I don’t need no man, the right to choose, and is shown to be correct all along; the power was always within her she just had to access it. She’s not a girl boss as you described, but she is a Mary Sue. I enjoyed the movie. I’d give it a 6.5/10. I’m just glad they didn’t ruin Helm. He was an absolute unit and kept his agency.
@@chimera6485Dude stop shilling. How annoying
This had so much potential. First; cut back a bit on the modern feminism bs, second; have the heroine realize that to help her people have a chance at a better life, she needs to compromise some of her ideals and, as a daughter of a king, marry a Gondorian prince.
The movie was ok.
There was little feminism bs. If,m i would critic more, that the oldery maid was able to hold her own again the men.
What comnpromise?
Except of 1 scene, was there no room of compromise.
Condor wasnt even there.
She never meeted anyone from there in the movie. She came back from her ride. And heared from Wulfs father, that her own father had talks about her marring a prience of Condor. Something, she never heared befor that. She didnt had time to meet anyone from there.
She than tried to make a comrpomise. She asked Wulf, if he would stop his plan, if she would become his wife. But, he instantly stated, that, no matter what she would did, he wouldnt stop, until he had killed her whole family and had taking the throne.
You could say, that there could have been some politic stuff in the off screen passed month (the movie is taking many month of event). But, in overall was there no room for her to do any politic stuff.
And, after the movie ended, had she no reason to marry anyone.
@@hasseo195 also the fact that they decided to make a story about an unnamed character instead of adapting what was written. Granted that is expected nowadays
@@larosha1 As much as i had readed, wasnt there much of a finished written story.
I had readed, that the whole source of this movie was a summarize of the lineage of Rohans king for the 3. Movie.
And, from what i had readed, was the movie very accurate to it.
The one prince died in battle. The other was supposed to vanish by the search of food. The movie gave him a more or less better ending.
The king did his solo run and died than to.
The only big change was, that they maked the princess to the mc and let her doing the stuff, that was supposed to be done by the next king.
That can be a critic. But only, if you knowed about it. I as example didnt knowed anything befor i saw the movie. And with that, did Hera fitted in her role. And it doesnt changed much about the events in the movie.
I even had explained in a other post, that Hera mostly was forced into the role she had to taking.
She was the only one left, who noticed the betrayal and had the auhority to evacuate the cittizens.
She was the only royal left, who was awaken in Helms klamm and had with that taking charge about the stuff.
And, after the King died, was she the only one left, who could distract Wulf, while the others escaped (ok, she could have escaped to and close the hidden door, the mountain men would had raided the place, had probably found nothing and had than attacked Wulf by there own, but she wasnt able to knowing that).
The movie is in my eyes ok. It stands for itself and was entertaining enough. At last, for random people.
Yeah there was very little feminism bs if any in this movie.
Firstly she didn't take command of anything until her brothers were already dead and her father was effectively comatose. Unless you count her telling everyone to leave the capital in which case none of the men were there.
As far as being physically capable compare her with her family, her brother killed a mumakil on his own and her father boxed a troll. She is one of the least physically capable characters in the main cast. Yes she climbed a mountain, but I say again her dad boxed a troll.
@@chimera6485the man babies wont except that, its fine for a guy to box a troll but a woman winning a fight? Get out of here 😅.
Where to start?
Well, for one thing Helm was not a wraith when he went out alone at nights and killed the enemy on a regular basis.
And when he died it was just appearing frozen, standing on the dike IIRC, one morning, so his death by freezing is accurate but it isn't as the result of a chase back to the Deep and going back out from that chase.
His death was never witnessed.
Men SAID that he continued to haunt the enemy.
Do he did face the enemy singlehanded many times but not as you describe here.
I hope Hera isn't said to kill Wulf? Quite apart from being a nameless daughter who is never mentioned again in the source; in fact Wulf is slain by Helm's nephew ( I think he's Frealaf IIRC).
Wulfs father sought the daughters hand but was refused. They lived in a different area and hardly saw Helm etc al so hardly childhood friends.
Wulf wanted to kill Helm, yes, because Helm killed his father Freca.
But nothing in source says he had a vendetta against the nameless daughter though his army did conquer the Rohirrim and take over Meduseld.
Thank goodness you take the pain of watching this nonsense so I don't have to.
Modern writers doing what they do best, wiping their F'ing shit covered ass with tolkens source material and calling it brilliant themselves.
Um ... you do know what a "ward" is in a medieval setting right? Its perfectly fitting for Wulf to spend a big chunk of his childhood with the Rohirrim as a subtle hostage.
@MrFallenone But not mentioned in the books, and as his father wanted nothing to do with Helm, very unlikely.
Yes I know what a wsrd is - do you know what canon is?
Give them a break they gotta fill some stuff in to get a story out of two pages from the appendix. I for one enjoyed the movie I don't think it's a crime to give Helms daughter a name and a personality even if Tolkien didn't take the time to. I'm sure he would have if he had decided make this a full blown book. The movie really wasn't as bad as Shad makes it out to be.
@@kelvanadams6523 There's actually a LOT in those pages, more than enough story to make a movie, and they could have had the daughter narrate it. But to give her a name that doesn't fit the culture and a role that doesn't fit the story, and to generate a story that doesn't fit the details that Tolkien actually gave... and THEN to give the characters idiotic lines or traits, to add creatures that have no business being there, and so on and so forth, they created an ANTI-Tolkien story. Put it in another world, another universe, and let it try and stand on its own merits. But it doesn't belong in Middle Earth, we already have Tolkien's version to go on.
The best part of the movie was the hammer popcorn bucket at AMC. I didn't buy a ticket, I just went to the concession stand, bought the hammer, which came with a large popcorn, and left.
I just watched the movie (thoroughly enjoyed it btw you should put the bias and pre conceived opinions of it aside and give it a shot. There was little to no marry sue feminism in it despite what this video says) and now I wish I knew about that hammer popped corn thing.
@chimera6485 I'm glad that you enjoyed it. I'll be skipping this one.
Why, why, WHY didn't they just adapt Haleth's story!? She was the girlboss they wanted! She was based off Amazon warriors for Pete's sake! I'd be all down for watching her girlboss because she was supposed to!
From the small search i did she is of the first age, so nothing to connect her to the good movies!!!
Haleth was a man. :P
@@aleksamrkela831I think he meant Haleth from the Silmarillion. She is a female warrior and becomes the chieftain of her people after her father and brothers die.
They don't have the rights to the Silmarillion (thank Eru!)
@@aleksamrkela831Haleth of the Halladin was most certainly not a man. Haven’t you read about the ongoing debate on whether she was the lover (potentially even wife) of Caranthir/Carnistir/Morifinwë’s, son of Fëanáro? Of course, according to the official timeline and lore it’s not exactly possible, but my goodness there are a thousand fanfics (well written at that) with that exact premise.
It's one thing to have a bad movie, but movies that had actual potential yet ended up dissapointing are way more painful.
This is what makes me annoyed the most, they give a weak sauce excuse to why, even though you have this woman accomplish so much, her own nation decided to completely forget about her, and changed their history to support the new line of Rohirrim kings by giving Fealaf credit for what she did. That's just bad writing, insulting Tolkien's work by saying Rohan is so sexist, they erase parts of their history if their masculinity is threaten, even though in real life, no nation has even been that bad about acknowledging accomplishments of their women. What next, Rohan history books saying that it was Eomer who killed the Nazgul
Its a feminist garbage narrative. "Men always take credit for a woman's work!"
No, exceptional women in history ARE recognized. Its bulls****.
Exactly, Tolkien's work is so wonderful and important, I don't understand why they can't just respect his works. 💯
I know right. Not like Joan of Ark is a name anyone knows or anything.
Did they say that? When? According to the beginning, the story of Hera is still told in Rohan during long winter evenings. As far as I understand, she just wasn't mentioned in chronicles, but she wasn't completely forgotten.
@@АнтонОрлов-я1ъin the Appendices, there is only one line about Helm's daughter and she wasnt even named. Fealaf was the one who killed Wulf in a commando raid in Edoras. So the movie here is basically saying Rohan changed its history to hide a woman saved the day and didnt ever make songs about her. The narration literally started by saying you shouldn't expect to find any somgd about her. Pj said they wouldnt put their own ideas in Tolkien's work, yet that's what exactly they did here
I like this review of the movie because Shad didn’t immediately enter it with the assumption that Héra was a Mary Sue girl boss, like many reviews online have thus far. Even Disparu made a video reading major reviews where the “strong female character” wasn’t even mentioned as a thing. The only article mentioning that was written before the movie released to anyone.
The biggest issue I take with many online critiques is that very assumption she was a girl boss, and the two biggest points were her killing elephants, “saving” Helm from the troll, and her discouraging Helm from open combat with the Dunlandings. To keep it simple:
1) her first elephant kill was just her leading it to another larger creature that killed her for it. The second elephant she killed with a near-point blank ballista shot. Both of those are no less unbelievable than if a male character did it, nor is it less believable than her brother scaling one with an axe, killing everyone on board, then chopping through its neck.
2) She didn’t just kill the troll and save Helm, she threw a spear at it, supporting her father from a distance. If that was done by any male character, it would be equally believable, especially when Helm is going hand-to-hand against the thing.
3) People forget that Frayloff (pardon the spelling) was also discouraging Helm, which was the moment the story turned him into an Eomer-esque banished character. Héra didn’t even realize the extent of the danger until she discovered one of the lord’s seals was also present in the enemy camp, which was information only she could have had up to that point.
The narration and clunky dialogue definitely try to treat her like a girl boss, but the context of her actions contradict that notion, further lending to Shad’s critique that Héra doesn’t behave the way the story and characters treat her.
"... and I hate them all for it!..."
The moment we realized that the Rohirrim were just a bunch of slightly taller Harfoots.
Going into the movie last night, I was braced for the worst, so I was honestly relieved there was as much to like as there was. Yes, Hera was a show-stealing girl boss, and there were definitely a number of eye-roll moments surrounding her, particularly towards the end of the movie, but as far as girl bosses go, at least she wasn't particularly unlikeable and didn't immasculate the male characters in the story. Frankly, I was more annoyed by the obnoxiously forced and unnecessary Easter eggs crammed into the story, like the inclusion of the watcher in the water that completely ruins the terror surrounding the creature in the original by making it an ordinary and apparently common creature, the orcs hunting for rings that serve no real purpose whatsoever, and the desperation to find a way to name drop Gandalf whether or not it makes any sense.
I would like to see a "good" movie concerning Aragorn fighting alongside Eowyn's grandfather. I have always thought that if I were in the world of Middle Earth, I would want to be either a Ranger of the North or a Rider of Rohan.
This is the most constructive review I've seen in this sector, everyone else is just screaming about woke and girlbosses without addressing actual dumb plot points
This and Nerdotic review are probably the best
All the ones I have watched complained about dumb plot points. And called her a girlboss.
Everything I’ve seen has pointed out poor plot points and Hera’s flaws as a character. They just don’t always go into as much detail.
nah it’s just woke trash
So you think it isn't woke and girlboss garbage??
No one seams to enjoy fun anymore. They just want to be hateful and insulting, getting the laat word in to sound smart.
The War of the Rohirim is inferior to the Lord of the Rings and is approximately on the same level as the Hobbit. At the same time, the cartoon is clearly better than the Rings of Power from Amazon, and this is the pure truth!
Imagine this in the plot: Hera is ready to marry Wolf and dont throw a hissifit instead she quiet happy to do so but Helm stopping it as he sees womethign dark in him.... later you learn Helm was right. Wolf has anger management issues what Hera learn too make her realize her father could read this man a mile away and make her stand against him too at the end...
The door is frozen but not in closed state but wide open. Snow storm and freeze blocking the view. Soldiers working on it to get it close. Helm do the last stand at the front of the path while Hera running up to alert the people and they try closing the door. Helm single handedly hold back the attackers while that is happening, but the storm gettign stornger. Hera organize a squad to go out help but the storm is too strong and they lose track where they are. They try their best but nature overwhelm them and they need to find shelter. when the storm cleared they onyl find the frozen king... No speech about how super special Hera and thats she is the ruller of the world and other crap.
For those of you who haven't seen the movie: Don't knock it till you've tried it. A matinee is 5 bucks where I live. Not a huge investment. My kids and I all loved it, BTW. We love both the books and the Peter Jackson movies. My oldest girls have even read the Silmarillion, if that gives you an idea of where they're coming from. We're an extremely traditional, religious, anti-Woke family, needless to say. For a good Second Opinion, see Men of the West's review.
Seeing things like this makes me Appreciate the Lord of the Rings Movies Even More.
The cave entrance got blocked by a rock slide during the troll fight…
Also, I thought it a bit dumb about the Helm scene on the bridge. There should have been archers on the battlements, even one or two guardsmen - the rest would have been taking shelter from the blizzard, which I believe was intensifying from the time she exited the cave to point where Helm shoved her through the door. I think the movie went out of its way to tell us that Helm was something supernatural and that “the blood of the ancients” ran through his veins. He ALONE opened that door, help from Hera or her shield maiden was negligible. Was it still dumb? Yes, he could have came through, but Helm wanted Wolf to challenge him, he was there to do so but chickened out. Perhaps Helm wanted to end the siege with his last stand. Agree, weak point of the movie, but it didn’t ruin an otherwise great story and medium in which to tell it
Thanks for saving me over two hours Shad!
Shad: “Why would the do that?!?”
Me: “cause tey be a few sticks short o bein a full bundle me lad.”
I was heartbroken when I saw the trailer and how this turned out. I would love to have an animated series like this that focused on other mentioned adventures that happen in middle Earth. I mean there's years worth of material there but goddamn they keep killing it. And not in a good way.
Rey, Osha, Bo-Katan, Furiosa, Guyladrier, Hera, countless Marvel shows and now Ciri. I am so tired of "girlbossing" it's unreal.
I don’t like how Star Wars is really trying to make Bo katan the good guy. She is a literal terrorist.
I'm fine with ciri being the main character in Witcher 4 though I don't understand why they had to hit her with the ugly stick
@@ogar0524 No. She chugs potions like a witcher despite not going through the grass trials. It's BS. In a void I would be ok with her as a protagonist of her own game but it's 2024 and CDPR is infected with DEI so you know why they are making her a protagonist of a witcher game.
@@ogar0524 And mutagenes are basically like a light version of the gene-seed from 40k. So I would not be surprised if that was their excuse for making Ciri uglier.
I've never played the witcher but isn't Ciri literally another fully trained witcher?
In the actual story, Helm went out night after night after the great horn blows. He went and took down his foes with his bare hands. One night he didn't come back. He didn't die in a stupid suicidal way right in front of the gate. He went out into the storm and didn't return in the morning, and they found he died frozen, standing up surrounded by slaughtered foes.
Aside from the other issues...couldn't Helm just use the same door Aragorn and Gimli used to flank the Uruk-hai?
Yeah there was another Sally port even closer to the gate. Right next to it actually. That was weird to be honest
I agree the whole narrative introduction is not only obsolete, but doesn't relate to the main character at all and the movie would be better off without it. I did enjoy the movie, even though there are a few dumb or bad written parts. Nonetheless I also had goosebumps at some other parts.
I cannot follow Shad's view on Hera. In fact I enjoyed her being portrayed as a girl in a royal household not being prepared to immediately taking over responsibility without so much as a snip of her fingers. Does it make her bland and boring? From a modern actionridden perspective? Maybe. What do you expect from a young girl raised in a royal household with two brothers who are to be the future of the kingdom? So by not being a girlboss Hera becomes dull and boring by default? Yes, she is not the charismatic leader, because she was never taught to lead. Yes, there are several other characters who openly force their projections on her, which she tries to fulfill most of the time, e.g. her nurse cleary raised Hera as her own successor. Often these projections contradict each other. Most of the time Hera has to be motivated or shoved in the right direction. Honestly I think this makes her character so much more credible. There are only few scenes were she herself makes the decision how to solve the situation, at many others she is a bystander due to the circumstances, be they social or military.
Does the story work with Hera as the main focus? Yes, it does. I loved the fact that the male characters had their chance to shine, both Hera's brothers, Helm and her cousin most of all. So they did not need to ridicule or nerf them down in order for Hera to be in the spotlight, which btw. is not the heroine who singlehandedly lifts the siege or destroys the main villain. It is more like they define a shield maiden in the movie: A woman to take up arms and fight when there is no other left. She is not even particularly good in this, but she nevertheless stands up to the challenge, because there is noone left to do it. Maybe this is what makes her a hero on her own, a hero out of necessity even though not the best to fill the role.
I did like the fight of Helm with the troll, because for me it symbolises his fight with the beast inside. Not only is he described in the appendix of LOTR as having made his sorties clad in white like a snow troll. The troll did have a resemblance to him with both sporting a long white mane of hair and a giant, muscular figure. Only after he kills the Troll does he regain his senses so far he recognises his own daughter.
Overall the movie is not that bad, but enjoyable to watch with both better and worse parts. I'd give it a solid 7 out of 10. Did it have more potential? Yes, of course. Still it is so much better than RoP or Wheel of Time or Willow (the series). When it comes to recent releases of the classic fantasy genre it definitely is one of the better creations.
Woke writers hate smart & strong father figures
it shall not pass
The Feminist of the Rohirrim.
God forbid a women do anything in a movie or your tiny man ego will get scared 😂😂😂😂
RoHERrim
@@clatsys2376 why you scared of masculinity.
@@clatsys2376 I hope you know the diference beteween a normal woman and a feminist ( at least the modern feminism )
@@rangerstedfast 🤣
This is literally just Fire emblem in middle earth. Right down to the protagonist losing all their family and characters defeating entire armies. The art style is even identical.
This is not a compliment.
Anyone who’s played fates or engage knows that this is not a compliment
I mentally checked out pretty early. The scene where Hera gets kidnapped was so stupid that it genuinely pissed me off. She looked like she was being taken home from the bar after one too many drinks, not someone being taken by an armed enemy. Her hands were free the whole time and she only tried taking the bag off once, and then beat on the guy's back.
One thing about the film that won it over for me was the use of Anglo Saxon terms like "summon a Witan" that's a refreshingly bold thing to do as the Woke mob are trying to pretend the Anglo Saxons never existed.
It's also not an anime. Its a western production made to look like an anime.
Don't the Japanese call all animation anime?
It's a western anime, which there are some really good ones out there.
Correct me if i am wrong but the director and the studio are japanese even if the production are westerner, this is an anime
There’s anime and then there’s anime. This is anime
I'm amazed people like you can say some insane bullshit with absolute confidence, when the movie is realized by the people who did Ghost in the Shell and Jin-Ro.
Wahmen power 😂 after this and the Witcher 4 trailer I’m just done. Grill bosses need defeated once and for all.
If you’re really done then don’t comment and move on.
They keep trying to turn all the shows they claim as their own into Buffy... but they never actually understood Buffy.
At least the Witcher 4 trailer was awesome. And given the fact Geralt’s chilling in Toussaint, it would make sense to make it about Ciri?
I thought everyone liked Ciri. Her being the protagonist of the next game makes sense to me. I would prefer if her witcher style was something new. One sword and more magic oriented maybe? Instead she's just Geralt with boobs.
Yeah, I'm glad for all the people who like to pretend to be girls. But I have no interest in that.
To be fair, I also didn't like Witcher 3 that much either. I hate RPGs where I don't get to make my own character
I have to disagree with you though on 5:10 - In no situation would Hera - even with a Shield and a Sword - would be able to believably win a one on one fight against a much larger, faster and experienced warrior like how Wulf was implied to have been in the canon, he never fought this nameless daughter in canon and was killed by Frealaf, Helm's nephew, another strong male warrior. The few examples from modern open gendered tournaments you showed were carefully presided in modern time between protected modern weaker men and women, not a fight to the death between two medieval warriors who fought their entire lives on a medieval battlefield, so the comparisons are not correct. In Tolkien's canon, the only reason Éowyn managed to killed the Witch King was because of Merry's help, he helped her and used his magical dagger that weakened The Witch King and broke the curse which allowed her to kill him, but she didn't win alone against him. Tolkien didn't create these unbelievable situations in his lore. When "strong" female characters like Luthien won or got the upper hand against a major opponent it was because of their magic, or some kind of an outside help that allowed them to survive and escape their fate. Galadriel had strong magical powers and was a Noldor Elf from the First Age, the same with Luthien who had major accomplishments but were all achieved with her magical powers. Eowyn had outside help with Merry, she wasn't a Mary Sue nor would she be able to fight against bigger, faster and stronger opponents with no help.
Yeah Eowyn, let's be real, doesn't actually DO that much in LOTR. Her primary achievement is killing the Witch King. The main reason why that scenario even happens is because Tolkien was trying to subvert a Macbeth trope by having a woman (and Hobbit) fulfill the prophecy instead of some stupid twist about how the birth happened.
The way the story handles Eowyn is by showing the Witch King's overconfidence, and Eowyn's strength of character for her to stand up against him. And its justified in-universe by Merry first stabbing the Witch King with a magical dagger.
I am absolutely certain that in OPEN AMATEUR fights SOME women can defeat SOME men.
@@jrconway3 indeed, Eowyn never overpowers the witch king in battle, she gets defeated by a single blow of his mace. Marry and the one who enables her to win by striking him with the only weapon that could wound him and make him vulnerable in all of Middle-earth
I think Shad is confusing the movie with some of his heroic LARPing adventures.
But is Wulf an experienced warrior though? His father died in one hit - one that wasn't even meant to kill him. We do not see Wulf fight a single time. He just had a lot of daddy's money far as I see it.
Hera and her story is literally a 1 to 1 ripoff of Merida from brave
The trailer already told me i don't need to watch it.
I don't agree with your review here. Are there some meh moments in the film? Sure, but overall I'd say this is a solid animated film that feels like Lord of the Rings. As to the narrator, the narrator is Eowyn, telling a story about a shieldmaiden of old (and given that Eowyn views herself as a shieldmaiden, it makes sense how she would talk this way). Hera is not a Mary Sue either. It is stated that she has been riding horses before she could walk (hence she is good at it), she played with swords as a child and her surrogate mother is a former shieldmaiden herself (giving reason why she would have skills with a sword), and she was raised as a princess (giving reason why she would have some political concepts). The only person she regularly bests with a sword is Wulf. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this film, and the character of Hera (I didn't find her dull at all), and I hope to watch it again in the future (probably not in theaters, likely streaming or on blu-ray).
Helm's death was somewhat ridiculous, yes, but I think it fits if you consider that, again, this is a story being told by Eowyn, so embellishment likely exists (or that's how I viewed it at least), and they couldn't go back the way they came because a rockslide closed the cave when Helm was fighting the orc. Further, Helm must die because in the Tolkein text this is based... Helm dies. Here is the actual text: "'One night men heard the horn blowing, but Helm did not return. In the morning there came a sun-gleam, the first for long days, and they saw a white figure standing still on the Dike, alone, for none of the Dunlendings dared come near. There stood Helm, dead as a stone, but his knees were unbent." So... I don't think the way they did it breaks form the actual text there at all. In fact... reading the entire text, this film could easily fit into Tolkein's text with very little issue. Even your complain that Hera leaves fits in, as Frealaf is the next king (though I suppose in medieval times, the fact they are first cousins wouldn't prevent them from marrying.).
TLDR; The parts adapted from the original text is great, the parts pulled out of the writers collective posteriors was trash. I'm sure everyone is completely shocked by this.
Damn. Somehow they managed to make depiction of Helm in Shadow of War, where he supposed to be one of the 9 in that game, look better in comparsion.
Hey, at least its a red head.
Normally those are the first to get replaced nowadays.
This reminds me of when the game Shadow of War turned Helm into a Ringwraith, complete with brutal (not emotional) backstory
All they had to do was make the movie about Helm Hammerhand and Helm's Deep's origins. That's it, no need to turn his nameless, pointless daughter, into some badass war hero was required
Agreed.😤✅🧠.
I agree, except that she isn't really pointless, she is the prize asked by the rich lord father of Wulf before the two start insulting each other and Helm kills him. Granted, Helm didn't kill Freca for asking for the daughter's hand, but she is at least part of the narrative there ;)
Yeah the movie being a sausage fest would've been so interesting🙄.
@@jamespeacock8665 Oh you mean like THE LORD OF THE RINGS where the number of prominent Female characters can be counted on one hand.
Not everything needs to shoehorn in female characters to make the feminists in the audience feel better about themselve.s
Bruh. Helm Hammerhand was going to Dismantle the army himself while they thought he came back as a vengeful wraith?
So much Squandered Potential
He does say that the only way to get back into the castle was through the main gate. So no - he still would have frozen to death on that day.
This and Witcher 4 has put me over the edge this is just not lord of the rings and ciri story was concluded with geralt stop giving us girl boss shit and give me a new witcher or let me create a witcher my Witcher me as a witcher and have my own story and adventure
I love all the top comments on W4 blindly praising various elements as if it has anything to do with the trailer, yet somehow gets 15K - 25K likes. Total bot upvotes for studio posts. I have never seen so much pre-loaded cope for why it will not do nearly as well a W3.
@EnsignRedshirtRicky as you've clearly never played the games let me explain to your uninformed unknowing ass the game is going to be bad for the simple reason of zero innovation They're bringing back a character that had a complete story conclusion I don't need to see any gameplay to know it's going to be shit if we are having an entire game around a character who had their story finished with a fucking bow tie before you start speaking out your ass on topics you don't know or understand maybe play the games and understand why we're ranting well at least most of us do you have genuine critique some people just hate for the sake of hating touches yourself with this informed comment so do yourself a favour learn about the topic that's being discussed and stop talking out your ass good day God bless
witcher 4 doesnt exist yet?
@maciejp7829 and your point is please elaborate cuz I have no idea what your objective is with this comment
@@ThorKill.Beowulvf the Witcher 4 trailer was… bizarre. Why is Ciri a Witcher when her powers were supposed to above and superior to Witchers.
She was a good female character in W3. I hope they don’t ruin her.
Warner and Amazon in this shared IP custody, all this money and they are not capable of being better than a man who has been dead for several years, but blessed with all the talent.
This is not Tolkien, so no thanks.
I kind of love the idea that the reason why a princess gets never ending compliments is because its the King's order. So even if she is the most annoying and spiteful brat the men are still following the commands. We need to see that story
This is very disappointing. I have been waiting for years for this film. I've always wanted to see an anime adaptation of the entire works of Tolkein. I thought this would be a good start.
You know what you say about how Hera is an OK character but the people around her are making her insufferable reminded me of something I read. If you want people to hate someone and shun them, praise them excessively.
there are way to many cases of "wise strong men" having to die in stupid ways, its what made me stop watching game of thrones with starks death, viland Saga, etc.
Well, that's a classic part of the hero's journey
Shad, great review. I had seen Gary's yesterday and Council ofvthe Rings the other day. This pretty much makes this a solid pass and i was so hoping for a good movie i could see over the holidays...guess I'll just replay my blu ray of LOTR instead
Why did they make this? So Warner Brothers could keep the IP rights.
If only WB take this animation/Cartoon seriously they will be out of debt before 2030
I wish writers would hire you for consultation instead of getting their panties all in a bunch
If only there was a secret side entrance that you can jump to a cliff near to the bridge that we totally haven’t seen in a previous movie…oh wait…
16:16 we are at a point in cinema where having a protagonist that is not a completely insufferable butt hole that ruins every scene they are in, is considered a positive trait of the movie....
This is just sad.
How to miss the target when someone has written you a sheet of directions! Shame!
TBH, I am not surprised, every modern franchise follows the same overall theme… Star Wars, Terminator, Indiana Jones, MOTU, LOTRs…
They should have made her more like Nausicaa and less like Rey.
I think the very comparison is an insult to the movie, the character and Miyazaki.
When a script is poorly crafted, it is not just the screenwriter who is to blame; the accountability extends to all individuals involved in the process above the screenwriters who give their approval. It is remarkable how many people play a role in the making of a lackluster production. Studio executives, producers, development executives, screenwriting agents, and the screenwriters themselves all bear some responsibility.
So in other words, it's the semi-tolerable result of an inexperienced writing team getting preferential treatment due to nepotism. The only part that I'm genuinely surprised about is the "semi-tolerable" part. I expected Hera to be way more insufferable based on the press interviews over the past couple of years.
I was waiting for Shad’s review of the movie, and he didn’t disappoint!
As soon as I seen the trailer for this, I was waiting for this video lol.
I'd burn a thousand agonizing deaths, before I'd ever watch anything western media produces.
They try to say all messenger birds got shot down and that's why Gondor is not coming? That's just idiotic. You can point to the lack of help to create further suspense throughout the besiegement, and at the end when Gondorians do come you can easily explain it by the war that Gondor itself was embroiled in. Because that is the reason given by Tolkien.
It's a shame. Whenever there's a female warrior main character, you can tell the story will suck, even though I'm an author who's main character is a female warrior.
People don't know how to write women any more, even though in many cases it's women writing women. It's as if female writers (not be confused with ordinary women), have forgotten how to be women.
In a lot of cases it's women writing women, but for an audience of men. And they deliberately don't write her as a character that male audience will like, because they think that audience is wrong and should be shamed for liking interesting well-written women, and be reeducated into liking feminist girlbosses instead.
Feminists: fighting tooth and nail to be just like the toxic bad boy males they want to hate.
No one in all of history has ever accused the female gender of logic.
They're all trying to rewrite every character as Buffy, without understanding what made Buffy a compelling character.
@@radagast7200 It's as if they have a vague memory of buffy, and filled in the gaps with their own political beliefs. Then applied this hideos monstrocity to every female character they make.
Hera is not a female warrior to begin with. She wants to be or aspires to be a shield maiden and ride to battle to accompany her family. She is somewhat trained with a sword. However she never even claims to be a warrior and she does suffer from female limitations in combat.
Thank you gor this deep and honest review. I like it when people aknowledge the good things about movies they didn't like.
Another boring unlikeble female main character 😴
She's rebellious because she a member of the horse riding tribe likes to ride horses?
They should've just animated the battle in dol guldur or in Dale during the war of the rings. It couldve given us more context and vision of the things that took place there, and they chould definitely insert original characters as long as they don't change and contradict major plot points.
Instead what we got is a girl boss movie with lots of forced member berries like Saruman and the mumakils that were never mentioned by Tolkien in this story Lol.
Well, Saruman is supposed to show up at the end....
Hera?... For the norse inspired culture...
Then the cover art has a Romanesque...
Kinda showing you didn't understand even the basics before you started unnecessarily altering events and fabricating a story.
Personally, I'm not a fan of the style of animation used in this movie. That being said, I'm a big Tolkien fan (although I couldn't watch more than two episodes of the Rings of Power). I broke down and went to see it today. I enjoyed it for the most part. I have many of the same issues that you do.
The big issue I have is that Hera never had a name in the lore and was not a main character in this story until now. All her accomplishments in this movie didn't happen and her killing Wulf or even fighting is all added for the sake of girl boss and intersectional Feminism. They took a story about Helm throwing Rohan into war thru rash action and his sacrifice for them after his sons death. Then they gave her the heroic deeds of Fréaláf who was the actual hero of Rohan leading his men to recapture Rohan after the long winter killed Wulf, then defeated the Dunling army outside the Hornberg with the help of Gondor and even captured Isengard where the Dunlings lived before handing it over to Saruman. They could have still enriched her story and stuck to the lore for example, after Helm's death the dunlings could launch and attack emboldened by the wraiths death. The men on the wall disheartened by the kings and his sons deaths all but give up when death is imminent. Cut away to where the woman and children are and several Dunlings have snuck in thru the secret entrance that Helm used earlier tipped off to its location thru the deaths of the orcs. They draw swords to kill them then Hera stands and kills one or two thru surprise, Flash back to Eowen say that the woman of Rohan long ago realized those without swords can still die by them then all the women grab dagger swords and spears left over from those men whom have died defending them and kill the Dunlings. Then following Hera they run out reinforcing the men on the wall Hera declares that in her father and brothers stead she will fight with them. They rally and hold the wall tell Fréaláf leads his arm down the hill and takes the Dunlings by surprise. She is applauded as a Hero and spoken in the same breath as her Father Helm and her Cousin the new King Fréaláf she can still go and do as she wishes no longer the Princess of Rohan but the one who faced the storm and lead the defense of Helms Deep. See not that hard to lift her up without making all the men around her dumb or incompetent, this way she still has no flaws a requirement for Heroines nowadays but also doesn't require the gutting of Tolkien's lore the suspension of disbelief. After all Hera is just Meredith from Brave with a sword instead of a bow.
Nah, just have her do as Eowyn did in THAT battle of the Hornburg - care for her people. A proper siege doesn't need siege engines, just time. Helm's forces were trapped and starving, hence the sorties throughout the winter to get supplies through during which Hama dies. Then Helm's sorties to just murder as many enemies as possible. Then others of his men carry on the tradition, keeping the myth alive of Helm's ghost harrying the enemy, possibly encouraged in this by the daughter. Finally, Frealaf's forces arrive and lift the siege and bring relief to the forces well protected but starving within the Hornburg. The Dunlendings weren't trying to breach the walls, had nothing to drive them like the Uruk-hai intent on wiping out the defenders, they would have remained comfortably out of bowshot the entire time. They might even have gotten word from Edoras of the death of Wulf and so abandoned the siege to go fight the enemy elsewhere. The daughter's courage comes from helping keep her people alive and spirited through the long winter in the face of slow eradication, giving them hope to last through until spring.
It’s a shame on how little do the writers and WB care about Lord of the Rings. Not surprised unfortunately, especially how they made Helm a side character and focus on Hera. But what gets me is how far they fell, especially after rewatching interviews from Peter Jackson back in the early 2000’s when talking about writing the films as a tribute for the fans instead of their own political views.
One Girl Boss to Rule Them All
Isn't there a door right next to the main gate of the Hornburg that they could have "jumped" to? I mean it's specifically used in LOTR when Gimli and Aragorn used it to hold of Saruman's forces. Sure Gimli needed help to "jump the distance" but Helm could help his daughter jump the distance. Soooooo.... Helm's death was even more stupid and unnecessary than you say it is.
Visibility is one thing. Shooting arrows inside a STORM is another. I am fairly certain arrows which are light objects with flat surfaces at the back would have like 2 m of effective range to aim. They might could had throw stones from the top of the wall, but I would not want to be the guy who accidently smashes the king's head.
You totally missed an important point about the gate. It wasn't two people who forced it open. It wasn't four. Or ten, counting the people inside who just the purpose built mechanism. Hera's contribution was insignificant there. ONE man opened that gate the slightest, so the girl the thickness of his wrist can slip through. That ONE man was Helm Hammerhand, reaching for his deepest reserves of strength and resolve. You can get another 20 men on other side and they could not do it because non of them are another Helm Hammerhand.
Also maybe you have not noticed but Helm at that point was not exactly 100% a logic based machine. He was a walking mountain of grief just looking for the proper way to get his rest.
Oh yeah, you ain't shooting shit in that Blizzard when Helm died. Maybe if they had an elven hero I can buy that - but if they did, that would solve the whole movie on it's own. Helm went out how he wanted, and he never lost, he kept beating them until he froze. As you say - he was the only person who could possibly move that door at this point in time. And he was well characterised as being the "glory in death" type of guy, the whole movie could only happen because they knew Helm is too proud to ask for reinforcements
@@RancorSnp In the original story gondor was preoccupied with pirates, but I liked Helm's pride being involved, knowing his enemy gave a bit of cunning vibe to Wulf.
The gate door slightly moved on the side the two women pulled it, however we don't know how the mechanism worked, probably they can only be opened in pair and we can regard their contribution as meaningless outside of motivation for Helm.
I actually kind of liked how restrained the movie was regarding fantasy elements. No magic, dwarves, elves, hobbits, a little cameo of orcs and other fantastic things.
Also the siege actually worked like a siege - except for the fantasy bridgelaying tower - it took long and both sides were unable to do much. One of the most realistic sieges you ever seen in a movie!
I really enjoyed this review and agree with almost everything.
Killing off Helm at that point was necessary, as it was established lore that he died in one of his solo attacks, but it should have been done much better.
Hera ignoring all the reasons to take the throne and rule, was just the writers lazy way of bringing the lore back on target by allowing Frealaf to become the 10th king, as Tolkien had written.
The writers had allowed Hera to do most of the things that Frealaf did, so they then needed to write her out of the way, in the laziest way possible.
Tolkien would have never named a Rohirrim Hera since it's of Greek origin.
This might be a minor nitpick to some, but I believe it's something important when talking about Tolkien's work.
I didn't watch it as I have become wary of new additions to beloved franchises like SW or LotR.
When I heard that her name was 'Hera' I knew for sure that I didn't need to.
Imagine you are doing a film in Tolkiens world and you want a name for a main character, a character that Tolkien didn't assign a name to. Tolkien, the man known for his REALLY thought-through worldbuilding and linguistics. HOW would you think a greek name - on top of that pulled straight from the main female 'deity' of the greek pantheon - would do the job for a princess of Rohan, which is a kingdom fashioned linguistically and culturally after Germanic influences? That immediatly shows that the creators either didn't get Tolkien and/or european cultures at all or that they didn't care at all. Both options are not good news for their product.
Would Frigg (the 'deity' of the old Germans that is - kinda - in Heras place as wife of the main 'god') be a good fit? NO. Because many, many people know that name and associate it with the 'real' deal. You wouldn't want to name your random fantasy character Zeus or Mars or Thor either. Even though it at least fits the culture, it is not derivative of it, it is REALLY straight from reality, as in: people in the real world associated something real or concretely imagined with that name already. Tolkien pulled inspiration from cultures, he didn't directly use whole chunks. Imagine the name of the lost king of Gondor wouldn't be Aragorn but Arthus. That's lazy and breaks all immersion.
So why not only a greek inspired but a real greek name for the daughter of Helm? All alarms are ringing with choice number one and choice number two is DEFCON 1. But okay, let's even grant that.
Moving on: Why Hera? I'm not an expert on greek polytheism but even I know that Hera is the 'deity' of MARRIAGE, FAMILY and MOTHERHOOD. Not really something that this character is about I think after watching this video. Could you make it less fitting if you wanted to? No? Good enough for Netflix then. You could have went with Athena (a 'deity' of war, amongst other patronages) or Penthesilea (the famous queen of the amazons). And yes, I know both names would be very lame. But not as lame as using Heras and at least you would invoke 'warrior'. Or are they being sarcastic? Can't even tell at this point.
Just ... no.
This movie exist simply so WB could keep the filming rights. Nothing more. It had no intention to be anything.
Thanks for covering this, man!
Ouch. Can’t say I’m shocked.
Sad when we get a good Warhammer 40K short in Secret Level, but keep getting bad Middle earth fanfic from Amazon and other major studios
This movie makes a lot more sense if you think of Olwyn as a prequel Wormtongue.
"You can only be free if you remain wild"
"If you don't have twigs in your hair and mud on your clothes, you will waste the rest of your days stuck with a man who oppresses you"
I grant that: Helm himself did his daughter no favors when he promised her that she would not inherit anything of Rohan but would spend the rest of her life with a man she never met in a country she has no love for, but she could have insisted on a marriage to Wulf to avoid that.
Olwyn manages to convince an impressionable young lady to live and die as a spinster. Because the movie ends with the two of them riding off to meet Gandalf, I can imagine that our favorite wizard failed to save Hera from being poisoned unto death (to which she is now canonically betrothed) by a Wormtongue figure, and he took the painful memory of that with him when he rescued King Theoden from a similar kind of poisoning.
Sounds like this movie can be inproved not by a fan edit, but a fan redub.
*eating popcorn while listening on this scolding*... Beautiful. I love listening to these while I'm powering up my device by Tolkien's grave, because hell Tolkien is a very effective dynamo after rings of power and this thing.