Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm not opposed to having more animation offerings in the Lord of the Rings, but as far as this trailer goes, I feel like this is doing a bit of a retread of Galadriel in Rings of Power, where they're girlbossing for the female MC and it's feels pretty rote and overdone by so much of Hollywood that I can already guess where the story beats are. It also doesn't help that Eowyn exists and is going to be guaranteed a better character than this new female MC.

You know they themselves don't have much confidence in their new content because of how they have to show old movie clips as callbacks to the previous Peter Jackson films at the beginning to try and get those nostalgia goggles on for the viewer.

Anime isn't my cup of tea but for Middle Earth I'll give it a whack.

The animation looks both the worst combo of blandly generic design and low framerate. Wait. That's not a combo of anything, that's just two bad things. But holy crap is does that trailer make the animation look so jittery. You can see how few frames there are in the lip flaps and movements to a painful degree. And I watch Anime. My tolerance for low framerate in animation is vast!

You'd be better off just making it a motion comic.

 Gert wrote:
Anime isn't my cup of tea but for Middle Earth I'll give it a whack.

It's worse than that.

Some of the designs and characters look like throwbacks to 80s action cartoons (He-Man and the like) while others look like they're trying to be anime and the designs are both equally generic on both ends and they're clashing!

A lot of trailers nowadays use unfinished work in them (special effects, etc.). I'll wait until the film is released before calling out it's animation quality and not base it on the first trailer.

I love japanese animation but I can see this being a hard sell for the greater international audience, that have high expectations of a cinematic Middle Earth feature that previously took the coveted Christmas slot.

Anime is an aquired taste at best, and even with Jackson and Middle Earth behind it, the lack of frames under the excuse of "style" isn't going to help. If going with the anime style then audiences will be more accepting if the animation is as close to the "ones" as possible. Right now...it looks like a Netflix show like Castlevania or Terminator Zero.

But I'm happy! I absolutely love Bakshi's Lord of the Rings from 1978 and I haven't enjoyed an anime movie on the big screen since Belle in early 2022. Hera is capable but doesn't come across as annoyingly smug, and glad to see that its as much adventure as it is a war epic.

Roll on Christmas.

Looks mid, as the kids say nowadays.

I'm trying to figure out the story here. I'm guessing the bad guys are Dunlendings, but why do they have a Mumak? And why does it look like it's getting attacked by the creature from the lake next to Moria in one shot? Some of that kind of stuff smells of memberberries because those creatures were fairly memorable from the original LOTR trilogy. And the whole "girl power" thing is starting to get very old. I'm all for strong women in movies, but lately they're pushing that a little too hard at the expense of the story. I always had the impression that Eowyn was kind of the exception in Rohan culture as far as what a woman does, but now they're making it look like there's a lot of precedent for women to want to be warriors. If all that makes me sound sexist, make the most of it I guess, but it just seems stilted.

I suppose I'll reserve judgment at least until I see another trailer, but I'm skeptical at this stage.

it looks......ok i suppose, though yea some of the animation was not the best

there's enough cool fantasy anime out there that this needs more to get me.
if i wanted animated middle earth, i'll just watch the hobbit cartoon with its fun art style

It looks very generic that they slapped a thin LotR veneer onto. Maybe we get more recognizable Middle Earth stuff in the show proper. And yeah, girl boss horse rider feels meh given the significance already placed on a girl boss horse rider in the books.

Well that manages to make Rohan look very boring.

 AduroT wrote:
It looks very generic that they slapped a thin LotR veneer onto. Maybe we get more recognizable Middle Earth stuff in the show proper. And yeah, girl boss horse rider feels meh given the significance already placed on a girl boss horse rider in the books.

The film is based on the story of Helm Hammerhand found in the appendix of The Return of the King

If it's alright maybe I'll show it to my daughter some day. But I'm not that motivated to go to the cinema to see it.

Unforced error to show the live clips preceding the animation.

 Ghaz wrote:

 AduroT wrote:
It looks very generic that they slapped a thin LotR veneer onto. Maybe we get more recognizable Middle Earth stuff in the show proper. And yeah, girl boss horse rider feels meh given the significance already placed on a girl boss horse rider in the books.

The film is based on the story of Helm Hammerhand found in the appendix of The Return of the King

Spoiler:

youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbI2WyNmh70[/youtube]

'Based on' in the same way that U-571 was 'based on a true story'...

 greenskin lynn wrote:
it looks......ok i suppose, though yea some of the animation was not the best

there's enough cool fantasy anime out there that this needs more to get me.
if i wanted animated middle earth, i'll just watch the hobbit cartoon with its fun art style

Would it help if I leaked the news that Hera will be accompanied on her mission - "quest" - by Minstrel of Gondor? Even in a raging love scene, he'll be there next to the bed singing "The Greatest Adventure".

 Lord Damocles wrote:

 Ghaz wrote:

 AduroT wrote:
It looks very generic that they slapped a thin LotR veneer onto. Maybe we get more recognizable Middle Earth stuff in the show proper. And yeah, girl boss horse rider feels meh given the significance already placed on a girl boss horse rider in the books.

The film is based on the story of Helm Hammerhand found in the appendix of The Return of the King

Spoiler:

youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbI2WyNmh70[/youtube]

'Based on' in the same way that U-571 was 'based on a true story'...

It's from an appendix in The Return of the King (just like The Rings of Power is). It has approximately two-ish pages of source material to work from and the main character (the girl) is unnamed and barely mentioned.

The trailer makes this look a bit like a Pixar movie with LOTR trappings.

I'm generally pro more cool female protagonists in fantasy. I do wish it wasn't required to alter existing work in adaptation to do that though.

And it's quite a predictable change to make from the looks of it.

But I'll probably give it a go on DVD.

Just out of curiosity, did you all really think that Eowyn was the only Shieldmaiden to ever exist ever in the hundreds of years of Rohirrim history?

The term isn't just made up on the spot so it's clearly happened before.

I've not been this excited since Rings of Power!

The only interest I have in this is anticipation for the crazy carousel horse memes it will generate.

Gert: No, I didn't think Eowyn was the only shieldmaiden to ever exist. Where did anyone in the thread say that? You seem to be arguing with shadows.

The majority of responses have been "Ugh a woman fighting, we've seen that why do we have to see it again".

Heck, the first response in the thread literally has the words "We already had Eowyn".

So I'd say it's because of that tbh.

 Gert wrote:
The majority of responses have been "Ugh a woman fighting, we've seen that why do we have to see it again".

For those playing along at home, there have been THREE responses which even mention the main character being female.

Dunno, this looks good to me so far. Hèra doesn't give off girboss vibes and some creative license is fine. Not seeing another RoP here at all.

From the Nova Reveals, GW have the license for this film, and are adding at least some stuff from it to MESBG. Which is nice.

I watched the first season and enjoyed it. I like the build up to Gandalf and Sauron. I am watching the second season and so far I like that too. Interesting to see Sauron's manipulations. Arriving with open hands. Never actually lying. Letting those he manipulates convince themselves.

 Lance845 wrote:
I watched the first season and enjoyed it. I like the build up to Gandalf and Sauron. I am watching the second season and so far I like that too. Interesting to see Sauron's manipulations. Arriving with open hands. Never actually lying. Letting those he manipulates convince themselves.

I think you may have posted this accidentally in the wrong thread? This is the other LoTR thread, Rings of Power S2 is further down the list for the subforum.

 Grimskul wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:
I watched the first season and enjoyed it. I like the build up to Gandalf and Sauron. I am watching the second season and so far I like that too. Interesting to see Sauron's manipulations. Arriving with open hands. Never actually lying. Letting those he manipulates convince themselves.

I think you may have posted this accidentally in the wrong thread? This is the other LoTR thread, Rings of Power S2 is further down the list for the subforum.

Ah yeah. I did.

Extended Sneak Preview