Tag Archives: Drama

The Black Phone (2021)

10 Tuesday Nov 2026

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The phone is ringing,
And it’s for you.

There’s no one on the other end,
No wicked foe, no missing friend,
But no one has a message to send,
And it’s for you.

You hear a ragged breath and pause
To listen to the creaking jaws
Of no one breaking nature’s laws,
And it’s for you.

Their words are ringing in your head,
A warning no one could have said.
The ring is loud; the line is dead,
And it’s for you.
___________________

MPA rating: R (for language, brief violence, and terror)

Writer-director Scott Derrickson may not yet be a household name of the horror genre, but he’s getting there. An adaptation of a short story by Joe Hill, The Black Phone is set in 1978 suburban Colorado, in the midst of a rash of child kidnappings attributed to the Grabber. After his sole friend becomes a victim, outcast Finney Blake (Mason Thames) soon suffers the same fate, spirited away in a black van only to wake up imprisoned in a basement. While his psychic sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) searches for him, Finney is toyed with by the unstable Grabber (Ethan Hawke, hidden behind a menacing mask), and a phone in the basement delivers calls from the predator’s former victims.

The Black Phone works on many levels: as a semi-autobiographical portrait of 1970s suburbia, as a coming-of-age for a kid fighting for respect, and as a serial killer tale with a supernatural twist. Hawke is a threatening presence, a victim of some trauma that has made him unpredictable and bloodthirsty, and the mask seems custom-built to join the ranks of iconic killer Halloween costumes. The phone is likewise effectively creepy in its lack of explanation, a way for Finney specifically to gain insight on the danger facing him from those who could not survive it previously. The role of the psychic sister feels ancillary to the more interesting elements but still contributes in an unexpected way by the end.

The Black Phone isn’t the scariest horror out there and borrows some beats from other films like Misery, but it has all the ingredients for a memorable chiller. Thames especially was a fantastic find as the child actor lead, and it’s gratifying to see him get higher-profile roles since, like in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon. Now, as someone with a disconnected landline in the house, I’ll just be praying that it never rings.

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2026 S.G. Liput
799 Followers and Counting

Godzilla Minus Zero (2026)

09 Monday Nov 2026

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A shadow once cast isn’t banished so swiftly.
We soak in its horror long after it’s gone.
We wish for a switch that could turn off the terror
As quickly and coldly as it was flipped on.

It clings to our dreams, both in sleep and in waking.
It morphs what we want, who to hurt, who to blame.
Some never can shake it, that leftover burden
Of something they loved that was lost to the pain.

The shadow is sticky, tenacious, undying;
You kick it away, and it always returns.
But battle is better than letting it drown you;
Living’s the vengeance for which the heart yearns.
____________________

MPA rating: R (for violence and death; could pass for PG-13 in my opinion)

Godzilla Minus One took many viewers by surprise, myself included, boasting an affecting human story at the heart of the big destruction sequences and even managing to snag a Visual Effects Oscar. For me, it was a clear outlier of Godzilla media, which had never interested me much before, so it’s gratifying that its sequel Godzilla Minus Zero delivers the same well-rounded human-vs-monster story as its predecessor.

Picking up two years after former kamikaze pilot Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) managed to vanquish Godzilla, the film puts Japan right back into danger as a flying dragon-like creature called Ghidorah begins a new reign of terror. Scientist Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka) leads a bureau specifically meant to handle such disasters, and he regretfully pulls Shikishima back into the monster-killing effort, if only to protect his wife Noriko (Minami Hamabe) and their adopted daughter Akiko (Sae Nagatani). As an unlikely survivor of the first rampage, Noriko is faced with even harder choices when Godzilla also makes a reappearance.

I will say up front that I consider Minus One the better film, if only for its more focused themes and satisfying ending, but Minus Zero carries over a lot of the same strengths. The relationship between Shikishima, Noriko, and Akiko feels heart-tuggingly real, all of them survivors who only wish to survive together, and the aftermath of WW2 continues to haunt the cast, particularly Professor Murakami (Min Tanaka), a biologist who dreams of perpetuating the cycle of revenge. And of course, there are giant monsters, with the ever-evolving Ghidorah wreaking havoc on anything in its way. The effects work is spectacular yet again, proving that Japan can put plenty of Hollywood CGI to shame.

As for the negatives, they mainly revolve around the ending for me. The big battle that pits Godzilla against Ghidorah is awesome, but the scale of it makes it hard to believe any of the humans nearby would survive, and it ends a bit anticlimactically, most likely to leave options open for a third film. It’s hard to say in what direction that third film might go, but writer-director Takashi Yamazaki has me thoroughly invested in this particular iteration of the Godzilla mythos. I still wouldn’t consider myself a general fan of Godzilla like some of my friends are, but I am a fan of good movies, and if a good movie happens to feature Godzilla, then I’m in.

Rank:  List-Worthy (joining Minus One)

© 2026 S.G. Liput
799 Followers and Counting

If You Were the Last (2023)

08 Sunday Nov 2026

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When stuck in close proximity
With someone of the other sex,
There’s always possibility
That you-know-what will follow next.

It all depends on what you’ve got,
Your vibes and personalities…
Or if your partner’s super hot
And not one for formalities.

When paired with only time and us,
What follows is on fate and luck:
We just might hate each other’s guts
Or find the joy in being stuck.
___________________

Rating: TV-MA (likely a strong PG-13 for sex and some language)

I have come to set my expectations low when it comes to streaming-only romance films, which so often end up as little more than Hallmark wannabes. So it was a pleasant surprise to find If You Were the Last is a real winner, if only you have a Peacock subscription. Joining the ranks of films about astronauts stranded in space, even directly referencing The Martian, the film thrives on the natural chemistry between Adam (Anthony Mackie) and Jane (Zoȅ Chao).

The leading pair are the only survivors of a botched space mission that left their ship stranded in orbit around Saturn. Three years have passed as they attempt to fix the navigation computer while maintaining their life support and food supply, and their friendly professional rapport has gradually warmed into deep fondness and quite possibly more. They eventually chat frankly about the reasons for and against a sexual relationship, such as the fact they are married but also likely never to be rescued, and the lines between survival and love become harder to define with time.

Mackie and Chao have charm to spare, and Angela Bourassa’s script effortlessly allows their complementary personalities to bounce off each other in the repartee, like their commentary on certain movies. And while their cute behavior can sometimes seem too flippant given their plight, it’s clearly necessary as a way to deal with monotony and despair. In some ways, their ship seems comfortably prepared with food and entertainment for an extended stay, but things worsen gradually in ways which simply can’t be rectified, such as the death of their only goat or the corruption of a beloved music file. The future is not guaranteed, so how should the time remaining be spent?

Even so, this is not a deeply serious take on space isolation, as evidenced by the charming diorama-style depiction of their ship in space rather than more realistic effects. But it hits a likable balance of tones, boasting a unique scenario that allows two people to bond over their close proximity and shared stakes and see just how much they need each other. It’s a shame If You Were the Last is behind a single subscription barrier because it’s a rom-com deserving of wider appreciation.

Rank:  List Runner-Up

© 2026 S.G. Liput
799 Followers and Counting

Damsel (2024)

06 Friday Nov 2026

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Beware the power no man can claim,
The force that puts all others to shame,
The breath of death and fire of fear
To make hearts quake when it is near,
The might igniting years restrained,
No longer collared or contained,
The thing men fear at every age,
The power of…
A woman’s rage!
___________________

MPA rating:  PG-13

Millie Bobby Brown hasn’t aimed especially high since her breakout role in Stranger Things, but her Netflix films are still solidly entertaining, from the playful mysteries of Enola Holmes to the flawed but overly hated The Electric State. Damsel might be her best leading role yet, letting her square off against high fantasy dangers and hold her own.

The daughter of the less-than-wealthy Lord Bayford (Ray Winstone), Elodie (Brown) is summoned to the lavish kingdom of Aurea, where she is to be wed to its Prince Henry (Nick Robinson) at the invite of the reigning Queen Isabelle (Robin Wright). While she wonders at the somewhat strange circumstances, she warms to Henry and accepts for the sake of her and her own kingdom’s future, only to be blindsided by a malign tradition that puts her at the mercy of a bloodthirsty dragon (voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo).

The modernist intention behind Damsel is rather obvious, seeking to subvert the happily-ever-after of fairy tales by betraying the title damsel and turning her into an action hero bent on both survival and revenge. While one could easily just roll their eyes at some of the fantasy Die Hard-like feats Brown pulls off, her conflict with both the dragon and the royals keeps the story engaging. I liked how the film wasn’t pure black-and-white with its characterization, where the actions of the dragon, the evil queen, the reluctant prince, Elodie’s guilt-stricken father, and her surprisingly not evil stepmother (Angela Bassett) feel justifiable to themselves based on what they know.

I also have to give credit to the production design and cinematography that make the fantasy world quite beautiful at times, as well as the excellent effects work on the dragon. Brown herself carries the film handily, and, even if the plot becomes predictable after its central twist, Damsel is one of the better Netflix originals I’ve seen.

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2026 S.G. Liput
799 Followers and Counting

Better Man (2024)

04 Wednesday Nov 2026

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It seems that everyone’s aim is,
Put simply, to someday be famous.
They fight and they claw
And they shock and they awe
And they show off such gall
As they rise and they fall
That honestly, friend, who can blame us?
____________________

MPA rating: R (for frequent language, drugs, brief nudity and violence)

Musical biopics are well-worn cinematic territory, often covering the same age-old rags-to-riches success story undermined by sex, drugs, and hubris. They can still be quite good, offering a great outlet for actors to inhabit famous musicians and show off their singing chops, but when a biopic does something outside the mold, it’s rare enough to stand out. Covering the tumultuous career of England’s Robbie Williams, Better Man takes a big swing by replacing its star with a literal ape created via motion-capture, a risk that works far better than I would have expected.

Considering how well-known he is in Britain, it’s funny how few Americans have probably even heard of Robbie Williams, a likely reason for why the film bombed in the U.S. Coming from a poor working-class background, Robbie rose to fame as part of the British boy band Take That, eventually being fired for his unstable behavior and going solo to eventual immense success. Amid its effects-heavy sequences, the film manages to preserve a lot of heart, from Robbie’s bond with his grandmother (Alison Steadman) and his girlfriend and fellow pop star Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno) to his misguided admiration for his fame-chasing father Peter (Steve Pemberton).

The conceit of Robbie as an ape highlights both his feelings of inadequacy and “dancing monkey” showmanship, and though the difference in appearance is completely ignored by the other characters, the special effects do wonders integrating his simian self with everyone else, snagging an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects. It also allows the real Robbie Williams to provide his own singing vocals, while Jonno Davies provides the mocap performance and speaking voice.

I have to applaud director and co-writer Michael Gracey for the visual flair that he brings to the story. While there are stretches of the usual paint-by-numbers biopic plot, certain scenes really dazzle, like how Robbie’s biggest concert turns into a giant battle scene against his own past selves or especially the tracking-shot extravaganza where the Take That members celebrate their record deal dancing to “Rock DJ.” Honestly, the latter scene is among the best musical numbers I’ve ever seen, and it’s a shame the rest of the film couldn’t match its brilliance.

As an unconventional musical that could have used even more musical numbers in my opinion, Better Man proves that risks can pay off, as it finds new ways to portray familiar story beats and internal conflict. It may be authentic to Williams’ life, but I wasn’t a fan of how foul-mouthed and crude a lot of the dialogue is, right to the final scene, so be warned that this is no family-friendly musical like Gracey’s previous film The Greatest Showman. Still, the visual ingenuity and emotional resonance make Better Man a welcome outlier in a crowded genre.

Best line: (Robbie, finally telling off his dad) “You’ve always been there for Robbie Williams, dad. Why couldn’t you just be there for Robert?”

Rank:  List Runner-Up

© 2026 S.G. Liput
799 Followers and Counting

The Last House (2026)

04 Wednesday Nov 2026

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The doors are locked without a lock,
The windows barred without a bar.
No stepping out to take a walk,
No Sunday cruise around the block,
No driveway upkeep on the car,
No short but friendly neighbor talk,
No evening wishes on a star,
No welcoming a guest to knock…
I guess it’s just how things now are.
_____________________

MPA rating: PG-13

It shouldn’t really be a surprise that the Netflix movie machine churns out disappointing fare, but I had hoped The Last House would be better than it is. I like the ideas behind films that posit how life would fundamentally change given some hypothetical cataclysm, and other films have turned out really well playing with the notion of not being able to go outside, such as Right at Your Door (trapped by toxic fallout) or The Last Days (trapped by lethal agoraphobia). But The Last House is one seriously janky example of this peculiar apocalyptic subgenre.

Wagner Moura and Greta Lee play married couple Jason and Ann, who live in happy suburban bliss in Seattle with their two kids Ruth and Graham. When a strange rain storm hits, they find that their house is completely sealed by a barrier of water, trapping them and everyone else inside their homes. And while some people are likewise trapped outside, they soon regret it as invisible hostile creatures use the rain for cover. As years pass, the family is forced to use their wits to survive and find a way free.

Simply put, the setup of The Last House is hard to take seriously. When the reason for the sealing of buildings is revealed, it opens a lot of questions about why the creatures behind it would take such an indirect manner of wiping out humanity, and the threadbare themes of mercy by the end really don’t make sense in the larger context. While the survival elements are sometimes interesting, they also strain credulity, as when Jason manages to defy gravity and fashion a small game trap through the chimney. And I’m rather annoyed by the family dynamic where one partner accuses the other of not taking things seriously because they’re holding onto hope and not folding to utter despair (see The End of Oak Street for the same thing).

Moura and Lee do their best to make The Last House at least watchable, but it’s the plot that falls apart by the end. Besides, I would think most of us still remember what it was like being trapped in our houses during the COVID era. We don’t need a worse version of that.

Rank: Dishonorable Mention

© 2026 S.G. Liput
799 Followers and Counting

Hokum (2026)

02 Monday Nov 2026

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‘Tis dark tonight
And darker still
The heart of one
With time to fill
With thoughts in thrall
And alcohol
And none to slow
Their slide downhill.

‘Tis dark tonight,
And darkness grows
Where monsters sleep
And shadows doze.
With one mistake,
The spell could break
And fell a fool
Like dominoes.

‘Tis dark tonight,
And dark it stays
As long as men
Walk wicked ways.
We’re terrified
The more we hide
Until the morning’s
Warming rays.
___________________

MPA rating: R (for brief violence, corpses, intense scares)

As many others do, I dove into the horror genre this October, more so than in past years, intending to deliver some reviews before Halloween, which obviously didn’t pan out. But even if spooky season is over, the racing hearts need not stop, and, despite a title that many would only know as a folksy dig from Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, Hokum is one of the best chillers of the year.

Adam Scott plays depressed author Ohm Bauman, who travels to a remote Irish hotel to spread his parents’ ashes in the scenic place where they had once honeymooned. He’s a thoroughly unpleasant guy, prone to writing misanthropic endings and insulting people to their face, and he certainly doesn’t pay heed to the rumors of a haunted suite where a witch is supposedly imprisoned. Through a series of twists and turns, he finds himself trapped in said suite and is forced to come face to face with both malevolent forces and his own guilt.

A lot of horror films often feel tied to a gimmick or mixed with humor to ease the impact of the scares, which I often tend to like, so I was impressed with how straight Hokum plays its haunted hotel scarefest. It may be par for the course with many horror fiends, but for me, this film scared the crap out of me. It fosters a genuinely creepy atmosphere, starting out with just an uneasy gloom and eventually filling you with dread every time the lights go out or line of sight is broken. And even if it telegraphs some of its jump scares rather obviously, they’re still effective more often than not.

Beyond the shocks, I also enjoyed the non-supernatural story at play, with a human villain getting their comeuppance in parallel with Ohm coming to terms with his own grief and misanthropy, reflected artfully in the depiction of his novel’s ending, which bookends the film. I understand that the Irish director Damian McCarthy has become a bit of a star in horror circles, and I can see why. It’s the kind of non-gory horror I prefer, so I’ll have to check out his other films, but maybe during the day… huddled under a blanket.

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2026 S.G. Liput
799 Followers and Counting

Wildwood (2026)

01 Sunday Nov 2026

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The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
An obstacle of ageless sleep
To those with promises to keep
And fragile lives so brief.

The woods are life and death in turn
From ivy vine to fir and fern.
To sky they grow, to ash they burn,
And seeds are free of grief.

What business have you in the wood
Where trees care not for bad and good?
They’ve seen far more than humans could,
And they shall watch you too.

Good luck whatever road you take,
Whatever bones or hearts shall break,
Whatever sleeping dogs you wake…
You can’t escape their view.
______________________

MPA rating:  PG-13 (for violence and a suicide)

Well, so much for my plans to review some scary movies ahead of Halloween. I’ve still had some issues with writing motivation, so in lieu of National Novel Writing Month, I’ll try to post a review per day in November. No promises, of course, but I’m hoping this will get my creative juices flowing again. And I’m kicking things off with a new release that was one of my most anticipated films of the year.

The trailers alone for Wildwood have given me chills, so I was eagerly awaiting the newest film from stop-motion studio Laika. I have rarely fully connected with Laika’s previous films like Coraline and Missing Link, though I do love Kubo and the Two Strings. Often stop-motion films are technically impressive, but the stories somehow don’t resonate with me, as if they weren’t worth the amount of effort put into them. Yet I could tell Wildwood had a lot of potential, to the point that I read the 2011 novel on which it’s based, written by Colin Meloy of the band The Decemberists, which only heightened my expectations. And after seeing it twice now in the theaters, I am so glad that Wildwood is the masterpiece I wanted it to be.

Set in Meloy’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, the story follows tweens Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) and Curtis (Jacob Tremblay) as they enter a magical world in the nearby woods after Prue’s baby brother Mac is kidnapped by a murder of crows. The two are soon caught in the middle as tensions rise between neighboring nations of the wood, and the deposed Dowager Governess Alexandra (Carey Mulligan) has raised an army and plots destruction on all who stand in her way.

For starters, the animation is absolutely wondrous, a technical achievement that has been universally praised by critics and audiences alike. I consider it the apotheosis of stop-motion animation. The sheer number of locations, characters, costumes, and set pieces that were fashioned by hand are staggering, and stop-motion’s sometimes jerky look that lends itself to the creepy or grotesque is remarkably smooth here, to the point that it’s easy to forget the pain-staking process that went into every second of what is now the longest stop-motion film ever made. The lush forest environments are gorgeous, and the warm colors and cinematography make the miniature world come alive. There’s a huge battle toward the end that has drawn fitting comparison to The Lord of the Rings, and the scale of it is truly a new high in Laika’s chosen art form.

As for the story, that seems to be where at least some viewers are more mixed, finding it perhaps less than original or too stuffed with plot for the characters to stand out. Such observations are not unwarranted, but, having read the book, I think it’s a really masterful adaptation. A lot happens over 500+ pages, and Chris Butler’s screenplay manages to capture most of the story while speeding up the pace, a little gender-swapping, adding some more exciting scenes, recreating others straight from the page, and retaining a remarkable amount of heart at the core of Prue and Alexandra’s conflicting journeys. The film even manages to fix a couple plot points that annoyed me in the original book.

So though Wildwood isn’t immune from some plot weakness and fast pacing, it’s nonetheless a truly special film, one worthy of the amount of time and craft that Laika invested in it. As its deserved PG-13 rating suggests, it’s also much more mature than the typical animated fare, with much death, a suicide, and intense battle scenes (though not overly graphic), which only increased my appreciation for how seriously the filmmakers approached this story that touches on grief and desperation. At this point, I am actively rooting for Wildwood to get a Best Picture nomination at the next Oscars, while also bemoaning its criminally low box office numbers. Something about this film just makes me so glad that it exists, and I suspect that its reputation will only grow in the future.

Rank: Top 100-Worthy

© 2026 S.G. Liput
799 Followers and Counting

Hope (2026)

20 Sunday Sep 2026

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I hope we won’t be spotted.
I hope it’s safe to stay.
With every hour
More we cower,
The more I feel like prey.

I hear the sounds approaching.
I fear their origin,
The smell of death
Upon its breath
As hope is wearing thin.
__________________

MPA rating: R (for violence and language)

I’m torn on whether I should catch up on a pretty deep backlog of films or focus on new releases, so I might as well alternate. One of several Korean imports in recent months, Hope is the latest film from acclaimed director Na Hong-jin, an apocalyptic alien invasion thriller that boasts the highest budget yet for a Korean film. Set in the (surprisingly heavily armed) rural village of Hope Harbor near the DMZ, police chief Ko Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) goes from investigating a mysterious dead cow to fighting for survival against a giant creature wreaking havoc on the town, with bigger implications as the scope of the danger spreads.

Despite an overlong runtime of over 2½ hours, Hope’s pace rarely falters, with the extended sequences of alien carnage being the main attraction. Whether it’s navigating narrow village streets or battling in beautiful green forests, the action is consistently thrilling and shot fluidly to capture the right balance of tension and movement, with echoes of Attack on Titan and Predator. Once seen, the monsters themselves suffer a bit from imperfect CGI, but they have a unique biology and thick hide that make them a particularly dangerous adversary for mere humans. Special mention is deserved by Jung Ho-yeon as a rookie cop with a truly badass introduction and Zo In-sung as a hunter with especially impressive plot armor.

The main drawback for Hope is that it is very obviously incomplete; it might as well be called Hope: Part One for all the closure it gives to… anything. After an exciting chase scene that gets a bit repetitive, something big and catastrophic happens for reasons unknown, and it just ends. There’s a sort of twist in the final moments that indicates the alien perspective will become more important, which could be really interesting in a sequel, which is supposedly already written but yet to be greenlit. But as the film stands now, it offers little beyond the action (admittedly very skillful, intense action) and a suggestion of a larger story that we may never see. One can only hope that a worthy Part Two will come eventually.

Rank:  List Runner-Up

© 2026 S.G. Liput
790 Followers and Counting

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)

27 Sunday Apr 2025

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(For Day 27 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a poem focusing on a detail of a painting, but I think I’ll go off-prompt today and cover a movie I’ve been meaning to review for a while.)

The legends that matter endure through time.
The others are lost with a final breath,
Were not so luck’ly preserved in rhyme,
And died an unremembered death.

What could have saved the tales so lost?
A copied scroll or a memorized line?
What bade a once-loved myth be tossed
Ere passing history’s finish line?

What wonders, horrors, joys, and fears
Have gone extinct with fossils none?
The stories mute for want of ears…
I wish I could read oblivion.
___________________

If you imagine a Venn diagram with anime fandom and Lord of the Rings fandom as the two circles, I would be squarely in the middle of the shared area. Therefore, an anime spin-off film set a couple hundred years before The Fellowship of the Ring was right up my alley from the start. Focusing on one of the legendary tales of the horse-riding nation of Rohan, the story follows Princess Héra (Gaia Wise), daughter of King Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox), as she defends her nation from the invasion of Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), a former friend bent on vengeance.

The most common criticism I heard about War of the Rohirrim was about the choppy animation, and yes, character movement is a bit stilted at times, particularly at the beginning. Even using a 3D rotoscope-like technology, Sola Entertainment as a studio can’t match the butter-smooth animation of MAPPA or Science Saru, so we can only imagine how different the style might have been in the hands of a different studio. But the animation is still good throughout and even excels in the big action moments, and best of all, the style compliments Peter Jackson’s version of Middle-earth with some outstanding backgrounds and scenery. (Besides, the previous standard for LotR animation was Rankin/Bass or Ralph Bakshi, and this is still a cut above those.)

Beyond the animation, I’ve heard all the complaints, from the plot being too long, the characters one-note, the story being basically female-forward fan fiction since Héra isn’t even named in the Tolkien appendices from which the plot was drawn (and the film doesn’t explain why she was supposedly left out of the official history). And yet, I really liked this movie, my inherent love of the franchise winning out over all else. None of those grievances detracted from the experience of being able to visit Middle-earth again, with Howard Shore’s Rohan theme setting the epic mood and some hype-worthy set pieces bringing the action. A friend who saw it with me thought it went too anime at times, with clearly human characters pulling off superhuman feats as if they were elves, but I saw such moments perhaps as embellishments, considering the story is told as a legend of Rohan by the narrating voice of Eowyn (Miranda Otto). I also thought Héra was a good example of a “strong female character,” by simply rising to the challenge set before her rather than harping about gender differences or whatnot, similar to Miyazaki’s Nausicaä, who was cited as an influence by Wise.

All in all, The War of the Rohirrim is an epic story that continues the tradition of Peter Jackson’s world. Even if it was simply an expendable side project so New Line could hold onto the Tolkien rights, that just makes the care and quality that was put into it that much more impressive. It broke my heart then that, whether due to disinterest or poor marketing, the film flopped last December, failing to even earn back its budget. I don’t deny that it had room to be better with smoother animation or more interesting dialogue, but it met my high expectations for a Middle-earth movie and, in my opinion, deserved better.

Rank: List-Worthy

© 2025 S.G. Liput
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