The invention relates to the synthesis of low-dimensional nanomaterial films, and provides a microwave synthesis method of a zinc oxide film with an oriented nanorod structure. The method is characterized in that a microwave-hydrothermal deposition method is adopted, a zinc salt solution with a molar concentration of 1-150 mM and a hexamethylene tetramine solution are used as raw materials, a blank substrate is placed inside a microwave digestion container, then the container is sealed and placed in a microwave digestion instrument, and after the reaction is carried out at 50-180 DEG C for 0-4 hours, natural cooling is carried out so as to realize the oriented growth of a high-crystallinity film composed of ZnO nanorod arrays on the substrate, wherein the diameter of the nanorods is about50-300 nm. The microwave-hydrothermal method provided by the invention combines the advantages of microwave and hydrothermal methods, improves the film crystallinity, and significantly improves the film quality. The synthesis method has the advantages of short synthesis time, low synthesis temperature and no need for induced hydrothermal deposition of seed crystals; and the grown ZnO film with the nanorod structure has the advantages of uniform micro morphology, good crystallinity and growth direction perpendicular to the substrate, and is suitable for industrial production.