Russian cinema has been becoming more well known in recent years, making films like 9th Company and Timur Bekmambetov starting to become big in Hollywood. Historical Epic have often been films which Chinese cinema has done well. With Mongol the two are combined to tell the story about Genghis Khan's rise to power.
The film tells the story about how a young warrior, Temujin unites the Mongolian tribes and becomes Genghis Khan. The film starts when Temujin is 9 and has to pick a bride, showing early on his stubborn side and finding the love of his life in a weak tribe. But early on in his life his father, a powerful khan is murder, and a rival usurps Temujin's rightful position. He is only spared because he is a child and the young boy vows revenge. Mongol tells how Temujin falls in love, with a bride, how shows how tough and brave a warrior he was. He forms a power base, shows loyalty to his soldiers and makes alliances. But his life is met with setbacks as well as triumphs.
Mongol is a fairly entertaining film, with its strongest element being the battle scenes. They are realistically violence which I like to see and clear about what's happening. It start action for an epic. The actors do a fine job, especially Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano in the lead. The actors seem to handle their lines well and the use of Mongolian seems okay to my ears. The director and cinematography are of a high level. They are beautiful shots of the Steppes, and the director Sergei Bodrov handles both the action and the character strongly. The film also has a strong character element, mainly the love story, and the film does raises some questions. They are stories about friendships and rivalries and what drove Temujin to became who he was. There is also a decent score by Tuomas Kantelinen with great percussion based music.
What lets the film down is its high levels of historical inaccuracies. I personally hate when a film divert too much from history; I am highly critical of Braveheart because of this. There is a lot about the life of Genghis Khan: he united the Mongol tribes, giving them a capital city, ruled the largest land empire ever, a skilled military commander and tolerate of other cultures, e.g. Christians and Muslims. The film does with the events before Genghis Khan became powerful, but it still miss a lot out. The film does not show Temujin had brothers, and that he properly murdered on when he was 12, it doesn't show the political element, that Temujin believed in having a strong united army behind him, he couldn't have been a loner. I'm also sure he wasn't sold into slavery and here is a big SPOILER so stop reading now if you don't want to know: he gave his blood brother a bloodless death, not let him go. The film was too focused the love element, not the political story and was too willing to make some stuff up.
Some elements of the film remembered me other epics, mostly Conan the Barbarian and Gladiator.
It is still a worthy watch, 3 out of 5.
The film tells the story about how a young warrior, Temujin unites the Mongolian tribes and becomes Genghis Khan. The film starts when Temujin is 9 and has to pick a bride, showing early on his stubborn side and finding the love of his life in a weak tribe. But early on in his life his father, a powerful khan is murder, and a rival usurps Temujin's rightful position. He is only spared because he is a child and the young boy vows revenge. Mongol tells how Temujin falls in love, with a bride, how shows how tough and brave a warrior he was. He forms a power base, shows loyalty to his soldiers and makes alliances. But his life is met with setbacks as well as triumphs.
Mongol is a fairly entertaining film, with its strongest element being the battle scenes. They are realistically violence which I like to see and clear about what's happening. It start action for an epic. The actors do a fine job, especially Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano in the lead. The actors seem to handle their lines well and the use of Mongolian seems okay to my ears. The director and cinematography are of a high level. They are beautiful shots of the Steppes, and the director Sergei Bodrov handles both the action and the character strongly. The film also has a strong character element, mainly the love story, and the film does raises some questions. They are stories about friendships and rivalries and what drove Temujin to became who he was. There is also a decent score by Tuomas Kantelinen with great percussion based music.
What lets the film down is its high levels of historical inaccuracies. I personally hate when a film divert too much from history; I am highly critical of Braveheart because of this. There is a lot about the life of Genghis Khan: he united the Mongol tribes, giving them a capital city, ruled the largest land empire ever, a skilled military commander and tolerate of other cultures, e.g. Christians and Muslims. The film does with the events before Genghis Khan became powerful, but it still miss a lot out. The film does not show Temujin had brothers, and that he properly murdered on when he was 12, it doesn't show the political element, that Temujin believed in having a strong united army behind him, he couldn't have been a loner. I'm also sure he wasn't sold into slavery and here is a big SPOILER so stop reading now if you don't want to know: he gave his blood brother a bloodless death, not let him go. The film was too focused the love element, not the political story and was too willing to make some stuff up.
Some elements of the film remembered me other epics, mostly Conan the Barbarian and Gladiator.
It is still a worthy watch, 3 out of 5.