- Location: AFI Silver Theatre
- Mongol is an immensely entertaining if not completely satisfying look at one of history's more infamous conquerors. Following the man who would be Kahn from childhood, the film depicts young Temudjin's (Tadanobu Asano) struggles against opposing Mongol groups, Chinese captors, and even his blood brother, Jamukha (Honglei Sun). As anticipated, his story is mostly a brutal tale of captivity, enslavement, and war, and there are few times when neither he nor his wife Borte (Khulan Chuluun) are imprisoned. Fortunately for the audience, such situations lead to many dramatic and exciting battles.
- The film succeeds wonderfully at conveying the majesty of the rarely depicted Mongolian steppes, and it is worth seeing just for the awesome scenery. The battle sequences, too, are well-executed, particularly when they stay away from CGI. My primary objection to the film concerns the choice of stories to tell. Personally, I'd be very interested in finding out how Temudjin escaped from the ice or how he managed to recruit an army of thousands. Instead, we get discontinuous narrative leaps that leave rather large gaps in the plot. I expect that there are also large historical problems with Mongol, but a film that is both historically accurate and compelling might be too much to hope for. Until that day, I'll settle for one that occasionally chooses melodrama over authenticity, but that consistently delivers the goods on the battlefield.
- Reportedly, there have been complaints and protests concerning the fact that many characters, particularly Temudjin himself, are played by non-Mongolians.
- I think Sameer would agree: Best exit music ever.
