Mongol
What:
Mongol
When:
June 19
Where:
Cinema Nova, Kino Dendy, Palace Westgarth
Watch the trailer:
Here
Win:
We have 10 double passes to give away! To enter, email win@threethousand.com.au with the subject line ‘Genghis Khan: Family Man'
Picture the screenwriters: they're brainstorming up the new Genghis Khan biopic and need some way to make the infamous 13th century Mongolian conqueror likeable for modern audiences. Witty catchphrase? Cute animal sidekick? What about Genghis Khan: Family Man?
Don't worry. There's still enough swordplay, revenge, battlefield tactics and bright-red blood here to warm the hearts of anyone who spent hours drawing complicated battle scenes in the backs of their schoolbooks. And the widescreen landscapes - carved by wind and rain, not CGI nerds - are truly epic.
(A classy side-effect of Mongol's Russian production is that it's actually spoken in Mongolian; something that, failing some Mel Gibson-style craziness, Hollywood would never allow.)
Despite some odd pacing, it's an engaging enough attempt at a ‘Genghis Begins' origin story. When your hero is someone who raped his way across half the world - and has an estimated 16 million descendants today - it's tricky to accept him as a sensitive, one-true-love warrior. As Part One in an already-conceived trilogy, though, the most interesting material in Mongol is still to come.
Format: Cinema
Mood: Epic
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