The movie is a tough sell. Whom will it appeal: History buffs, religious people or Eastern movie fans? Maybe none of them, maybe all of them. It seems to try to appease a lot of people and might find itself not working for the majority of them. It's an historical epic picture alright, but does it engage the viewer? That's for you to decide.The action scenes are alright, the pathos/religion aspects of it are bearable too. The performances are really good and the sets/locations are just amazing. Which also brings us to the cinematography. The movie really looks good. But due to the scope of it, it might run a bit too long for some. The pacing seems alright, but might feel to slow to some. It's a tough one to watch at times, but interesting nonetheless

If you are an American,as I am, you know then, that our knowledge of Russian history is lacking, unless you went for an advanced degree at some college. Therefore, I found the film to be totally engrossing. The cinematography, costumes, including the jewelry, the sets,and the translations from Russian and from what I gather, the Mongolian language, were all very excellent. I am not familiar with this director who is merely trying to convey a moment, or a slice of historical commentary,in a stylized way. I don't think meant for the Western Hemisphere either. As visually stunning as "The Russian Ark" and easier to follow the dialogue.

I stumbled upon it today on Netflix while eating lunch. I watched it for about a half-hour, but found it to be a waste of time and quit after 30 minutes. It's evident that there's some great acting and direction at work in this production, but it totally failed in the storytelling department. I think it's a good thing for the screenwriters to be from the "show", not "tell" school of film making, but more exposition would have helped. It seemed like Game of Thrones without enough back story. Maybe something got lost in translation since it is dubbed. I found the depiction of the Mongols to be totally misleading. As a history buff, I understand that the Mongols ruled the largest and most diverse empire in the history of the world for more than 200 years. However, I don't think that feat was done by what this film depicts as the most boorishly brutal group of "hillbilly" Mongols this side of Urals. It's as though the director had studied some isolated tribes in Mongolia and grafted his impressions onto his depiction of the Mongol ruling class. For all their ruthlessness, the Mongols of the Golden Horde were more worldly and diplomatic than the bunch depicted in this film. Some historians consider the Mongol Empire the first multinational corporation. If the movie Mongols had ruled Russia, I doubt that they would have been able to hold onto power for a decade instead of a few centuries. If the Russians had allowed themselves to be conquered by this sorry group, it does n't really make the Russians look too good either.

Are you sure you are well enough informed about all "historical value"? have you any idea about mongol-tatar yoke over Russia (more than 200 years)? So what exactly attitude you expect, when describing this particular period? Well, maybe Mongolian version is better and more different, it is... well understandable. But it's Russian history and Russian film. There are so much historical sources about how Russian were killed in a most cruel ways, thousands of them, families and towns. There was almost no life at all, how you expect all this feelings in every soul - fear and anger - to be shown? And yes, it the almost beginning of Christianity in Russia, with all passion and exaggеration, but also with all self-sаcrifice, specific for the period. So for me portraits of Mongolians are interesting and even soft... Or you expect always Russians to be bad, no matter who is opposite, Goebbels or Mongolians of the Horde, or etc. Time was full of cruelty, hatred, collision... and it is shown. I don't say the film is brilliant. But it is easy to fill your review with "interesting" phrases like "paranoid, hyper racist anti Asian propaganda", "KGB/orthodox church sponsored rubbish", "Goebbels anti Jews propaganda"... They are attractive and welcome for haters. But understanding is something different.