Starring Tadanobu Asano. Written by Arif Aliyev, Sergei Bodrov. Directed by Sergei Bodrov. (14A) 125 min. Opens June 6.
Sergei Brodov’s 12th-century hack-’em-up — dubiously nominated for a Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar under the Kazakh banner — is the mega-international co-production equivalent of Max: a portrait of the monster as a young man. The monster in question is Genghis Khan, whose well-publicized wrath is revealed here to be the product of some typical growing pains — Dad gets poisoned by Tartars, boy grows up and becomes a key player in the power struggle for leadership of the Mongol kingdom, a wizened monk prophecies doom for all involved, etc.
Japanese star Tadanobu Asano (Zatôichi) is effectively steely in the main role, and there’s plenty of CGI arterial spray to go around — the battle scenes have been choreographed for maximum brutality. But the ponderous, would-be-epic pacing and impenetrably serious tone undercut whatever bad-taste pleasure one might take from a sympathetic Genghis Khan biopic. That said, it’s hard not to smile at the ending, which assures us that our hero raped and pillaged happily ever after. Did somebody say “sequel”?