An epic film about Genghis Kahn should not bore a person to tears. Mongol, Oscar nominated for Best Foreign Language film 2007, is shockingly uninteresting. Helmed by Russian Director and co-writer Sergei Bodrov, and starring the excellent Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano, Mongol seeks to chronicle the most famous of Khan’s unexplored rise to power. The main reason this period of Kahn’s (or Temudjin as he was actually named) is unexplored is due to the slight issue that there is no concrete historical information on record. Word on the Internet is that modern Mongol’s are pretty peeved at the historical inaccuracies. But there is nothing new or particularly problematic with filmmakers taking liberties with historical figures. What Mongols should be mad about is the fact that a film about their most famous historical figure leaves no lasting impression.

The story is simple. It begins with Temudjin at nine years old on a journey to choose a bride. His father intends for him to marry a woman from the tribe he stole his mother from (seriously) in an effort to bring peace between them. Instead, Temudjin follows his heart. Before he can say “soul mate,” his father is poisoned, mutiny arises within his tribe, and he must run for his life. Years pass, he grows up and wants his bride. Old enemies emerge, more fighting ensues. Temudjin must unite with a fellow Mongol to rescue his bride. After a short battle, the alliance crumbles. Outnumbered, Temudgjin and his warriors are either slaughtered or sold into slavery. He is imprisoned for a number of years in the Tangut kingdom, but his wife, using her feminine wiles and intellect, breaks him out. Suddenly, the film cuts to a number of years later. Temudjin has united all the Mongols and brought law to a lawless land. Basically, they skipped over his actual rise to power. The film wants the viewer to marvel at his strength as a survivor, or at the wonderful unbreakable bond between him and his wife, but none of these things are executed with any personality.

The film had much going for it production-wise. Filmed on location in Mongolia, the landscapes are exquisite. The set design is detailed and realistic, as are the costumes. The fact that Bodrov bothered to shoot the film in Mongolian is greatly appreciated. Genghis Khan with a British accent would have just been silly. But this great attention to detail is wasted. The dialogue is lifeless. It’s as if they watched a bunch of Hollywood epics and jotted down every line they had in common and pasted them into a script. I was constantly thinking of Braveheart throughout the film, and would venture to guess Bodrov watched that film more than a few times.

Unlike Mel Gibson, who also took great liberties with his historical hero, Bodrov forgot to inject real energy into the story. It feels like the film could be about anyone, and not in a universally relatable way. It doesn’t seem interesting or important. The events depicted are either mundane or incredibly cliché. And the most significant events that would qualify as a “rise to power” are skipped over in order to focus on drawn out childhood events. Certainly the death of one’s father, subsequent alienation and near death experiences are relevant, but these things don’t give him actual power as a Khan. He gains power when he decides it’s time to unite all of Mongolia. Show me how he does that because it is from that point onward that he wipes out an entire civilization and proceeds to amass the largest land empire in recorded history. These small facts are given to us in a little paragraph at the end of the film.

Considering the lack of factual information, the filmmakers wasted an opportunity to be really creative in telling the story of one of the world’s greatest conquerors. The film was made far away from Hollywood, but has tinsel town conventionalities smeared all over it. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure has a more compelling version of Genghis Kahn than Mongol does. That makes this extra depressing because they cast an excellent actor, and completely dropped the ball.