Of course the plot was a bit stereotypic and definitely predictable. But if you like medieval kind of movies without expecting that everything is perfectly historically, you will like it. But the blacksmith has to be the strongest man that ever lived ;-)

I don't understand all the hate in here. Sure, the plot isn't the best, and some things (mix of American and British accents, obvious plastic surgery on one female character's face) feel a bit out of place, but you got lots of good action, good costumes (one guy said the costumes are bad, I don't know what he's on about),good landscape shots, and the Mongols have fitting Asian actors (the Khan is played by a Mongolian actor, I didn't check what country the others are from),and actually spea Mongolian, which is a huge authenticity plus. Speaking of which, I noticed a few people in here complaining about no subtitles for the Mongolian parts. I don't know which version they watched, the one I watched had subtitles for every single bit of Mongolian dialogue, of which there is actually quite a bit btw, so I can't imagine watching it without subs. Overall, I think this movie was decent. If I have one other minor complaint, it's that it would be nice if a bit more people survived, but oh well.

Not sure about the title - "The Rising Hawk" - there was nothing in the film to give meaning to that reference. I think I'm in agreement with most reviewers that the story line is fairly formulaic and the acting is adequate at best. For me, the only known commodity was Robert Patrick as clan leader Zakhar, and even though top billed, he didn't carry the picture once his youngest son Maxsim (Alex MacNicoll) was introduced. Which was kind of odd, because even older brother Ivan (Rocky Myers) deferred to his younger sibling in a couple situations. When Ivan let Maxsim fight Tugar Volk's (Tommy Flanagan) warrior to determine if the neighboring villagers would work together or not, it didn't feel right, even if their father nodded his ascent. Turns out the agreement was short lived, as Tugar betrays the Tukhlians, and chooses to join forces with the Mongol invaders instead, while his daughter (Poppy Drayton),smitten with Maxsim, leaves her people to help fend off the Mongol horde. What I'll never understand is how the screenwriters and directors thought it would be a good idea for one man to topple the Sentinel Rock to flood the mountain pass against the Mongols. Petro (Andrey Isaenko) was a hulking brute of a guy and a good citizen of Tukhlia, but come on, really? Otherwise, the battle scenes are adequately staged and the Mongols are sent packing as the Tukhlians decide to fight for their homeland instead of flee, encouraged by the proud voice of Maxsim. It reminded me a little of the movie "Braveheart", but beyond that, there's no comparison.