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Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor)
I was invited to a Russian restaurant once, but I don't like fast food. Hee hee. Night Watch is sooooo cool. But a bit weird. Think of Blade mixed with The Matrix, but in Russian with English subtitles. And weirder.
Night Watch is worth seeing just for the novelty value. It loses out as a whole because of the unnecessarily impenetrable conclusion and lack of cohesion, but as a visual experience it is peerless and I ended up enjoying it despite losing the thread towards the end. I enjoyed this film: I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: Loads of cool visual effects and a shapely shapeshifter shows shome shkin. The 18 certificate is daft, 15 or even 12A would have been more appropriate. To enjoy this film you should: enjoy the visuals.
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Your commentsThe comments printed here are not necessarily the views of Forwardcharm!
I've just been looking at the DVD release, and joy! It's dubbed into English so you can concentrate on those gorgeous visuals. Definitely one to get on DVD, I know I'll need to watch it a few times to work out what the hell is going on!
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Night Watch is the first of a trilogy, the future two being Day Watch and Dusk Watch, and introduces us to the fantasy world
of the Others, supernatural humanoids with magical abilities, each of which having chosen the side of Dark or Light. In the
opening scene we are treated to the only English dialogue of the entire movie, describing the Lord of the Rings style
battle of yore, at the end of which the Dark and Light sides forged a truce that has lasted ever since. Each side has to
keep a careful eye on the other to make sure they don't get too cheeky, hence the "Night Watch" - the Light guys watching
those sneaky Darkies. It all blows out of hand in ways I shan't spoil - and probably couldn't, to be honest, as I got a
wee bit confused with the story threads. No matter though, as it's a treat to watch even if it all sails straight over
your head - rarely has a movie lavished the viewer with such ocular miracles - even the smallest detail is presented with
flair, making the movie a joy to behold. The subtitles, for example, usually an afterthough in a foreign language movie,
look like they were always meant to be there, integrating with the movement of the characters and spiriting in and out of
existence far more fluidly than any other subtitles I've ever seen, even more so than 
Performances are difficult to judge when they're speaking a foreign language, but nevertheless I could detect no flaws
with these guys. The performers themselves are somewhat understated, but the editing and visual effects conspire to
counter that, creating a sporadically manic and surreal feel that defines the movie as both novel and frustrating -
frustrating because it's just so darned hard to work out what the hell is going on.
The first half is straightforward enough and suggests a 5/5 rating if
they could only pull off the ending, but with all these shapeshifting vampires russian about in various supernatural
guises, it all becomes a tad flustered in its attempt to sort out the details before the dreaded two hour barrier. It's as
if the movie was made around the impressive effects, then the plot was sorted out afterwards. But - and this is very rare -
the effects are actually good enough to warrant the entry price.
