A very long time ago the armies of the Light and the armies of the Dark reached an armistice. They both signed and agreed upon that it's forbidden for the Dark to interfer in the matters of the Light, and the other way around as well. In order for this to work, they formed the so-called Night Watch and the Day Watch to keep both sides in check. But there was also a legend about The Other, a person who will become a powerful weapon and who can tip the balance between the two sides, depending on which side that person choses. Fast-forward to the year 1992 in Moscow where Anton discovers his identity as an other and has to choose between Light and Dark. Fast-forward another 12 years and now Anton is fighting for the Light side. His mission is to track down a boy that could might be the Great Other, and also find out the secrets to the boy's mother, who just as the legend was told, is a cursed woman that eventually will make the legend come true. Meanwhile, the Dark side is also after the boy.
The coolest thing about Night Watch is not that it's just a very good flick with awesome special effects, but that it actually comes from Russia. I mean, it's not too often one actually sit down to watch Russian movies, but all of a sudden Night Watch comes along and looks so fantastic and really proves that Russians can make horror/fantasy flicks too, something I hope we'll see more of in the future. Not only does it look good, but it's original as well and felt fresh and interesting. Another thing one would think about is the acting, but the acting proved to be top-notch and I was honestly both really surprised and happy, getting so many great things all at once.
If the exact same movie would've been made in Hollywood, it wouldn't have been half as cool I guess. Just the fact that it's from Russia and that they actually speak Russian in it makes it of course feel different, and different is always good, or at least always welcome. Now, I'm not completely sure about the budget for this movie, but I think I read somewhere earlier that it was around US$ 5 million. But to be honest, this movie looks absolutely awesome, and much better than a lot of movies with a higher budget. Add to that some brilliant camera-work which makes it even more interesting plus great directing, and a dialogue that, even if it's fantasy and far from reality, does not feel forced or too stupid.
The pacing is really good, and while it might slow down a tiny bit every now and then, the story is interesting enough to keep you from falling asleep. But then you have all the action sequences, there are tons of them, and they all look extremely impressive. There are actually a lot of things that are very impressive when it comes to Night Watch and the movie looks so darn stylish that I was kinda shocked when I saw it. It's eye candy all the way, and like I said before, the actual camera-work is really interesting to watch at times.
Apart from that, what I found to be the most interesting thing was all the little things that this movie has to offer. I think that Night Watch might require a second viewing for one to be fully able to capture it all. I don't wanna spoil anything by giving stuff away, but there are a lot of things to look out for, and that makes this movie feel even smarter. Also there are a lot of different things in the flick which makes it quite cool as well, like that the vampires are not really your usual gothic cry-babies, or rocket-powered vans and cool shape-shifters. It's hard to explain and at the same time I don't wanna ruin the experience, it just has to be seen in person.
The only real problem I had with Night Watch was that it felt a bit too chaotic at times. There are a lot of stuff going on, and while it's not really that confusing, the story still felt like a bit of a mess at times. Don't get me wrong, the story is somewhat interesting too, it's just how it all comes together and what is what. But this movie has so many good things going for it and there are a helluva lot of reason why you should watch it Be it for the stylishness, the fact that's it's a really cool foreign film, the action, the fantasy, the vampires, the directing or whatever, it's basically all good.
There are a lot of reason why you should check out Night Watch, it's stylish, different, original, and of course very entertaining. The story is ok, and the movie has so many fantastic things to look at, some really awesome looking scenes, and is a real feast for the eyes. The acting is good and so is the score, and the actual ending makes for a sequel, something I'll definitely wanna check out. Another thing I noticed was how good the subtitles were, as sometimes when it's translated from one language to another, things go missing and it might feel like you're not getting everything that was supposed to be there. But here the subtitles were actually really good, and it definitely felt like they made great sense all the way. Highly recommended.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Nochnoy Dozor
MOVIE YEAR: 2004
DIRECTOR: Timur Bekmambetov
WRITING CREDITS: Timur Bekmambetov, Laeta Kalogridis, Sergei Lukyanenko
GENRE: Horror, Action, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Thriller
CAST: Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Galina Tyunina
COUNTRY: Russia
RUNTIME: 114 min
RATING: 8/10
Night Watch Website/IMDB Click here
Night Watch Trailer Click here
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