Night Watch (Nochnoy dozor) gives you the feeling that you’ve seen it before. Deja vu is not really a great thing to have when watching a film unless you’ve already watched the film once before. My biggest suggestion is that you watch the Russian version for reasons I give later. I have been trying to temper my expectations a bit, since recent films have either let me down or blown me away because of my expectations rather than the filmmaking. With Night Watch, I did have high expectations but I tried to look beyond them and get to the dirt of the film.
Essentially the film is about the fight between good and evil. There are specifics but I guess it was nice to start very broad with the concept. You have two camps, the good guys (Night Watch) and the vampiric bad guys (Day Watch). They live in a world where evil and good have a truce until the final battle begins. The good guys drink blood to hunt vampires that break the law and the bad guys play really old video games. I kid you not, the biggest bad guy of them all plays a very early version of Tekken, enhanced of course by his evilness into a high tech magic eight ball.
So the plot goes likes this…uh, well. Good guy chases bad guy and then there is a dramatic twist. A gate then opens to allow the final battle. And then another twist, the end. I really have a hard time giving out the plot because it does have twists and turns that culminate in a very unique ending. The unique ending was a let down, but justified since there are two more films to be made.
Aside from the plot, the use of subtitles was brilliant! Rarely do subtitles actually make an impact on the work itself. This is the main reason to watch the Russian version and not the English one. I never thought that subtitles could actually enhance the mood of scenes, yet by simply adding some color or fades the subtitles become dynamic. I think there is a certain stigma attached to watching a film with subtitles, however in this instance the subtitles become than just words to read. As the blood pumps, the letters bleed. some people may find this a bit tacky, but they are not overdone or overused. They add to the film from a position that rarely does anything to enhance.
What bugs me most about this film is that it has been compared to The Matrix and even The Lord of the Rings. Duh, it’s the epic battle between good and evil. How many other trilogies have this as a central theme. Perhaps even Star Wars? Obviously comparisons will be made, but this film has enough individual qualities to stand on its own. Night Watch is not a great film, but it was cool to see some interesting takes on vampires and the use of subtitles. The acting was nothing to write home about, but then again Keanu was good in The Matrix. Here, the story carries the film. I would suggest taking a look at this film, even if it’s just for the subtitles. I wonder if I should have just reviewed the subtitles, they seem to be the best thing about this film.
