Oct 21 2007
Night Watch/Nochnoi Dozor - Review
Night Watch/Nochnoi Dozor
By: Thaddeus C. Hunt
Year of release (US): 2006
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Permeating the US art house circuit in February, courtesy of Fox Searchlight, was the horror/fantasy film “Night Watch”. Technically, this movie is old news as it has been out for a few years already. Distributed back in 2004 over seas, it has garnered much critical acclaim and it’s the highest grossing movie of all time in its native Russia. Crazier still, the movie bested both “LOTR: Return of the King” and “Spiderman 2″ at the Russian box office. The film, adapted from the book of the same name by Sergei Lukyanenko, is brought to life on the big screen by co-writer-director Timur Bekmambetov.
The plot, in a nutshell, is this:
The forces of Darkness and Light have existed for centuries battling for supremacy. The dark side is fighting to destroy the lives of normal humans, while the light side is fighting for the protection of human life, as well as all life, dark or light affiliated. When a bloody battle ensues between both factions, the fight rages on until both sides realize that, being perfectly matched, neither side will win. Thus a truce is formed between the light and dark races and a legion of humans called “Others” are left to make sure that the two sides don’t violate this truce in any way.
These “Others” possess various supernatural powers. They too are divided up into the forces of light and the forces of the dark. And now, ever since the truce was formed, the forces of light govern the day while the night belongs to their dark opponents. The movie itself picks up in modern day Moscow where the dark “Others” roam the night as vampires, and a “Night Watch” of light forces try to control their devious actions. There’s quite a bit more, but that’s meat of the tale.
So how does it all play out? Well, from the onset of the film when the battle to end all battles ensues, you realize that this film has mad amounts of ambition. The production values are very high and the acting across the board is really quite good. The CG, and there’s a ton of it, is utilized quite well and on the whole it doesn’t detract as it typically does in so many movies nowadays. The editing itself is truly kinetic. It reminded me quite a bit of David Fincher’s “Fight Club”, with it’s gritty, dingy city back drops and how the entire film is enshrouded in inky black shadows.
There are quite a few standout scenes laced throughout the film that benefit from all of this effort. One involves the protagonist of the film, Anton, as he fights off a vampire couple to protect the life of an innocent child. The vampires can hide in an alternate reality called “The Gloom”, which puts the vampire mythos of non-reflection on its head. While the vamps are hiding in The Gloom Anton uses a shard of mirror glass cupped to the side of his head, looking around franticly trying to defend himself before one of the vampires takes another pop shot at his abdomen with a pair of scissors.
Another scene, involves a witch/fortune teller trying to perform an abortion on a woman on the other side of the city. She twists and wrings her hands midair like she’s holding a dish towel, all the while we the viewer, are privy to the helpless mother writhing on the ground clutching her belly in obvious pain. Pretty grisly stuff! There are plenty of other scenes as well that garner the films R rating. That being said though, this movie definitely isn’t a “hard R”. There isn’t much in the line of out and out gore, but the level of the onscreen violence is definitely up there.
So are there any problems with the film? Hardly.
About the only things I can think of is that as simple as the main story arc is, there is a ton of history that is involved with this tale and much of it is crammed in on screen whenever it seems feasible. It’s interesting stuff for sure, and while it certainly doesn’t detract from the over all viewing experience, it does give you that “busting at the seams” kind of feeling at points, leaving scenes crammed with so much that you almost miss the point of the entire scene that you are watching. A lot of the complaints folks have with the film so far have been the amount of “Huh? What the hell was that all about!” moments and while I didn’t find a second of the film hard to follow at all, my guess is that this is what they were talking about.
My only other slight gripe was the tiny moments of needless CG. For instance, there is a scene where the main character rings a door bell and, for whatever reason, the director felt it was necessary for the camera to follow the pulse of sound from the contact of the button, through the plaster, down the wires that travel through the wall and out to the other side in stunning detail. Don’t get me wrong; hands down, the greatest strength of this film is its style and CG. I just felt at times it wasn’t needed and was CG for CG’s sake. But, like I said, these segments were few and far between and they were all less then a minute long.
All in all, these are REALLY small gripes for what is, in my opinion, a great film. If you get the chance, definitely see it on the big screen. It’s quality filmmaking from the last place on earth that you’d expect it from! I went into the film only seeing the trailer, which pretty much had me hooked from the onset. I’m honestly not sure what I expected from a Russian horror/fantasy film, but what I got was a frenzied, trippy, apocalyptic tale, filled with jet powered Ryder trucks, shape shifters, vampires, witches, huge tornados made up of ravens, matrix-esque fight sequences, squeak toys that sprout eight legs, and videogames that somehow help you practice for the future. Oh, and keep an eye out for the coolest use of subtitles in a film that I’ve ever seen. It’s actually the first time I’ve had subtitles actually enhance a movie viewing experience.
So if all of this is your cup of tea, then by all means get your butt in a theatre near you and enjoy the mayhem. The second film in the trilogy, “Day Watch”, has already been completed and released in Russia. I have no idea when it’s making it over the pond for release here; but honestly, I can’t wait for another dose.
