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 t's interesting to see a movie like Timur
Bekmambetov's "Night Watch", especially considering that my only
exposure to Russian genre films has been two movies by Aleksei Balabanov.
"Night Watch" is not like Balabanov's movies; for one,
Bekmambetov seems to come from the Michael Bay school of directing.
Stylish camera angles, quick cut editing, and enough superfluous special
effects to make the Wachowski brothers beg forgiveness for their CGI
indulgences via the two "Matrix"
sequels. That said, you've probably never seen a Russian movie like
"Night Watch" before, but you've probably seen lots of movie
like it elsewhere -- most notably Hollywood.
"Night Watch" begins promisingly enough,
with a prologue taking place in some indeterminate ancient time, where the
Forces of Light encounters the Force of Darkness, and the two sides battle
it out on what looks like a bridge. When the two sides realize they're too
evenly matched, a truce was reached. Fast-forward to the present, where a
disheveled Anton (Konstantin Khabensky) gets ready for his first
assignment -- capture or kill vampires that have broken the
"truce" established by the aforementioned battle thousands of
years ago.
You see, Anton is one of the "Others",
those who knows what's going on, and have superhuman abilities. Although
in Anton's case, his ability seems to be getting his butt kicked. To wit:
Anton's first mission proves to be a semi-success -- he saves a boy's
life, kills one vampire, but gets thrashed something awful, and the
vampire's female companion escapes. I guess you'd say he was batting .500.
In any case, it seems the Dark Powers That Be have something more
elaborate in mind for our ineffectual hero, who soon discovers that the
boy he saved was no other than his son, whom he had tried to murder 12
years ago under the mistaken belief that the boy was the lovechild of his
strayed wife. Long story short, the bad guys have plans for the kid, and
Anton figures prominently into it.
If you thought the above synopsis was convoluted, you
haven't seen anything yet. At almost two hours, the plots and subplots of
"Night Watch" are enough to, well, fill a novel, from which
novelist Sergei Lukyanenko adapted himself. So if the script feels --
mostly because it is -- muddled to the point of being gratuitously
confusing, it's probably done on purpose. The film itself rarely takes a
second to explain things, which is probably a good thing, since the
explanations are all just a tad silly.
Aside from a prophecy about the emergence of a
"chosen one"-type who will, once and for all, end the power
struggle (aren't there always one in these movies?), the film feels
episodic in nature. One such side episode concerns a woman who has been
"cursed", and a literal "funnel" of (one supposes)
evil is now emanating from her condo. The funnel has captured a plane in
its wake, and unless the Forces of Light -- in this case, a bunch of guys
in a van and working out of the city's Light Company building -- can get
the curse lifted, that plane is coming down. Confused yet?
Already a big smash hit in its native Russia,
"Night Watch" is the first of a planned trilogy. Rumor has it
American film studios have already snapped up distribution rights and, one
presumes, the remake rights as well. They needn't bother. Aside from its
Russian cast, there's nothing "Russian" about "Night
Watch". It's the same thing we've seen in countless Summer Event
Films over the last decade or so. The "Blade"
films, and even the recent "Underworld",
have covered much the same territory when it comes to "the real world
underneath the human world" shtick. And after three "Lord
of the Rings" and "Harry
Potter" movies, magic doesn't seem quite as magical anymore.
Even the movie's special effects, of which the film
has in abundance, are familiar. Although it should be said that
Bekmambetov makes great use of the resources he has available, including a
gazillion zooms, tons of CGI-enhanced POV shots, and enough quick cuts to
put an entire generation of music video directors to shame. And crows.
I've never seen so many CGI crows in my life. No more crows!
One thing you have to give "Night Watch"
credit for is its pacing. It's a quick film, racing through its many plots
at such high speeds you never get the chance to realize that very little
onscreen makes much sense. Inattentive viewers will be quickly lost, as
the film never even bothers to sit down and explain its "Others"
theory until well after the hour mark. As an action film, the movie has
its moments, but for the most part everything is so erratically edited
that the scenes get lost in thoughts such as, "Geez, why is the
editing so erratic?" Coherent action, it seems, is a lost art even in
Russia.
The film closes things out with a cliffhanger ala the
ending of the first "Lord of the Rings", so be warned.
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