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Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor) reviewed by Sam Osborn of www.samseescinema.com
rating: 2.0 out of 4
Director: Timur Bekamambetov Cast: Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Valeri Zolotukhin Screenplay: Timur Bekmambetov, Laeta Kalogridis MPAA Classification: R (strong violence, disturbing images and language)
Why is it that in any film involving an alternate reality do the characters have to wear sunglasses? Is regular ole' reality too bright for them? Even at night? This is one of the many questions that comes along with a viewing of Russia's "most successful film in history", Night Watch. The film is a strange conglomeration of myth; kind of like a mix tape of all Director Timur Bekamambetov's favorite bedtime tales. To imagine it would be to blend The Matrix with Constantine, add a good helping of vampire lore and a dash of Christian symbolism, and to throw in a stolid, overt stance on abortion. That would be Night Watch.
To explain the specifics of its plot would be pointless, only raising more question than answers, because Bekamambetov takes the same route as The Wachowski Brothers did with The Matrix, confusing us enough with the original in order to reel us back in for its obligatory sequels (the first of which has already been released in Russia). The bare-bone essentials of Night Watch go a little like this: The armies of light and dark have come to an age-old Truce. Upholding the Truce is the Night Watch and the Day Watch. Light watches during nighttime and Dark watches during daytime. Only Others are aware of the Truce and its armies, and Others must decide at their awakening which side to choose (a la Star Wars). Legend has it that one day a child will be born that decides the fate of the two armies, depending on which side the child chooses. Our hero is Anton Gorodetsky (Konstantin Khabensky), an alcoholic blood-sucker whose awakening came at the hands of a long-distance Dark assassin (you'd understand if you saw it). His denomination is Light, but he has secret inklings of temptation, despite his role as a Night Watchman. To go on would only confuse you more. Believe me.
As the hook for a three film epic, Night Watch is sufficiently engaging. Timur Bekamambetov directs the picture with a steady, powerful hand, giving the film a muscular look that drives its style away from such slight, flimsy works as the recent Ultraviolet. And the world of Night Watch is certainly intriguing in all its gothic abridgments. Its action is also deliberate and surprisingly fraught with invention. One scene finds Anton fighting a Dark One in an abandoned apartment, each of them hidden in a different reality. The only way Anton can see his opponent is through the use of mirrors, which the Dark One has shattered and is flinging about the room. Another scene puts Anton and his sidekick, Olga, in the Gloom, struggling through its suffocating darkness to defend a boy from a starving vampiress. Bekamambetov knows how to build a scene into tingling suspense without resorting to frenetic, quick zoom, quick cut, quick focus, handheld glom, as many American directors often depend on. His direction is strong and promising.
The fatal fault lies in Anton, our reluctant hero. But reluctance isn't unique to Anton, also seeming to hide in the hands of screenwriters Bekmambetov and Laeta Kalogridis. It's as though they weren't sure in featuring Anton as the film's protagonist, and didn't commit to any character development until the final 30 minutes. This leaves us floundering for the first 90 minutes, left in a crowded desert of undeveloped fringe characters. And for all its muscularity, Night Watch's wide-berthed myths don't ring true without even a spoonful of pathos for its Anton. This wrong is righted later in the film, with its multitude of quick-draw revelations, but by then we're too holed up with indifference to care. And when the tepid solution finally rolls across the screen, the anti-climactic nature of it all is disappointing. Maybe we're just being hooked for Day Watch (and the third, Dusk Watch in 2007), but a better job could have been done with this ending. Sub-plots fizzle and climaxes wheeze with exhaustion. But Bekamambetov has confused me too much for me to abandon his epic. I'll be back for the sequel, ready with my sunglasses.
-www.samseescinema.com
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