How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 25 September 2007
This article is a review of DAY WATCH. |
The three novels that make up the basis for this saga cannot be recommended highly enough. Some have claimed they are the Russian HARRY POTTER, but that does not give the whole picture. While there are magic and werewolves they are where the similarities end, they are probably closer to a cross between Philip Pullman’s HIS DARK MATERIALS and Douglas Adams’ THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY. The NIGHT WATCH, the THE DAY WATCH and THE TWILIGHT WATCH, by Sergei Lukyanenko (THE DAY WATCH co-written by Vladimir Vasiliev), are adult oriented books with violence, sex and existentialism, containing parallel existences and a knowing pop-cultural sarcastic wit. They offer up a slice of modern Russia along with an epic ride that is mythologically credible and logical.
Day Watch is a sequel to the cult hit NIGHT WATCH. Any fan of the novels by Lukyanenko would be understandably disturbed by these two movies. The two films are a mere shadow of their origins. Had HARRY POTTER/NARNIA/LORD OF THE RINGS and the upcoming GOLDEN COMPASS/NORTHERN LIGHTS been tackled with the same lack of reverence there would have been riots. To give the films a bit of a break, they have a fraction of the budget of their Hollywood counter-parts...reportedly about $4 million, which is totally amazing considering the wonderful visual elegance and imaginative special effects. DAY WATCH improves on its predecessor in this regard, with even more eye-popping set-pieces. Check out horses running through walls or a car driving up a building!
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Each of the three novels has three related stories within them, and really only the first book has been adapted into the two films. THE DAY WATCH novel has virtually zero relation to this film. Allegedly the original title for DAY WATCH was Night Watch 2: The Chalk of Fate, which would have been far more accurate and potentially allowed a franchise to last up to say six films instead of the reported trilogy (to be completed once director Bekmambetov finishes on WANTED).
Unbeknown to us humans there exists Others, another species or more likely a mutation of the human genome, who are able to use magic by having a connection to the Gloom (aka the Twilight) – another layer on reality that exists in parallel to the world, where Others can enter and interact. It is this ability to use the Gloom that separates them from us. These Others have been fighting for millennia, divided into two opposing forces – the Light (i.e. those whose actions are unselfish and for the greater “good”, and who care about non-Others) and the Dark (i.e. those whose actions are motivated only by self gain). The Light and Dark Ones eventually reached stalemate and agreed to a truce. The Night Watch was created to ensure the treaty is observed by the Dark Others and the Day Watch to do the same over the Light Others.
NIGHT WATCH was about Anton Gorodetsky’s (Konstantin Khabensky) mistake that has haunted him for over a decade. He loved his wife but she wanted to leave him. He believed her to be having another man’s child (it was actually his), so paid a witch to cause an abortion thinking that would bring her back to him. It was stopped at the last second by the Night Watch. He was then discovered to be an Other and recruited to the Moscow Night Watch to tackle “evil”. He has been forced to live with his actions ever since. At the end of the film Gorodetsky’s son finds about what his father had planned, and turns against him and the Light to join the Dark. Day Watch is about Gorodetsky’s attempted redemption.
DAY WATCH begins with a spectacular cavalry attack on a heavily guarded fortress for the fabled Chalk of Fate an artefact so powerful that it can rewrite destiny. Once obtained it then went missing. It rears its head in modern Moscow with both Watches after it. Not only is Gorodetsky helping the Night Watch to find it, he is trying to reconnect with his son, allow his burgeoning relationship with Sveltana (Maria Poroshina) to continue, but he is also being framed as a serial killer. So much hangs in the balance on a personal as well as cataclysmic level.
I want to like DAY WATCH so much. It is remarkable to see what can be done on so small a budget that puts many blockbusters to shame. It has a HELLBOY–style visual and charisma soaked pizzazz. However, and a big ‘however’, it, like that Guillermo Del Toro pic, is also sadly hamstrung by its nonsensical plot machinations that leave discerning fans of sci-fi/fantasy wanting. There are so many times where you go, why did that happen? How/Why did that character do that? Err, how does that work? There are too many inconsistencies and questions to overlook unfortunately. (And for those that love the novels there is a whole other level of crime.)
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