06/25/06 Night Watch

Night Watch (2004), directed by Timur Bekmambetov

watched w/ Leslie; DVD rental (Blockbuster) @ home

Today is my sister Sarah's birthday, a highly anticipated date on the calendar (for her at least), quickly following my birthday only two days earlier. Although our film choices may differ tremendously at times; I love Sarah very much, find her to be wickedly smart & hilariously funny (smart-ass if you will), and was glad to be able to see her on this day. Now, onto the cinematic anticipation. Highly anticipated on both my & Leslie's parts, as we missed this long-awaited Russian flick when it came through the Triangle area. Seeing that it was their highest grossing movie, and by the trailers seemed to carry some thematic elements of movies State-side that I love like "The Matrix," "Dark City," and "Underworld"...I felt like the Russians had to be on to something here. I thoroughly enjoyed this hyper-kinetic supernatural tale of blood, action, mortality and powerful divisions in the universe. The story is set in modern day Moscow, where the protagonist Anton has come hesitantly to grips with his status as an "Other" amongst the human race. "Others" are divided into both Light & Dark Others, continually serving to keep balance of an eternal truce between both forces in order to avoid an apocalyptic war. The Day Watch consist of soldiers of darkness who keep a watchful eye on their nemeses, as the Night Watch are soldiers of light keeping the mettlesome Dark Others out of trouble. It is furthermore determined by the truce that no one can be forced or persuaded into being either Dark or Light, but rather must choose on their own. Thus is the struggle that Anton must personally face, as his early sins include his going to a witch doctor to put an evil curse on his fiance & unborn child...which when prevented by the soldiers, becomes the catalytic event that sends him on his own individual quest to choose sides. Their is also an ancient prophecy that foretells of a Great One coming to put a final end to the threatening battles between Light & Dark, but time is running out on finding the One & figuring out how to go about ending it all. This is a very well-done & visually stunning tale, which will become the first of a hopefully intense trilogy, based on the sci-fi novels of Russian author Sergei Lukyanenko. The dubbing of the voices is a bit corny, but the extraordinarily surreal qualities of the film supersede those quirks. It's violent, it's brilliantly staged, and it's quality Russian filmmaking by Bekmambetov. I know the film has nothing to do with your birthday Sarah, and it may be a bit dark for your taste...but it's a film we'd been wanting to see for awhile, so I highly recommend it to you & everyone else.

5 out of 5 stars