Nochnoi Dozor (Night Watch)

April 23, 2007

Rated: R Runtime: 114 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Russian-born novelist Vladimir Nabokov once said, “Style and structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash.” Night Watch director Timur Bekmambetov apparently tried to take this idea to heart, but he became fixated on the ’style’ part and forgot about the rest.

Nochnoi Dozor (Night Watch) As a result, Night Watch is a veritable cornucopia of stylistic editing, visual effects, and creatively imagined phenomena. At the same time, however, it is confusing, slow to develop, and a bit loose with its continuity.

The story is constructed around a very familiar outline: Forces of Good and Evil have been waging an evenly matched war against each other for centuries when, suddenly, someone particularly powerful comes along that can upset the balance. Both sides vie to control that power and the drama of this struggle unfolds on the screen.

Most humans are blissfully ignorant of this struggle but a few are very different. They choose to call themselves “Others”. You can be a “good Other” and fight for all that is pure and ideal, or you can choose to be a “bad Other” and attempt to wreak havoc across the world. If you are an “Other” you might have been created from a normal human (a la the vampires), or you naturally could be gifted with an unusual power, or you could even be a sorceror or witch.

I won’t bother trying to explain it further since I’m not 100% sure of anything beyond what you’ve just read. But that’s ok, though. There’s a lot of stylish things happening on screen that will keep your mind occupied through all the confusion.

The acting, such as it was, seemed adequate enough. The subtitles were a nice touch as they weren’t just your normal white lines of text. They changed colors and were often animated (one of the many clever things done in the movie to help set a proper mood). Likewise, the sets were very well picked. All the buildings, streets, rooms, etc., gave a sense of age, decline, and shoddy workmanship. Of course, the movie was filmed in Moscow so it may just be that *every* place there has that look to it.

All in all, this first movie in the trilogy (yes, there will be two more) was well on the road to a two-star rating from me but, at the end, it salvaged another star (barely) thanks to a very clever plot twist that was especially twisted. This gives me at least a little hope for the next two in the series.

Posted by Alex | Filed Under 3 Stars, DVD, Horror, Konstantin Khabensky, Mariya Poroshina, R, SciFi, Vladimir Menshov