Armed with hammer, sickle and our Russian dictionaries Jeff and I ventured out last night to spend our rubles on the Soviet smash hit Night Watch. Night Watch, or Nochnoi Dozor in the local lingo, is the first of three movies based on a best selling series of science fiction novels by Russian Sergei Lukyankenko (The books are Night Watch, Day Watch, and Dusk Watch and one can only assume the movies titles will follow suit).

Night Watch was a break out hit in its native Russia upon its release in July of 2004. It shattered all previous box office records and surpassed both Return of the King and Spider-man 2 in revenue. The movie received international acclaim and was nominated for an Oscar in 2004’s foreign language category. While its sequel, Day Watch, is burning up the Russian charts we in America are getting our first taste of this fantasy/horror hybrid film.

The biggest sin in reviewing Night Watch would be to give away too much of the story. Despite the impression given by the film’s trailer Night Watch is not a film laden with special effects. That is not to say they aren’t present, because there are many special effects shots, but like any good film based on a novel it is the story that is important. And that is true with Night Watch. I had to stifle a giggle based on my recent rants about voice-overs in my Ultraviolet review as Night Watch opens with one recapping an ancient struggle of good vs. evil. Interestingly enough, though the film is in Russian and subtitled, the opening is voiced entirely in English. The voice-over is most necessary in a film like this as one gets the impression that there is a lot going on in the novel and at a trim 88 minutes Night Watch had to get right to the thick of the story. The basic plot, which you learn in the opening narrative, is this:

For as long as humanity has existed, there have been “Others” among us; Witches, Vampires and Shape-Shifters who are soldiers in the eternal war between Light and Dark.

Ancient prophecy foretells that one day the Great One will arrive who can end the threat of an apocalyptic battle between Light and Dark Others. That day has come, and the Great One, once he or she is identified, must choose whether to destroy the light within or battle the surrounding darkness. This choice will reveal mankind’s destiny.

As I said, this is what you learn in the first 30 seconds of the film. How the story unfolds from there is where the enjoyment of Night Watch comes into play. And Night Watch is a very enjoyable film. To say that it was good but not great, or to give it 3.5 stars out of 5 seems somewhat of a disservice to a very fascinating foreign film. Did it blow me away, was it the most amazing fantasy or horror film I have ever seen? No. However it was no where near much of the dreck that is released in those genres every year. Night Watch feels like the opening act in a three act play yet at the same time a complete story is present in this first film. It has a definite ending that wraps up the first story arc in a very satisfying way while making it obvious that this is indeed round one. I left the movie last night with anticipation for the release of Day Watch. I also thought last night that it was not a movie that I would need to see over and over again. I find myself this morning, however, mulling over the film and actually wanting to see it again. Hopefully it will find its way to DVD release quickly. If I have confused you as to my feelings on the film I am sorry. I really liked it…quite a lot. Describing Night Watch as great conveys with it the idea that the film was outstanding. Describing it as good sounds as if the film was merely okay. It was much, much better than okay, was close to great, but was not outstanding. The story has many interesting twists and revelations along the way which occurred at just the right moments in the film to propel the story forward and keep me intensely interested throughout.

This was my first Russian film. As such I have no idea who any of the actors/actresses are or what their level of fame/success is in their native land. That being said I was very pleased with everyone. All the characters rang true and I enjoyed every performance. Many of the cast looked familiar however in researching their bios they have not acted in any movies that I have seen. The fact that the leader of the Dark Others looks like Rutger Hauer was a nice bonus for me as this is just the type of film if made in America you would expect Hauer to have a part in.

The special effects were great. I especially liked the little creepy doll with spider legs that you see in the film. The movie is of course very dark, occuring mostly in the night hours, but not so dark that you could not see and appreciate what was going on in the film. The special effects having to do with the Gloom…some sort of evil parallel dimension…were really cool and I enjoyed the use of mirrors in the scenes involving characters and the Gloom. I was amazed to discover that this movie was made for a mere 4 million dollars. Making something like this for that money in America is unheard of.

Director Timur Bekmambetov was joined by the author of the trilogy, Sergei Lukyanenko, in adapting the screenplay. Eventhough I have not read the novels…the first translated edition of Night Watch comes out in July of this year…I have to believe it is a very promising sign that the author was involved in the making of the film. There are a great many things that go on in this first episode and although many major plot points are resolved by the end there are also many things left to be explained in the following two films. Many of the negative reviews that I read indicated that the movie was confusing at times. I did not find it to be so. If you are the type of person that needs every little nuance of a film explained then maybe it was confusing. There were moments when there was a great deal of action occuring onscreen and you are not able to catch all of what is happening but that is true movies in America as well as the rest of the world. The story and the path followed by the characters was not at all confusing. Everything isn’t spelled out at the end, but that is because this is a trilogy.

Overall Night Watch was a very satisfying experience and I am so glad that I was able to see this on the big screen. At the beginning of the movie the film was not adjusted properly and the subtitles were below the viewing area of the screen. Thankfully there was a guy in the theatre who gave every appearance that he was expecting this and he went out immediately and got it taken care of. We were able to follow the gist of the scene and it was actually re-shown later in a flashback sequence so no harm done. I am excited to see the second film in this trilogy, Day Watch, and hope that it does not take another year for this one to arrive here from Mother Russia. If you are a fan of this genre of films then I recommend you check out Night Watch. It was interesting, entertaining, fun to watch and leaves you hungry for more. You can view the trailer for Night Watch here. There is also a non-English trailer for Day Watch at the main site here. (Click on the red writing in the upper left hand corner which will open another window. If you click the second drop down menu and choose the last setting it will give you the largest trailer. Then click in the third box and the trailer will begin downloading.)

Friday Favorites will return next week!