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!

Despite the recent unmitigated disaster that was Aeon Flux I warmed to the idea of another futuristic action-chick flick. I had some slight hope given the fact that it starred Milla Jovovich who had cemented herself as a self-sufficient ass-kicker in the very fun zombie movies Resident Evil and its sequel Resident Evil: Apocalypse. My expectations were increased when I heard that Ultraviolet was directed by Kurt Wimmer as I really enjoyed his last futuristic movie Equilibrium. In the end that bad taste of Flux in my mouth and the fact that, like Aeon Flux, this film was not to be pre-screened for critics tempered my expectations. None-the-less Friday morning when I decided to take an impromptu day off I immediately called James to see if he wanted to attend the first screening of the day with me. I won’t keep you in suspense ladies and gentlemen…it was bad. While at best Aeon Flux was a 1 out of 5 star rating, Ultraviolet struggles to earn a 2. It gets the other star only because of the fact that despite it being a very poor film I enjoyed seeing it.

The plot summed up from the official releases is thus:

“Set in the late 21st century, a subculture of humans have emerged who have been modified genetically by a vampire-like disease (Hemophagia), giving them enhanced speed, incredible stamina and acute intelligence, and as they are set apart from “normal” and “healthy” humans, the world is pushed to the brink of worldwide civil war (a war between humans and hemophages) aimed at the destruction of the “diseased” population. In the middle of this crossed-fire is – an infected woman – Ultraviolet (Milla Jovovich), who finds herself protecting a nine-year-old boy who has been marked for death by the human government as he is believed to be a threat to humans”.

The plot of course seems very cliched. It and its offspring have been done over and over again. But that is not my complaint. I would be the first to admit that no matter how overused a plot is if the film is a good one I can forgive that, enjoy it, and perhaps watch it over and over again. The Underworld movies are an example of movies whose plots are not entirely unique and yet they are highly enjoyable films. The plot is not the weakest part of Ultraviolet, however. Like Aeon Flux it was the way the plot was executed that left one with little faith in Hollywood’s ability to churn out quality female-driven action films. And while on the subject of plot, someone please tell movie-makers that an introductory “serious” voice-over is not necessary in every fantasy/sci-fi film. Let the audience figure out some things for itself. The last two times this was done well was in Serenity and Fellowship of the Ring. Both are excellent examples of creative voice-over introductions. I would say that if one cannot match the quality of those two films it is best to forget it and let the movie tell the story.

If you’ve seen the trailers you know that Ultraviolet has a unique, futuristic, soft-focus look. In this the movie did not disappoint. The special effects were very well done and the look of the film was one of the main reasons I left the theatre having enjoyed the film in spite of itself. The world and its inhabitants has a fascinating computer-generated look that made me think of this as a 21st century Tron. There are rich colors in Ultraviolet’s ever-changing look and wardrobe that are contrasted against the very shiny, dark and bleak look of the healthy human world to great effect. Ultraviolet is almost good enough to see just for the way that it looks. While this is one of the coolest elements to the film it is also one of the elements that make absolutely no sense. In the beginning there is an obvious reason for the deception of Violet’s appearance. After that it is obvious that the director was just trying to take advantage of Milla Jovovich’s model good looks by putting her in as many outfits as he could in a one-hour, 25 minute film.

The acting is what you would expect from a film like this. Milla Jovovich plays Ultraviolet in much the same way that she does her action scenes in the Resident Evil series. She maintains a look of serious concentration despite the fact that some of her lines are painfully cheesy in the extreme. While Milla Jovovich is indeed beautiful to look at there was entirely too many shots of her face coming at you on the screen…the presence of her often shimmering lipstick made me feel that I was watching a commercial for some new Maybelline color-stay lip gloss.

Jovovich is a very competent action herioine and it was a shame that this movie wasn’t better. The rest of the cast were just actors filling roles. William Fichtner, the leader of the rebel band in Equilibrium, makes an appearance here as Garth, Ultraviolet’s weapon supplier, friend, and unrequited love interest. Nick Chinlund plays the evil overlord Daxus and does an adequate job with the paper-thin role and Cameron Bright inhabits the stoic, mysterious child role.

The saddest thing about Ultraviolet is that with a little more direction it really could have worked. Regardless of the impression given thus far there is really alot of fun stuff in the film. As I said the effects and look are great. The actions scenes are no different than those in Equilibrium, but I like them. I like Wimmer’s gun-kata style even though it makes for a slightly silly, unrealistic way to fight. And there were some generally funny lines in the film that meant to be funny. The problem is that there were an equal number of lines that were played seriously that were just as funny because of how bad they were. While watching Ultraviolet it appears as if Wimmer couldn’t make up his mind about whether he was doing a serious apocalyptic film or an over-the-top comic book film. Had he sold himself completely on doing a film with the humor of a movie like Big Trouble in Little China he could have had a cult classic on his hands. As it is the story just seems convoluted for no reason and you are never sure as to whether you should be laughing derisively or taking the whole thing seriously.

There are times when one just needs to see a movie. Any movie. The end of last week found me in desperate need of a distraction. Ultraviolet was that distraction and although I think it is a really bad movie I enjoyed seeing it and am not at all disappointed that I spent the time or money watching it. It was not boring like Aeon Flux and there were enough fun elements to keep my attention on-screen. There are unfortunately too many weak points and ridiculous lines for this to ever be a movie that I would want to have on my shelf. Do I recommend seeing it in the theatre? Not unless you are in the same circumstances I was in. I can say that the opening credits done in comic book style with artists whose work looked really familiar will make me Netflix the DVD just to listen to the commentary about that part. It is VERY cool.

In the end I wish that someone in these major movie studios would have sat down the directors of Aeon Flux and Ultraviolet and said, “hey, we have half of a good movie here. Go back in there and film the other half”. Instead they rush these poorly done films out the door in hopes of a big opening weekend to make up for the long-run disaster that they turn out to be. Let’s hope that the future will bring us action-oriented films with female leads that have the interest and quality of the Underworld films rather than the boredom and ridiculousness of films like Flux and Ultraviolet.