Night Watch

Nochnoy Dozor (2004)

Directed by: Timur Bekmambetov
Written by: Timur Bekmambetov & Laeta Kalogridis based on the novel by Sergei Lukyanenko
Starring: Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Galina Tyunina, Dmitry Martynov, Mariya Poroshina, Viktor Verzhbitsky

I dunno what happened to that bee I was talking about in the last post. I guess it's gone.

Oh well. Movie about supernatural beings, each with different powers. Some of them are on the side of Light (the Night Watch), others are on the side of Darkness (the Day Watch).

The main character is on the side of Light and has the power to see the future or something. He has to stop this woman from creating a vortex of doom, thus fulfilling some prophecy. Meanwhile, he has to save his kid from vampires.

I wasn't one hundred percent on top of what was going on while watching this movie, so permit me a few mistakes. However, unlike many other hyper active and confusing films which just make me frustrated and give me a headache, I kind of enjoyed this one.

I didn't think it was great by any means, but it was just weird enough to keep me interested and I almost want to watch it again or maybe read the novel.

It was cool and flashy, with lots of good special effects and vaguely bizarre stuff. I was kind of reminded of Underworld while watching it but this one seemed to go a little beyond those movies in terms of wackiness.

I can't really comment on the acting (the dub job was pretty good, though), but the characters sort of appealed to me for whatever reason.

I actually spent a lot of time thinking about it after the fact and how, as far as 'super'hero movies go, this one was pretty good (I don't really like superhero movies all that much, with the exception of a handful of Batman flicks and and those X-Men movies. This was kind of like X-Men only more badass).

And it was Russian. I don't know why that makes me so happy, but it really does. Well anyway, I enjoyed this movie as sort of semi-mindless fun (hey, there's that bee again!) and I'm kind of looking forward to watching the sequel.

END