Rating of
2/4
Well, It Has Artistic Subtitles...
Franz Patrick - wrote on 11/29/08
I can’t believe this film broke all kinds of box-office records in Russia. It’s not a bad film, per se, it’s just full of mediocrity. Interestingly enough, I saw “Day Watch,” its sequel (which I thought was horrible), first and ended up liking “Night Watch” more even though the special effects are less great and the story is less in scope. What I like most about this film is the relationship between Konstantin Khabensky (the protagonist) and Dmitry Martynov (the potential bringer of the apocalypse). Even though they’re not related by blood, I saw them as father and son because the scenes that they were in together had a certain sparkle and heart. It was also nice to see Aleksei Chadov as a badass young vampire being introduced here and had a bigger role in the sequel. One can tell that the filmmakers made this film to be a trilogy because there are a lot of loose ends and characters that the audience didn’t get to fully know. Not to mention that the finale is a bit anti-climactic because it’s more about forgiveness instead of a great battle between the Light and the Dark ones. I’ve browsed through forums on IMDB and some people claim that if “Night Watch” was made or released in the United States, it would be considered… trash (as a euphemism). Personally, I don’t think it’s fair to compare foreign films to pictures made in America because most foreign films have considerably less budget and the way they choose to tackle a subject is much different than in America. This film has creativity when it comes to offering its audiences unique images and artistic subtitles. I say give it a chance but have an open mind if it turns out to be something that you didn’t expect.
