Film Review: Day Watch, a Russian Fantasy

Click here to watch the preview on iTunes

Holy be-jesus. I just finished watching Day Watch, the Russian fantasy film based on the novel by Sergei Lukyanenko. It completely blew me away. It was beautiful. It was sad. It was glorious. It was Gothic. There were vampires, and there was blood, and slow motion biting. Yet it is not a ‘vampire movie’– it is a whirling, dervishing, opera of lust, love, power, conflict, and super-powers, set in an other-worldly modern-day Moscow, avec des vampires. I am amazed. I am happy. I will watch again, maybe tomorrow.

This is what fantasy cinema is all about, a complete play of narrative, life, death, beauty and gore. I feel satisfied on so many levels – aesthetically, emotionally, and visually – after seeing this, the second of a trilogy of films based on 3 books by Lukyanenko. Apparently, this was the biggest grossing film ever in Russia last year (2007). From what I hear, the 3rd movie has been released, but not yet in North America. That is awesome news. However, instead of camping out 6 hours before the show with my family (as I did when when I was 9 years old to watch “Jedi”), I will just wait for it to come out on iTunes, or appear at the video store. Good times.

Briefly, the story centers around the main character of Anton Gorodetsky, who in the first movie (Night Watch,2004) makes a pact with a dark witch, setting into motion a chain of events which could bring about the end of the world, or in this case a war between the forces of light and dark, personified by beings known as ‘Dark Others’ and ‘Light Others’. These Light and Dark Others represent all of the alt-human, fantasy characters we have come to know and love, such as vampires, sorcerers, shape-shifters, demons, angels, etc. The story takes place in the past, as well as the present, as we see how a precarious ‘truce’ between the two sides has been in place for some time after a great war, which seems to date to Medieval times. Since then, the world has remained in relative balance and civilization as we know it has flourished.

However, in the present day there exist two people – a great Light Other (the super-cute “Svetlana”) and a great Dark Other (”Yegor”), who should never meet lest we should have an apocalypse on our hands. Of course, Anton Gorodetsky stands in the middle of both these two characters, and we witness his personal evolution as an “Other”, as well as their respective stories play out through suspense, intrigue, and confrontation.

Anyway, I won’t give away any of the action or plot movement. Let’s just say it is a ‘kick-ass’ fantasy action movie with a well-rounded story and really interesting stories and sub-plots. Visually it is reminiscent of the very first Matrix film in that the action is blended in with the story, but not action for its own sake, and we see real growth in the characters. Day Watch really expands on the first film, but in an organic (for lack of a less-used phrase), natural way, full of surprises, twists, and ‘moral ambiguity’, as some have called it. Good stuff.

I really want to read the books now and I think I just figured out what novels I am going to stick my nose into for the next few weeks.

Click here to watch the preview on iTunes