At first I was shocked that the most successful movie in Russian film history is so mediocre. But considering both Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace (1999) and Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith (2005) are in the top ten domestic box office, I guess Americans aren't too savvy either. To its credit, Night Watch (2004) tries hard and sometimes succeeds.
It provides a fantastic dark, dirty atmosphere of a Russian city that is powerful. I felt the desperation that the Warriors of Light were facing in a world that finds it "easier to kill the light within, than it is to overcome the darkness without." However, the story is a bit erratic and the acting wooden. It is a movie that is desperately trying to be more than a big budget action flick which I applaud, but it fails. It could have done with a bit more action and less mind numbing dialogue, which didn't make sense anyway because the writer was trying to create his own cosmology.
Most peculiarly, was the head bad guy's playing some bizarre Playstation type game that was apparently predicting the future. I found it a bit odd that the lord of all evil on earth was apparently addicted to video games. There is a reveal near the end of the film which is fully telegraphed from almost the beginning of the movie. There was an interesting dynamic between the main character Anton (Konstantin Khabensky) and his neighbor Kostya (Aleksei Chadov). The antagonism between them boils over mid film and no doubt will play in the later two films.
The film is open ended due to the fact that the film was conceived in three parts and the sequel is soon on the way. It had a decently put together ending if not entirely original that made me at least curious to see what happens next. Hopefully freed from all the necessary first film expository dialogue it will flow better than this film.
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