Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor) | Review

Film is a little too inspired by formulaic conventions found in American pop-movies.

Director Timur Bekmambetov’s Night Watch is the first piece of a highly ambitious trilogy where the subtitles are in English and the vodka drinking is done straight from the bottle and not in some fancy martini glasses. Russia’s cross-genre mutation borrows from the likes of Star Wars, LOTR, The Matrix trilogy and The Blade franchise demonstrating that Hollywood exists outside of Hollywood. While the hard to label picture has made quite the impression with viewers in its native land, it may take a lot of blood sucking and florescent-tube swinging to seduce foreign audiences.

Based on screenplay by Sergei Lukyanenko and Bekmambetov after the novel by Lukyanenko – this begins with a bloody prologue of a battleground in the times of swords and shields. Set in contemporary Russia where vampires disguised as special agents keep the underworld in order – that is until the opposing forces debate over their cravings and how to satisfy them. Presented with a prior history, the film’s protagonist (who sort of reminds of the New York subway guardian angels) is trying to protect tomorrow’s vampire youth and is sort of like a guidance councilor with fangs who helps others deal with withdrawal symptoms. Unfortunately, since this is volume one, much of the storyline is tied up in this overly-explained, geeky, light-versus-dark world storyline that beats around the bush a little too long.

The film commences as a fairly bizarre and unique experience and perhaps the film in the history of cinema that employs the use of subtitles in the most imaginative form. Russian locations, heavy accents or traditional customs don’t deter from the experience, instead it’s the impression that the storyline and the pacing is held down by an ongoing chess match with no end in sight. The folks at Fox Searchlight are gambling that the look of the film bullet-time techniques and freeze frame playfulness will be the main draw for this fight card.

For a directorial debut, Bekmambetov shows bucket loads of promise – it is clear that the filmmaker is way past the Nike commercial stage of his career. While personal style and good amounts of visual artistry offered at a premium will keep audiences interested in the early stages, Night Watch loses everything it has going for it once the eye-candy rubs off and reveals itself as a film that is simply too difficult to get through without wondering how much time is left for the credits to roll.

Viewed original Russian language with English subtitles.

Fantasia Film Festival 2005

Rating 1.5 stars