A still from DAY WATCH (2007).
© Fox Searchlight
Mania Grade: B+
Maniac Grade: A-
Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
Rated: R
Cast: Konstantin Khabensky, Mariya Poroshina, Vladimir Menshov, Galina Tyunina, Viktor Verzhbitsky, Zhanna Friske
Writers: Timur Bekmambetov, Alexander Talal
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Distributor: Fox Searchlight
Maniac Grade: A-
Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
Rated: R
Cast: Konstantin Khabensky, Mariya Poroshina, Vladimir Menshov, Galina Tyunina, Viktor Verzhbitsky, Zhanna Friske
Writers: Timur Bekmambetov, Alexander Talal
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Distributor: Fox Searchlight
DAY WATCH
By: Brian ThomasReview Date: Friday, June 01, 2007
Day Watch (AKA Dnevnoy Dozor) is the sequel to 2004’s Night Watch, a Russian supernatural action blockbuster that picked up some fans in the USA when released here last year. Night Watch set up a backstory in which monsters of light and darkness call a truce in the ancient past, with each side appointing a sort of police force to keep an eye on the other side. Even the creatures of evil don’t want to return to open warfare, except for some individuals willing to gamble everything in a quest for power.
Anton (Konstantin Khabensky) is introduced to this world when he visits a neighborhood sorceress to put a curse on his ex-wife and is recognized to possess great supernatural potential. Recruited by the Night Watch, an organization of Good Guys assigned to enforce the law against rogue Bad Guys, Anton becomes involved in a struggle with the demonic Zavulon (Viktor Verzhbitsky, looking very much like Rutger Hauer) for the soul of his son Yegor (Dmitry Martynov), who is the key to bringing the Dark enough power to overrun the Light.
Day Watch finds Anton an experienced agent, now partnered with trainee Svetlana (Mariya Poroshina), who also shows tremendous potential, and must at all costs be kept apart from Yegor (now being raised by Zavulon), lest their meeting unleash their full powers against each other. On a mission, Svet slips into the “Gloom” – a dark dimension full of mosquitoes paralleling our own – in pursuit of a masked killer feeding on the poor, and nearly catches him. Good thing she missed, as the perpetrator is in fact Yegor attempting to fulfill lessons taught by his Dark guardian.
Zavulon sends his assistant Alisa (Zhanna Friske) to tell him his son was the offender, and to get him to remove evidence of the boy’s identity. Anton complies, only to be framed for a couple of murders of Dark Ones. To hide from the agents of the Day Watch, Anton is for a time forced to hide by switching bodies with the sorceress Olga (Galina Tyunina), leading to some embarrassing and erotic situations when “she” stays with Svetlana for a few days.
These two films – and another sequel, Dusk Watch, on the way – are based on a bestselling series of novels, and I suspect they cleave to closely to their pulp origins at times, with the plot rambling off in one direction or another rather than speeding straight and true. And so we have Anton heading off in search of a power object called the Chalk of Fate, which is introduced in an awkward expository flashback to have the power to make true whatever is written with it. There’s also a sidebar story, which nonetheless becomes important, involving Anton’s vampire neighbors and their involvement with Zavulon and Alisa. It all comes together eventually, but it strains one’s patience during the journey toward a climax.
Night Watch has been called “the Russian Matrix” due to its frenetic action scenes and spectacular special effects, and while a bit frustrating on some story fronts, Day Watch is just as impressive in these areas. Set pieces include a scene where Alisa, bugged by Zavulon’s refusal to take her calls, drives her sports car to his 12th floor headquarters. Then there’s another unnecessary but thrilling sequence on board an airplane, and the finale includes the destruction of much of Moscow.
It also continues the use of the most creative subtitles ever, a factor missing from the original release. Dialogue appears and disappears to emphasize points, flashes in different colors, and even gets splattered in blood on a wall. Subtitles are usually a regrettably necessary alternative to dubbing, but these films instead make them a definite asset.
Like the Harry Potter series, it may be that Day Watch tries to pack in as much material as it can from its source in order to please the novels’ rabid fans, and so as a movie it comes off as a bit ragged on the edges. But as an action horror vehicle, it can stand up to the best of the Hollywood competition – remarkable for a film made for less than five million dollars!
Anton (Konstantin Khabensky) is introduced to this world when he visits a neighborhood sorceress to put a curse on his ex-wife and is recognized to possess great supernatural potential. Recruited by the Night Watch, an organization of Good Guys assigned to enforce the law against rogue Bad Guys, Anton becomes involved in a struggle with the demonic Zavulon (Viktor Verzhbitsky, looking very much like Rutger Hauer) for the soul of his son Yegor (Dmitry Martynov), who is the key to bringing the Dark enough power to overrun the Light.
Day Watch finds Anton an experienced agent, now partnered with trainee Svetlana (Mariya Poroshina), who also shows tremendous potential, and must at all costs be kept apart from Yegor (now being raised by Zavulon), lest their meeting unleash their full powers against each other. On a mission, Svet slips into the “Gloom” – a dark dimension full of mosquitoes paralleling our own – in pursuit of a masked killer feeding on the poor, and nearly catches him. Good thing she missed, as the perpetrator is in fact Yegor attempting to fulfill lessons taught by his Dark guardian.
Zavulon sends his assistant Alisa (Zhanna Friske) to tell him his son was the offender, and to get him to remove evidence of the boy’s identity. Anton complies, only to be framed for a couple of murders of Dark Ones. To hide from the agents of the Day Watch, Anton is for a time forced to hide by switching bodies with the sorceress Olga (Galina Tyunina), leading to some embarrassing and erotic situations when “she” stays with Svetlana for a few days.
These two films – and another sequel, Dusk Watch, on the way – are based on a bestselling series of novels, and I suspect they cleave to closely to their pulp origins at times, with the plot rambling off in one direction or another rather than speeding straight and true. And so we have Anton heading off in search of a power object called the Chalk of Fate, which is introduced in an awkward expository flashback to have the power to make true whatever is written with it. There’s also a sidebar story, which nonetheless becomes important, involving Anton’s vampire neighbors and their involvement with Zavulon and Alisa. It all comes together eventually, but it strains one’s patience during the journey toward a climax.
Night Watch has been called “the Russian Matrix” due to its frenetic action scenes and spectacular special effects, and while a bit frustrating on some story fronts, Day Watch is just as impressive in these areas. Set pieces include a scene where Alisa, bugged by Zavulon’s refusal to take her calls, drives her sports car to his 12th floor headquarters. Then there’s another unnecessary but thrilling sequence on board an airplane, and the finale includes the destruction of much of Moscow.
It also continues the use of the most creative subtitles ever, a factor missing from the original release. Dialogue appears and disappears to emphasize points, flashes in different colors, and even gets splattered in blood on a wall. Subtitles are usually a regrettably necessary alternative to dubbing, but these films instead make them a definite asset.
Like the Harry Potter series, it may be that Day Watch tries to pack in as much material as it can from its source in order to please the novels’ rabid fans, and so as a movie it comes off as a bit ragged on the edges. But as an action horror vehicle, it can stand up to the best of the Hollywood competition – remarkable for a film made for less than five million dollars!
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I am looking forward to watching the sequel. I also highly reccommend you watch with the subtitles, like Brian said, they are a lot of fun.
I am wondering if anyone on this site has read the original novels? Are they available in english and are they worth reading?