FILM: Night Watch

I thought I'd post my initial musings about Night Watch, before I have to write them up into a proper review. Maybe that'll annoy the folks at work, but you don't find these things out unless you try them.

I have to admit I was very excited about seeing this film. There was a lot of hype about it being the next big thing, plans for a trilogy, and screening reactions on the net were completely over the top in favour of it. Normally I'm cautious about what people who go to advance screenings say - often they just say something is great because they know no-one else has seen it yet, and they want to create their own little clique. What's the point of getting to see something first if you have to 'fess up and tell everyone it was crap?

Night Watch was different, though. This movie had already pulled in serious money in its Russian homeland and wowed the critics at the same time. Maybe because of all that it couldn't live up to my expectations. Or maybe it's just a jumbled mess that doesn't deliver. Director Timur Bekmanbetov has been quoted as saying “Russian culture is more mysterious, so people don’t care about understanding everything”. That's no reason to have whole segments of your movie's mythos unexplained. Maybe all will be revealed in the following two sequels, but I shouldn't have to wait for an explanation. The first Matrix movie told you everything you needed to know in its first outing, so if you never came back to the franchise you weren't left wondering. For all its dreams of trilogy a movie must still stand up on its own. Unfortunately, so much of Night Watch's problems stem from not knowing the rules of the world - can the characters sit in the Gloom for long periods or is it dangerous? Are the two leaders of the opposing sides enemies or grudging friends? And so on...

Still, you should rejoice if you've seen the current version. Bekmanbetov is currently cutting it for the US market so that it makes more sense. In the process he's ripping out the relationship between Anton and his vampire neighbour Kostya (at least I'm betting he is based on his comments), which is one of the more subtle, character driven parts of the movie.

It's not all bad news, though. You have to applaud the scope of this movie when you consider it only cost $4m. There are also some fine performances, particularly Konstantin Khabensky's turn as the flawed but heroic Anton Gorodetsky. Its main strength is in shying away from the obvious white hat/black hat villains - not easy when the two sides are polarised as light and dark. Nothing is ever that simple in such a murky world, where the Night Watch polices the dark elements and the Day Watch keeps tabs on their so-called light counterparts.

Unfortunately, these highlights only make you more annoyed at what turned up onscreen - a tighter script, a little more control and this could have been a modern masterpiece.