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aka - Nochnoi Dozor
Russia 2005
Directed by
Timur Bekmambetov
114 minutes
Rated MA

Reviewed by
Andrew Lee
3.5 stars

Night Watch

Synopsis: The battle between Good and Evil raged for millennia. After a brutal battle a truce was struck between the forces of Light and Dark - no-one could be forced to the side of Light or Dark, but would be allowed to choose for themselves. To uphold this truce, each side established their own police force to watch the other side. The soldiers of Dark would become the Day Watch, while the soldiers of Light would be the Night Watch...

This Russian blockbuster has several things going for it, but I'm going to start with the single most important reason to see this: The sub-titles are cool. You've never seen a sub-titling job this cool. They actually took the time to animate them, to make them part of the cinematic experience. It's the first time I've ever seen it done, and it's so much fun that it merits the price of admission.

But what about the film, is it any good? Well, yes and no. Visually spectacular, and never boring, it's your typical big fantasy action film. The fact that it's in Russian is just one of those things. Like the French Brotherhood of the Wolf / Le Pacte Des Loups (2001), it shows that Hollywood isn't the only place capable of producing big effects-driven films. But like most of the blockbuster movies it joins company with, it also suffers from the problem of a dodgy script. The main story is pretty much bog standard fantasy fare - some uber-Other exists with the power to tip the balance in favour of whichever side it chooses to join. So the race is on to find this Other and convince them to join the forces of Light. Throw in a woman with a curse on her that threatens the apocalypse and a vampiress looking for revenge after Anton kills her boyfriend, and you could easily call this popcorn rubbish. But there are some nice touches to it. Konstantin Khabensky's Anton is a likeable guy, struggling to adapt to the strange world he's been thrust into. His neighbour is a young vampire, and the two of them have an uneasy friendship. There's a lot to enjoy in these moments, though the main storyline left me a little cold.

So, impressive sub-titling aside, don't go to see this if you like your foreign language films to be low-key, character-oriented affairs. On the other hand, if jet-powered trucks, vampires, shape-shifters and a sword made from a man's spine sound like your idea of fun, you'll have a blast.

 

 

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