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Spoilers of sorts will be below. If you'd like to read a bit without spoilers, scroll to the larger titled text section.
Let me just start off with saying holy****ing****.
"This is the Night Watch, all step out of the gloom."
I heard about this movie the other day on Ain't it Cool news, someone had written in to say that it was a Russian answer to Star Wars and the Matrix, but with vampires and witches and such. Well, that is pretty much what it is.
The subtitles for it need a little working up as some words and explaninations are probably off, but this is the basic jist of the movie. Knowing this before hand will probably clear alot of stuff up, I didn't really piece it all together til the end. Not to say it is vague until the end, I think it is just hurt by the language barrier.
It is a little hard to understand everything in the movie, and I tried typing up an explanination, but it sounded retarded. So I'm just going to include the description from the Russian site I ordered the DVD from:
Everyone knows that it is dangerous in the streets at night. But in this case it is not about criminals and maniacs. When the night falls, and forces of evil rule undividedly, there swarm those who cannot be met during the daytime – dark mages, vampires and other unholy. Their power is great and they cannot be vanquished by an ordinary weapon. Following traces of the “nocturnal hunters” go those, who were for centuries battle dwellings of gloom and attaining victory, undeviatingly following The Pact, concluded thousands of years ago between The Light Ones and The Dark Ones… Their name is Night Watch. Their purpose – maintaining the balance between Good and Evil, breach of which leads to destruction, wars, revolutions, universal catastrophes. Every bad human act – cheating, treachery, murder, as well as a good one is put on a scale panning it to one side or another. That is why powers of Light and powers of Darkness are forced to exist in two worlds: real and the beyond, trying to either impel one to commit a sin or deter one from it...
So basically there are the two sides, Light and Dark, and they have been battling each other for thousands of years, until a truce is made in which neither side will act without the permission of a regulatory agency of sorts, called the Night Watch. The Night Watch is a group of...lets just say non-humans, who monitor the night and will step in if either the light or dark side cross their boundaries into the human world. Make sense? Probably not, so here is a scenario from the movie to shed some light on it.
Vampires are not allowed to feed on humans unless given strict permission to. One such vampire falls in love with a human girl and asks the Night Watch permission to convert her to vampirism. The Night Watch grants his wish by "licensing" her out to him. She becomes a vampire, but her husband guy, the guy who converted her, teaches her to "call", attarct someone innocent to her in order to bite him. This is a direct violation of the treaty, the Night Watch notices this happens as they keep a close eye on everything that happens in both worlds. Because the man broke the law by teaching her to call and lures a boy to their hideout, they are both saught after and are "sentenced" to death.
Anyways, thats just to explain the equilibrium the Night Watch maintain. The legend goes that their truce will maintain forever because for any person that converts to the dark side there will be one who converts to the light side, always balancing each other out. But it is prophesized that there will be one known as "the Other" who will become aware of either side and make a choice to join one or the other, thus unbalancing the equation and give one side the advantage necessary to win the war.
This installment of the series, because it is a trilogy, focuses on a few events. One is the boy who is being lured to the new vampiress. The other is a girl who has somehow had a powerful curse cast on herself causing anything she interacts with to die. She is called a funnel because she serves as "a funnel of damnation". She does a variety of things, but all ending with the culmination of her funnel in the form of a tornado, at least in the real world. In the beyond the tornado is made up of crows, not wind, which is pretty ****ing cool.
It really is just a ****ing cool movie. When I first heard about it I heard it was a Russian Star Wars or Matrix and that it is. This first installment may be kind of strange as it introduces wild notions and ideas that are incredibly overwhelming and complex at first, but by the end of the movie you will be left wanting to know what happens. The Other is found and does indeed join a side, setting up the next installment of the series, The Day Watch.
Russian movies are nuts.
There is a trailer of sorts, with terrible sound, out there:[url=http://www-download.1tv.ru/sales/chor_34.asf>Crappy sound, but still decent.[/url]
As for an actual commentary on to the quality of the film itself, above just what it is about. It really is just awesome. There are huge portions of this movie that you will swallow down with your jaw agap.
The story is engrossing. The characters are intriguing. The mythos is fascinating. The action is fast paced and intense. And the execution of it all is rather flawless.
I don't have a standard of Russian science fantasy to compare this to, but the effects in it are nothing at all to scoff at. They aren't at the absolute level of the American Fantasy and SciFi epics, but they deffinetely do not dissapoint.
The thing that hooked me to this movie isn't the effects though. It isn't the action. It isn't the gore, and we all know I love me some blood on film. It is how this movie some how manages to envoke in you, simultaneously, the same feelings that watching Star Wars, the Matrix, Lord of the Rings, even Harry Potter, do. When a character gets hit or their journey gets set back, you feel it. When they advance a step, you are rejoicing. When they smile, which isn't particularily often, you smile.
At this point you can't say that it is better than any of the epics it will be compared to, but it deffinetely shows a ton of potential. Plus it is just freeking cool!
I'm going to watch it again as soon as I get the chance, which may be today. I need to get my hands on the book, because I am dying to know what happens with the Day Watch.
For anyone who wants a bit of comparison as to how popular this movie is in Russia (I got this from Ain't it Cool):
Let me just start off with saying holy****ing****.
"This is the Night Watch, all step out of the gloom."
I heard about this movie the other day on Ain't it Cool news, someone had written in to say that it was a Russian answer to Star Wars and the Matrix, but with vampires and witches and such. Well, that is pretty much what it is.
The subtitles for it need a little working up as some words and explaninations are probably off, but this is the basic jist of the movie. Knowing this before hand will probably clear alot of stuff up, I didn't really piece it all together til the end. Not to say it is vague until the end, I think it is just hurt by the language barrier.
It is a little hard to understand everything in the movie, and I tried typing up an explanination, but it sounded retarded. So I'm just going to include the description from the Russian site I ordered the DVD from:
Everyone knows that it is dangerous in the streets at night. But in this case it is not about criminals and maniacs. When the night falls, and forces of evil rule undividedly, there swarm those who cannot be met during the daytime – dark mages, vampires and other unholy. Their power is great and they cannot be vanquished by an ordinary weapon. Following traces of the “nocturnal hunters” go those, who were for centuries battle dwellings of gloom and attaining victory, undeviatingly following The Pact, concluded thousands of years ago between The Light Ones and The Dark Ones… Their name is Night Watch. Their purpose – maintaining the balance between Good and Evil, breach of which leads to destruction, wars, revolutions, universal catastrophes. Every bad human act – cheating, treachery, murder, as well as a good one is put on a scale panning it to one side or another. That is why powers of Light and powers of Darkness are forced to exist in two worlds: real and the beyond, trying to either impel one to commit a sin or deter one from it...
So basically there are the two sides, Light and Dark, and they have been battling each other for thousands of years, until a truce is made in which neither side will act without the permission of a regulatory agency of sorts, called the Night Watch. The Night Watch is a group of...lets just say non-humans, who monitor the night and will step in if either the light or dark side cross their boundaries into the human world. Make sense? Probably not, so here is a scenario from the movie to shed some light on it.
Vampires are not allowed to feed on humans unless given strict permission to. One such vampire falls in love with a human girl and asks the Night Watch permission to convert her to vampirism. The Night Watch grants his wish by "licensing" her out to him. She becomes a vampire, but her husband guy, the guy who converted her, teaches her to "call", attarct someone innocent to her in order to bite him. This is a direct violation of the treaty, the Night Watch notices this happens as they keep a close eye on everything that happens in both worlds. Because the man broke the law by teaching her to call and lures a boy to their hideout, they are both saught after and are "sentenced" to death.
Anyways, thats just to explain the equilibrium the Night Watch maintain. The legend goes that their truce will maintain forever because for any person that converts to the dark side there will be one who converts to the light side, always balancing each other out. But it is prophesized that there will be one known as "the Other" who will become aware of either side and make a choice to join one or the other, thus unbalancing the equation and give one side the advantage necessary to win the war.
This installment of the series, because it is a trilogy, focuses on a few events. One is the boy who is being lured to the new vampiress. The other is a girl who has somehow had a powerful curse cast on herself causing anything she interacts with to die. She is called a funnel because she serves as "a funnel of damnation". She does a variety of things, but all ending with the culmination of her funnel in the form of a tornado, at least in the real world. In the beyond the tornado is made up of crows, not wind, which is pretty ****ing cool.
It really is just a ****ing cool movie. When I first heard about it I heard it was a Russian Star Wars or Matrix and that it is. This first installment may be kind of strange as it introduces wild notions and ideas that are incredibly overwhelming and complex at first, but by the end of the movie you will be left wanting to know what happens. The Other is found and does indeed join a side, setting up the next installment of the series, The Day Watch.
Russian movies are nuts.
There is a trailer of sorts, with terrible sound, out there:[url=http://www-download.1tv.ru/sales/chor_34.asf>Crappy sound, but still decent.[/url]
As for an actual commentary on to the quality of the film itself, above just what it is about. It really is just awesome. There are huge portions of this movie that you will swallow down with your jaw agap.
The story is engrossing. The characters are intriguing. The mythos is fascinating. The action is fast paced and intense. And the execution of it all is rather flawless.
I don't have a standard of Russian science fantasy to compare this to, but the effects in it are nothing at all to scoff at. They aren't at the absolute level of the American Fantasy and SciFi epics, but they deffinetely do not dissapoint.
The thing that hooked me to this movie isn't the effects though. It isn't the action. It isn't the gore, and we all know I love me some blood on film. It is how this movie some how manages to envoke in you, simultaneously, the same feelings that watching Star Wars, the Matrix, Lord of the Rings, even Harry Potter, do. When a character gets hit or their journey gets set back, you feel it. When they advance a step, you are rejoicing. When they smile, which isn't particularily often, you smile.
At this point you can't say that it is better than any of the epics it will be compared to, but it deffinetely shows a ton of potential. Plus it is just freeking cool!
I'm going to watch it again as soon as I get the chance, which may be today. I need to get my hands on the book, because I am dying to know what happens with the Day Watch.
For anyone who wants a bit of comparison as to how popular this movie is in Russia (I got this from Ain't it Cool):
OK, just what they mean by Russian blockbuster? Well, it made over a 15 mil $ just in Russia, which is more than Gigli or Pluto Nash made worldwide, plus you've got to remember than the ticket prices in Russia are pretty low, and the bears get to see the movies for free... I dunno what is more telling - the fact that The Night Watch outperformed The Lord of the Rings in Tolkien-crazed Russia, or that according to Moscow newspaper, babushkas from the neighborhood watch are scaring the **** out of drunks and perverts in the park with their new battle-cry "This is the NIGHT WATCH! Everybody, please step out of the TWILIGHT!"
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Horror's Not Dead
Latest Movie Review(s): Too lazy to keep this up to date. New reviews every week.
Horror's Not Dead
Latest Movie Review(s): Too lazy to keep this up to date. New reviews every week.
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