Day Watch

We palpate the pull of the metaphorical clear and sinister everyday: Should I lie down? Steal? Cheat? Have that second sports stadium of ice cream? Or should I do the "right" thing? Taking this push-pull of desires and ideals and applying it to the supernatural is the crux Australis of Day Watch, the irregular film in the Night Watch series. Unfortunately, like its predecessor, Day Watch gets caught up in its flashy, sinful visual personal effects and misses the thematic mark. But that's what you'd expect from whatsoever other vainglorious budget "blockbuster."


As follow-up to the outset major button of a Russian picture after the collapse of the Soviet film manufacture (Night Watch had a budget of $4.2 million), Day Watch does an admirable job of keeping the pace snappy and the action constant, despite the fact that the plastic film is built upon unconvincing plot devices. The film follows Night Watch protagonist Anton as he attempts to reconnect with his son Yegor, who defected to the dark side, while pursuing a relationship with a new trainee in the Night Watch -- a group that polices the dark occult beings (the dark police force keeping tabs on the light face is the Day Watch).


The film makes no attempts to veil its subtext, Yegor is the Great Dark One and Anton's love interest is the Great Light One; both of them literally pull for his attention from either side. And the MacGuffin driving the action? The Chalk of Fate -- a magical piece of chalk that can change events depending on what the holder writes. Best not even to mention the 30 transactions Anton spends as a woman and bunks with his enamored trainee, in a inexpensive, manipulative way to drive the love story frontward as quickly as possible.


In an ironic twist, the saving gracility of Day Watch is also what takes away from the film's tarradiddle -- the visual personal effects. It's non that the effects are particularly good, but conductor Timur Bekmambetov has a visual style that's unitary part Jean-Pierre Jeunet (City of Lost Children, Amelie) and one part Wachowski brothers (The Matrix, Speed Racer). For the most part, it works for him: Day Watch's action keeps the film ploughing through the nagging patch questions of "Who's that again?" and "What's natural event?" Perhaps the most discrete and interesting use of effects is the visual punctuations within the subtitles: "Bitch!" splatters in red against a white wall as a hurled ball of raw meat slides down it; words aforementioned in ire violently shake and shatter, while utterances of despair dissolve into vapor. The visual caption twist works well for the action-driven film where eye candy is more important than genuine emotion, and it may even curb cries of ennui from lazy moviegoers world Health Organization don't need to "translate" their movies.


Although Day Watch is the Russian equivalent of a Hollywood money-grabber, it's astonishingly fun and at least gives the illusion of depth with Anton's pining over his dark son. Entering a genre that's overstuffed with bombastic computer-generated effects, Day Watch's supernatural police and Bekmambetov's rich visual palette give the film enough strength at least to throw a couple elbows to put itself apart from other nameless films with flock of personal effects, but small vision.


Aka Dnevnoy dozor.




Yep, it's Memorex.