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Crappy film

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

What is it about Russian films? The day after watching the original SOLARIS, which I'd heard was so good and ended up hating, I sat down to watch NIGHT WATCH, which I'd heard was a masterful blockbuster, a breath of originality in a world over-saturated by endless Hollywood vampire films. It isn't. In fact, it isn't even a good film, and it displays no uniqueness to make it Russian. From the director's awfully flashy, MTV-style directing – all cool zooms and sweeps and special effects with lots of sound and noise, signifying nothing – to the predictable nature of the storyline and the desire to rip off or reference just about ALL major Hollywood productions in this genre – I recognised UNDERWORLD, LORD OF THE RINGS, THE MATRIX, and GHOSTBUSTERS(!) in this, and I'm sure there were many more – NIGHT WATCH is a real bore.The story is the same old nonsense – humans and vampires have been at war for centuries, yadda yadda yadda, I saw all this in UNDERWORLD which wasn't very good, but a darned sight better than the clichés on display here. It kicks off with a cheesy battle sequence before delivering a storyline in the modern day which couldn't be more boring: an uninteresting guy is enlisted in the ranks of the good guys, battling the evil vampires, and yet nothing happens. There's some stuff about a cursed woman and a blond-haired kid, and a supposedly awe-inspiring climax, but by the end we're back to where we were at the beginning with little story having been told. You just feel like you've wasted your time.Yes, there are flashes of inspiration. The owl that turns into a woman intrigued me, as well as having the vampires coming in and out of something called the Gloom, another dimension, which is pretty eerie. Yet the poor script and the over reliance on effects that just aren't that special made me want to turn off. All flashiness and no meat is what you get when you watch this film. A sequel, DAY WATCH, followed.

This film, as well as its sequel, is a masterpiece like no other in the genre. Now to make one thing clear, once and for all, I haven't read the books by now. But for as far as I heard they stayed pretty close to the books.Unlike most films nowadays that include vampires, this film actually has some very interesting characters. And that's the strength of both films. No matter if good or evil, side or main character, they are all so well developed and played.I'm used to see dark films like this. The Batman movies, classic 80s splatter and horror movies, ... I like my film atmosphere dark and dirty. This isn't Gotham City, it's not the Blade Runner L.A., it's not (Ba)Sin City, ... it's Moskau. A very very dark and dirty Moskau and all I can say is, WOW. I wanna go to Moskau and see if it's really such a dark city.I will not spoil the story in anyway, but let me say it like this, there's no film I know so far that has a similar storyline.So what are you still waiting? Get it and watch it. You won't waste your money.

Having read all 4 books in this quadrilogy prior to watching both films which have been released, I will say (and I hate when people say this) - the movie does not do the books justice. They have far better character development, the stories are far better developed and they are the sort of books you can't put down. I rarely read books twice, but these books I have gone back to time and time again.I guess I knew what I was expecting. I really loved the Russian pop- culture in both the films and books - it is heaps refreshing!In terms of storyline - I am happy to not see Hollywood predictability for a change. There are a number of things that make this story frustrating to brainwashed film fans: 1. It develops relatively slowly 2. There is a lot of explanation of back story (which the film seems to have edited out at times). 3. (SPOILER ALERT) The whole thing is a giant stalemate which is kinda annoying. Having said that, the idea of good vs evil, is ultimately, a giant stalemate. Without getting into the philosophy of it all, if you peel back the layers of action, fighting, magic etc, this movie has some fantastic unique themes, which many fantasy films never touch on - think about it: when was the last time you watched a fantasy film where good doesn't beat evil. It relies on storytelling, imagination, choice, consequences, self-realisation, tactics etc. Most of the battles centre around tactic, biding your time and waiting for the moment when your sword/power can do the most damage. I found this absolutely brilliant - like a game of chess come to life. I guess a lot of the angst against this film come from people who probably don't understand the story or are brainwashed by Americanised versions of fantasy film.I loved the movie. I loved the books, the themes, the writing etc. I am actually not Russian (Australian by birth), but speak and read it (albeit not as good as English). Given it was originally written in Russian, the dubbing and English translations never give it justice. Somehow, the Russian versions are written beautifully, however the English always translates without the glamour i.e "It was a magnificent day with the sweet smell of dew on the grass" seems to always come across as "It was a good day". Please watch with subtitles - not the dubbed version.Don't hate on this film - I feel at times we are expected to be enchanted by fantasy films with big budgets, fantastic special effects and good triumphing through poor story lines (Hello, Avatar!!). I think if this was American it would have been re-written differently and could potentially be a hollow commercial success. BUT it isn't, so if you can't handle that, don't bother watching the next movies in the trilogy.Sorry if that makes me come across as some hipster "non-maintream" idiot, but this film has depth beyond the effects. I really enjoyed that.

This movie was incredibly ridiculous and way Over-the-Top.In all the scenes from "Night Watch", there was something incredibly weird happening, and those weird things were presented in the cheesiest manner that somebody could imagine. And of course, none of those scenes made sense, being mostly a poorly written mess which combines in an awful way several elements from other stories and films (Such as "Underworld", "The Matrix", "Van Helsing", "The Lord of the Rings", "Harry Potter" and even "Ghostbusters") but without any kind of interesting value, being both muddled and idiotic.I never read the book in which this was inspired, so I couldn't make a comparison between the two, but all what I can say that this is one of the dumbest movies that I've seen in my life. And yet, it is not even entertaining.The only redeeming quality of this film were a couple of visually interesting scenes, but that's it. I didn't care at all about the story and the characters from this movie (Which were mostly a bunch of tired clichés anyway)This movie was complete mess from beginning to end.