DAYWATCH!
Went out tonight to catch DayWatch and came away feeling pretty good. If you haven't heard about it, here's the trailer. If you have, though,
Still with me? Good. First things first: Nightwatch is recommended viewing before going into Day, but not required. The film opens with what amounts to a "Previously On ..." segment before introducing us to the MacGuffin: a magical whatzit called the Chalk of Fate, which effectively gives its' holder what the kids would call "Do-Over Times Infinity" powers.
The legend of the Chalk becomes deadly serious for our ever-reluctant "hero," Anton (Konstantin Khabensky), still an agent in the eternal struggle between the Nightwatch(his employers) and the Daywatch (the forces of ... you know). While trying to keep his son Yegor (Dmitry Martynov) -- the Great Dark Other, an evil prodigy taken in by the Daywatch -- out of trouble, Anton gets himself framed for the murder of two minor demons, as part of a grand scheme by Zavulon (a ghoulishly fun Viktor Verzhbitsky) to instigate the final war between, literally, Day and Night.
Meanwhile, Anton is also trying not to fall in love with the Great Light Other, his trainee, Svetlana (Mariya Poroshina). If Svetlana and Yegor battle, the Day/Night truce goes, that's what will break the Truce. On the lam, and forced to switch bodies with his partner Olga (Galina Tyunina), however, Anton fesses up, thus beginning a singularly star-crossed romance, especially when Yegor's becomes jealous that someone new is in his father's life.
With most of the cast and the backstory set up in Nightwatch, this movie veers off into a bizarre film intersection -- a big-budget action movie with horror elements, yet at its' core, a noir-ish love story. Anton, by training and temperament, is no different than the down-on-his-luck cops and detectives we've seen in dime-store crime novels: he smokes too much, he can't hold his liquor, he's got guilt in his heart. He doesn't run toward the action so much as (literally) stumble into it or react to the fiery hoops the powers around him maneuver him into. When his boss says, "What a mess you've made, Anton," it's as much summation as observation. And Khabensky, to his credit, embraces both Anton's inner schmuck as much as the guy inside him looking to make good. It's that balance -- the light and dark inside him, if you want to play with the films' titles -- that ties this story together. And at the end, he's still someone worth rooting for. More so than the Chalk, he's the film's ace in the hole.
Daywatch is more loosely based on the best-selling Russian book trilogy than its' predecessor, but not as frenetic while retaining the same visual punch (which, I'm glad to say, goes down easier the second time 'round.) And it does what any middle chapter does: leave you wanting to see where the story ends.
Still with me? Good. First things first: Nightwatch is recommended viewing before going into Day, but not required. The film opens with what amounts to a "Previously On ..." segment before introducing us to the MacGuffin: a magical whatzit called the Chalk of Fate, which effectively gives its' holder what the kids would call "Do-Over Times Infinity" powers.
The legend of the Chalk becomes deadly serious for our ever-reluctant "hero," Anton (Konstantin Khabensky), still an agent in the eternal struggle between the Nightwatch(his employers) and the Daywatch (the forces of ... you know). While trying to keep his son Yegor (Dmitry Martynov) -- the Great Dark Other, an evil prodigy taken in by the Daywatch -- out of trouble, Anton gets himself framed for the murder of two minor demons, as part of a grand scheme by Zavulon (a ghoulishly fun Viktor Verzhbitsky) to instigate the final war between, literally, Day and Night.
Meanwhile, Anton is also trying not to fall in love with the Great Light Other, his trainee, Svetlana (Mariya Poroshina). If Svetlana and Yegor battle, the Day/Night truce goes, that's what will break the Truce. On the lam, and forced to switch bodies with his partner Olga (Galina Tyunina), however, Anton fesses up, thus beginning a singularly star-crossed romance, especially when Yegor's becomes jealous that someone new is in his father's life.
With most of the cast and the backstory set up in Nightwatch, this movie veers off into a bizarre film intersection -- a big-budget action movie with horror elements, yet at its' core, a noir-ish love story. Anton, by training and temperament, is no different than the down-on-his-luck cops and detectives we've seen in dime-store crime novels: he smokes too much, he can't hold his liquor, he's got guilt in his heart. He doesn't run toward the action so much as (literally) stumble into it or react to the fiery hoops the powers around him maneuver him into. When his boss says, "What a mess you've made, Anton," it's as much summation as observation. And Khabensky, to his credit, embraces both Anton's inner schmuck as much as the guy inside him looking to make good. It's that balance -- the light and dark inside him, if you want to play with the films' titles -- that ties this story together. And at the end, he's still someone worth rooting for. More so than the Chalk, he's the film's ace in the hole.
Daywatch is more loosely based on the best-selling Russian book trilogy than its' predecessor, but not as frenetic while retaining the same visual punch (which, I'm glad to say, goes down easier the second time 'round.) And it does what any middle chapter does: leave you wanting to see where the story ends.