Night Watch

A very inconsistent affair. On the one hand, Night Watch is a crazy, confusing, chaotic, and adrenaline-filled fetish and mess for the most hardened viewers. On the other hand, you have to bow down before Russian director Timur Bekmambetov because you will rarely see so many directorial and visual ideas and skills in one film. He managed to cram absolutely everything that contemporary modern hi-tech cinematography can offer. It’s a bit of a mess, but it’s not completely tragic. If they slightly adjust the ingredients (the script, the mythology), it would be amazing. (08/04/2008)

The protagonist of the sci-fi story "The Perfect Robot" is diligently trying to construct a robot that would be equal to humans. He fails again and again, as there is always something human that robots lack. In the end, after a long struggle, he comes up with a solution. For the robots to be equal to humans, they must be damaged. They cease to be perfect and, just like humans, start making mistakes. A similar analogy applies to Night Watch by Timur Bekmambetov. In reality, this film has several shortcomings. It lacks a bigger budget and some scenes shamelessly imitate well-known foreign models. The main character lacks charisma and the script deserves further refinement. However, despite all these flaws, the film is very likable. In the United States, they would not be able to shoot a film like this. The hopelessness of panel houses, the dirt in the streets, and the austere environment of the power plant all feel authentic in the film. The fact that the film is not cast with movie stars also benefits it in the final reckoning. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Sergey Lukyanenko, which was already a big bestseller in Russia before the film was released. Night Watch combines two worlds - the Russian reality and American film ideas about the fantasy genre, taking the best from both. Overall impression: 60%. (01/08/2008)

A rather demanding mythology of the whole story that, in my opinion, is better developed in the book version. However, Timur Bekmambetov captured me ten years ago, and I am curious about each of his next movies, actually enjoying them quite a lot. That guy wants nothing more than good-looking action, he is not afraid of the story, and overall, it's just rough fun. I'm in favor of it. Maybe I will finally watch "The Night Watch" as well. (02/19/2014)

Compared to the book, the film is terribly uneven, confused and simplified, not always to the benefit of the cause. I like the civilian actor types in the main roles, well-done intimate scenes (nice dialogues, jokes here and there), the atmosphere of dark Moscow... Things are much worse in terms of the visual aspects, which take place in the spirit of "give a Russian money and he will give you borsch". The horrible mess of hypermodern effects and camera tricks mixed with senseless accelerators often feels tragi-comical and completely kills the atmosphere. It unintentionally feels quite amateurish and clever. The action sequences that were supposed to be the visual highlight are therefore solid, cold, tasteless and odorless. The story completely lacks gradation and any sort of construction, everything happens in a strangely chaotic rush, and the camera doesn't stop at anything long enough for the viewer to create an overview. Nevertheless, a few scenes are nicely captured, the acting is satisfactory (I liked all the central characters), the music is appealing and the Russian desire to be westerner cool has some merit. I hesitated between two and three stars. Out of respect for the original, I round up to three. (10/14/2006)

Excellent in places, in some places unbelievably dumb, here and there a good idea, sometimes pretty lame and confused. Simply a standard offering, but it has ingenious technical aspects, it’s decently paced and has a likeable aura. The first half is a head above the second half in terms of quality. If the director learns from his mistakes, the sequel could be really great; particularly if Bekmambetov follows the path taken by the impressive books that this is based on. (04/09/2005)