Watching the watchers
Night Watch is a Russian flick from Channel One Russia. I'm sure the studio isn't the the Russian equivalent of the 15 minute brainwashing we got from Channel One news in schools in the late 80's/early 90's. :) Might be though.
Regardless, the movie is built around the premise that shapechangers, vampires, etc exist, and choose sides, light or dark, in a teetering balance of power that has moved from all out war to good cop/bad cop system manipulation. However, no action movie is complete without the threat of Apocolypse, and the since this is the first movie in a trilogy, the movie is all about building up to the Apocolypse.
It's hard to judge acting in a language you don't know, but body language and facial expression was all believable. The cinematography was only slightly off in a few spots (when the main character, Anton, realizes the photo on the desk is his ex-wife, I didn't even notice the photo from the 20 frame sweep of the desk we got), but pretty solid overall. Good use of color/lighting and music to set the mood most of the time, and the theater we saw it at (Landmark Uptown) had the sound system set to really enhance the audio experience. When the soundtrack tried to punch with the subject, you felt punched. So, on the technical front, a pretty solid film.
Storywise, I'd say the same. There were a few exceptioinally cheesy points (the bus flipping of Zawhosisname), a major slice of the plot just dropped the wrap up entirely becoming nothing more than a deus ex machina type distraction (only applied to the good guys rather than the bad), and I still can't figure out why the damn power plant blew up, but after the ball dropping plot wrapped up, all the power came back on. It's a Russian power plant, though, so someone probably just kicked it into submissions. Same way Gaz gets the Kestrel working in a tight squeeze. All of those things, though, can be explained away to the film being Russian. There's a reason why films, especially in the U.S., do better or worse in certain regions. It's all about cultural expectation. Many of the tasks and societal expectations we take for granted aren't the same elsewhere, and it usually shows through in film. I'll chalk the "Check, scratch off that threat, now everything returns to normal," effect up to that.
All in all, Nightwatch is a pretty solid film, so if you're in my area, or it's in your area, go check it out in the theater (cause I know my boys have seen it on Pickle's TV already). I dug it enough to catch the hole trilogy, but I will warn you that despite the culturing differences I thought were off, the film does have a lot of traditional storytelling twists and plot points in it....
Regardless, the movie is built around the premise that shapechangers, vampires, etc exist, and choose sides, light or dark, in a teetering balance of power that has moved from all out war to good cop/bad cop system manipulation. However, no action movie is complete without the threat of Apocolypse, and the since this is the first movie in a trilogy, the movie is all about building up to the Apocolypse.
It's hard to judge acting in a language you don't know, but body language and facial expression was all believable. The cinematography was only slightly off in a few spots (when the main character, Anton, realizes the photo on the desk is his ex-wife, I didn't even notice the photo from the 20 frame sweep of the desk we got), but pretty solid overall. Good use of color/lighting and music to set the mood most of the time, and the theater we saw it at (Landmark Uptown) had the sound system set to really enhance the audio experience. When the soundtrack tried to punch with the subject, you felt punched. So, on the technical front, a pretty solid film.
Storywise, I'd say the same. There were a few exceptioinally cheesy points (the bus flipping of Zawhosisname), a major slice of the plot just dropped the wrap up entirely becoming nothing more than a deus ex machina type distraction (only applied to the good guys rather than the bad), and I still can't figure out why the damn power plant blew up, but after the ball dropping plot wrapped up, all the power came back on. It's a Russian power plant, though, so someone probably just kicked it into submissions. Same way Gaz gets the Kestrel working in a tight squeeze. All of those things, though, can be explained away to the film being Russian. There's a reason why films, especially in the U.S., do better or worse in certain regions. It's all about cultural expectation. Many of the tasks and societal expectations we take for granted aren't the same elsewhere, and it usually shows through in film. I'll chalk the "Check, scratch off that threat, now everything returns to normal," effect up to that.
All in all, Nightwatch is a pretty solid film, so if you're in my area, or it's in your area, go check it out in the theater (cause I know my boys have seen it on Pickle's TV already). I dug it enough to catch the hole trilogy, but I will warn you that despite the culturing differences I thought were off, the film does have a lot of traditional storytelling twists and plot points in it....
posted by Amazing Shafeman at 6:01 AM
1 Comments:
Nightwatch has one of the best opening hours in cinematic history. It's wierd, it's fast, it's beautiful. Then, it starts to slow down. The plot starts getting bogged down. Then, when we get to the big climax, and you think it's gonna get cool again, BAM!, it's over. Severe anti-climax. I almost wish I could recut the film and excise about thirty minutes of unneccessary stuff. And redo the ending.
But that's just me.
I'll probably catch the next two if the other fellas go to watch it.
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