DAY WATCH (Dnevnoy dozor)

Day Watch forced me to take a closer look at what we accept in our own movies, especially blockbusters, and proved to me that America doesn't quite have the market cornered on ridiculous special effects epics.

Funny, how a movie can be rewarding in completely unexpected ways. I'm tempted to say I've never seen anything like Day Watch in my life (excluding, of course, its predecessor, Night Watch), with its wacky fantasy rules and bizarre visual effects that practically rough up the viewer through the screen. I spent the first half hour of Day Watch thinking it was breaking all the rules, and wondering if anyone would believe me when I tried to tell them about it later.

But I have seen plenty of movies like Day Watch before: it's called "any American blockbuster, like, ever." Especially lately, since comic book adaptations have taken over the multiplexes, and fantastical wars between good and evil are totally commonplace at a theater near you. Day Watch takes a distinctly American formula—big action, flashy effects, story existing only to facilitate the former two—and does it in Russian.

Day Watch forced me to take a closer look at what we accept in our own movies, especially blockbusters, and proved to me that America doesn't quite have the market cornered on ridiculous special effects epics.

Here is a short summary of Day Watch straight from the press materials: "Anton (Konstantin Khabensky) is on the run after having been accused of murder. Things are getting worse, and only the ancient Chalk of Fate can save the day. The problem is, the magical Chalk has been lost hundreds of years ago…" The Chalk of Fate? Are you kidding me? Then again, just consider another box office champ: Spider-Man 3. The most successful blockbusters of all time depend on making us believe in some ideas that look pretty silly on paper. Well, Day Watch made me believe in the Chalk of Fate, y'all.

A prologue (dubbed in English) brings us up to speed for those of you who missed Night Watch: among us walk the Others, members of the Light and the Dark which keep each other in check in a tenuous truce which has lasted for centuries... okay, basically this movie is Blade + Constantine + The Matrix. I'm not trying to sell the plot short here, because it's really quite good, but it's not going to help you here. Basically, the world is this close to apocalyptic war. Ain't that always the way.

The movie itself is subtitled, in a style you may have heard about. The text is sometimes animated, manipulated by the action, or seemingly visible to the characters. Surprisingly, these effects are not obnoxious, but actually add to the excitement and undo the distraction that can accompany having to read a 132-minute movie.

Day Watch kind of blew my mind. It's very, very long, and I felt it, but I didn't mind. For a movie dealing with something called the "Chalk of Fate," the plot made relative sense; at least, in every scene, I knew why I was there and what was at stake. And the special effects? They put us to shame. These Russians know what they're doing. Day Watch was released a year and a half ago in Russia, and the computer-generated effects still look better than some of what we're producing now. There are certainly a lot of special effects crowding each other in this movie, and they can certainly feel excessive at times, but that's what you sign up for.

Unlike Night Watch, the supernatural elements here are sometimes used to very human (er...) effect, as with the vampire father who was forced to infect his son to save his life, and loves him so much he will pay any price to make him human again. Throughout the film, the exploration of fathers and sons makes everything a little more interesting. Also on display is the movie's wonderful sense of humor, including a pitch-perfect body-swap sequence culminating in a surreal love scene both hilarious and touching.

I did not like Night Watch, the first film based on Sergey Lukyanenko's novels, which made more money in Russia than the Lord of the Rings trilogy. My only memory of Night Watch is a blur of bad CGI and screechy vampire fight scenes. (In fact, I would recommend the prologue of Day Watch as alternative viewing rather than actually bothering with Night Watch.) Day Watch improves on its predecessor in every way. It's not for everyone, but if it's for you, you know who you are.

NOTE: This movie has amazing special effects in almost every single shot and it cost under $5 million to produce. With rumors that Spider-Man 3 cost upwards of $500 million, you have to wonder if we're the ones doing something wrong.