Let me get this out of the way right off the top: if you're thinking, "Oooh! Ewan MacGregor! Nick Nolte!" stop reading right now. I'm not talking about that film. I'm talking about this one, the Russian fantasy blockbuster that out performed the almighty Lord of the Rings films in its homeland and has been picked up for a domestic release by Fox Searchlight, who are also chipping in funding for the sequels. That one, Ewan MacGregor surrounded by corpses. This one, some Russian guy fighting the undead. Not so different, really.
We enter the story in the 1300's. The Army of Light - warriors dedicated to rooting out supernatural evil - are confronted by the Army of Darkness on a massive bridge. Both sides refuse to give way and the ensuing battle threatens to destroy them all. And so the leaders of the Light and the Dark strike a deal, they sign a treaty guaranteeing that neither side will act without the other's approval. The Army of Light creates the Night Watch to ensure that the Army of Darkness abides by the agreement, with the Dark establishing the Day Watch to keep an eye on the light. Balance is maintained for hundreds of years but there is a prophecy foretelling that one day someone will arrive on the scene with the ability to turn the tide and end the battle conclusively. The belief is that this promised one will side with the Dark.
We then jump to the 1990's and meet Anton a man who has answered an ad in the paper and is now meeting an elderly crone who promises that she will be able to bring his young bride, who has abandoned him, back to his side. There is just one problem ... the witch, for she obviously is one, tells Anton that his wife is now pregnant by her new lover and unless the fetus is destroyed it will inevitably draw his bride back to her new lover. Anton agrees to take responsibility for any actions the witch may take and just as she nears the end of her ritual the door is kicked in and the room stormed by a trio - one of whom morphs into a tiger - shouting that the woman is under arrest and expressing surprise that Anton is able to see them at all.
We then jump another twelve years, arriving in Anton's squalid apartment where he is woken by a cryptic phone call telling him that it's time and to wear warm clothes. We quickly learn that Anton is now himself a member of the Night Watch and his task that night is to follow a young boy who is being lured into a den of vampires for an evening snack.
That not-so-brief synopsis sums up most of what you need to know about the film, both its strengths and weaknesses. On the plus side there's an undeniably compelling premise. The film is, at its core, a surprisingly amoral supernatural police procedural - why exactly are the supposed good guys allowing an innocent child to walk into that kind of danger in the first place? - and if we've learned anything from the likes of Hellboy, The X Files and Witch Hunter Robin it's that this can be a potent starting point when done well. On the negative side there's the sneaking suspicion that any film that requires a pair of distinct five-plus minute prologues before launching into the main narrative is probably a little bit muddled in the script department. That suspicion proves correct.
Let's begin with the positives. First up, what's not to like about a film that has vampires, witches, warlocks, shape shifters and any number of other supernatural beings squaring off? There's something about that which can't fail to bring a smile to any genre film lover's face. Second, director Timur Bekmambetov has a brash, energetic style and a visual aesthetic that may owe a debt here and there - he's obviously seen Jean-Pierre Jeunet's early sci-fi material and used it as a launching point for some of his visuals - but is really quite unique in this day of homogonized Hollywood. The effects aren't quite Hollywood a-list quality but are generally very good and are well employed. The medieval sequence featured so prominently in the trailer looks un-nervingly like low budget D&D stuff, but don't let that scare you off as it is beyond any doubt the film's visual low point. And finally the cast - particularly Konstantin Khabensky as Anton and Aleksei Chadov as the vastly under utilized Kostya - are quite strong.
The negatives rest dominantly in problems with the script and underlying structure of the film. The screenplay was adapted by novelist Sergei Lukyanenko from his own book of the same name and there are two major worries when a novelist adapts his own work. The first is that they assume that everyone will know the characters and situations as well as they do themselves and not spend enough time setting things up and explaining the basic mechanics of their world. The second is that artists in general have a tendancy to fall in love with their own work and are loathe to cut anything out. In the case of taking a novel to the screen this results in scenes and subplots that may be nice enough on their own but add nothing to the film as a whole. The Night Watch falls into both of these traps. It is over-full with information and characters and has so much ground to cover that it is rarely able to explain things as fully as required. As an example: it took me until a little past the half way mark of the film to realize that The Other was not actually a title for the prophesied potential messiah / antichrist but was really a term for the entire class of beings that included the supernatural beings on both sides of the conflict and those humans who had the potential to join them. Suddenly a lot of things that had been puzzling me made perfect sense and some clarity on this early on would have saved a lot of confusion. There is also an entire subplot revolving around a curse-funnel that eats significant screen time while adding nothing to the core thrust of the film.
If the folks at Fox are considering a remake of this film - and you really should because the core material is dead solid and has the potential to be an instant genre classic if done correctly - as well as making the original available here, and if some of you happen to be reading this, here's a bit of unsolicited advice. First, drop the curse sub plot entirely. You don't need it. This film is about Anton and Yegor and anything that pulls Anton away from that line should be unwelcome. Take the screentime currently devoted to that plot line and use it to juice up the action sequences at the beginning and end of the film and to allow for some character developement. Bear, Tiger and Olga all obviously have a lot of backstory which is being wasted with the film in its current form. Give us some of that. If you include secondary missions, which is not a bad idea in itself, keep them simple, have them revolve around that trio of characters and keep Anton out of them. You'll end up with something more streamlined, with a bit more kick, and with a more satisfying degree of depth.
Final analysis: The Night Watch is a deeply flawed but still entertaining film. If you have a decent cult video store in your town I'd say this is worth a rental, but not a purchase. It squanders some of its vast potential but there's still more than enough good stuff in there that I'll be seeking out The Day Watch - the in-the-can sequel - just as soon as it releases.