Day Watch (2007)

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Others will have described the massively complex plot here better than I ever could but I just came here to add that, even watching this is a foreign language with English subtitles, I 'got' enough of the in jokes (maybe it would even be called satire?) to laugh at the right parts of this film. The rest is done with such beautiful and surreal panache that you can't help but love it. A great and truly entertaining film that doesn't condescend or foreshadow anything. You won't know what's around the next bend but you'll probably agree it's all just as it should be. (And it's better than the first installment as well!)

Night Watch personally was neither a great or terrible film, if anything it was kind of a mixed bag. Its sequel Day Watch was lacking in a lot of areas and while Night Watch was far from great it was better than this. There are definitely things to like about Day Watch. Like its predecessor it is stunning to look at, it's beautifully shot and the scenery is very Russian, very like Russian fairy-tale quality. The special effects are also great, and while occasionally erratic so is the music score with its fair share of rousing and haunting moments. If there's anything also that Day Watch does better than Night Watch is that the action sequences have more energy and cohesion, some of the stunts are a wonder to behold. The acting is not very consistent though, there are no complaints about Konstantin Khabensky who's great but supporting roles could have a tendency to feel over-compensated(Viktor Verzhbitsky) or vapid(Maria Poroshina). The story is a mess, the actual structure is very dense but more of a problem was that there was almost too much going on or written in. Things often got confused or unexplained, even both, while the pacing gets tedious towards the end and the film feels thirty minutes too long, not to mention the cop-out of an ending. There is a great Russian fantasy/sci-fi atmosphere evoked, but the overlong length, drawn out pacing and messy narrative make a film devoid of wonder, thrills or genuine excitement outside of the action sequences, special effects and stunts. The characters are fantasy clichés and next to nothing is done with them, we know they are heroes and villains and that there's a conflict of light and dark(good vs.evil) but little else. The script is the same as the story, often underwritten and stilted with the humour feeling out-of-place. The direction is the kind that does a great job with the visual side of things but any of the assets that give substance are largely ignored, it's a little more refined this time around but can be both erratic and ponderous. Again, not a terrible directing job but a case of pluses and minuses. In conclusion, no problems visually and musically but the script and story are another story put together. 4/10 Bethany Cox

I saw NIGHT WATCH and I loved it, I saw DAY WATCH and I loved it more. All I can say is, WOW. It's hard to make a good sequel to film that already was fantastic, but they did it.The characters, again, show how well developed they are and, again, the actors show how good they are. I can't say much about the special effects but sure there is a slight improvement to the first one, but I don't give a damn about that. This film isn't about special effects, but more about what makes a good film. Well developed characters, very good acting, a good story, a good director, ... what every film should be about.Just to make one thing clear, it's not a perfect film, but it is as close as a film like that can get. I recommend it highly.

"Night Watch" was an enjoyable action fantasy with a slap of horror dashed in for good measure. Although the special effects were outstanding, they did take away from any sort of plot that was going on, which was already extremely difficult to follow. "Day Watch" attempts to make the plot even more confusing, but still remains almost as enjoyable as the first.The main problem here is the story, I didn't know where we were going or who people were half the time. I don't know whether this was down to the Russian names, or crazy plotting with "the chalk of faith" but I found it difficult to follow, however I did manage just to keep on track with what was going on. Like "Night Watch", "Day Watch" carries those same stupendous special effects that sometimes just took my breath away (car on wall- cough) which means that although the story was a bit loose, at least you could enjoy the better than average special effects that my eyes really enjoyed (they told me)."Day Watch" doesn't take itself too seriously. Which is good because if it did, it would be unintentionally funny, and is a breath of fresh air. Part of "The Matrix" problem was that it took itself way too seriously, so it just became this mega confusing, silly farce. "Day Watch" knows that it's completely insane and so just runs with it. A man can go into a woman's body, a man can wear someone's face, and you just don't care! "Day Watch" is also quite funny. I didn't think that I'd get it's Russian sense of humour, but luckily it rubbed off from the first instalment."Day Watch" not only has great action sequences, but it does occasionally have great tender moments. I really like Anton's character (not the one of Big Brother) he's interesting, and so is his relationship with his son. I know that I made out that "Day Watch" is completely hard to follow throughout, but there are actually emotional moments in their which humanise the surroundings. The editing is frantic and unusual, which seriously makes the pacing go through he roof! "Day Watch" may sit at almost 2hrs but it never gets dull.I have a few complaints however. I missed the animated subtitles that were in "Night Watch". They were compelling in itself to watch and made everything even more lively than it was. Maybe they didn't put them in because the pacing and editing is even more frantic than "Night Watch" but I missed them. I also felt really cheated with the ending. I'm not going to spoil it, but it seemed like a cop-out and made me feel that me watching "Night Watch" and "Day Watch" was a waste of time. Hopefully they'll resolve this problem when the third one comes out, but I'm not a happy bunny! I didn't think "Day Watch" was as good as the "Night Watch", the story sort of got lost and it's easy for you to get lost amidst the fantasy any-thing-goes narrative. And although the ending did seem like a complete cop-out and a waste of time, just sit back and enjoy the mind-blowing special effects, incredibly paced editing and exciting action. If you did quite enjoy "Night Watch" (like me) then you probably will quite like "Day Watch".