Day Watch is, in a word, bossome. (My patent pending word hybrid of "boss" and "awesome"). It helps that I equally love Night Watch, the first film in the epic Russian sci-fi/horror/fantasy trilogy.
But it's not going out on a limb to say that Day Watch is definitely the Empire Strikes Back kind of second movie, not the Dead Man's Chest variety. Explaining the film is going to be difficult. Essentially, the forces of light and dark continue to monitor each other's balance of power in the modern world.
(The Night Watch monitors the "dark powers" (powerful vampires and other wordly types), while the Day Watch makes sure the Night Watch doesn't get out of hand. At the end of Night Watch (spoiler territory, you have been warned), the main character Anton (Konstantin Khabensky, still looking like Hugh Jackman at certain angles) fought Zavulon, the leader of the Day Watch, over control of Anton's son Yegor. Yegor chose the side of dark, and left Anton alone.
Day Watch picks up from here.
Anton travels around the streets of Russia with Svetlana, the "cursed" woman from the first film who is in possession of great power. She is the "Great Light Other", and should she ever meet the Great Dark Other (Yegor), the apocalypse will be upon us.
Anton tries hard to keep the two apart, while chasing after the mythical "Chalk of Fate", a piece of chalk that can re-write time itself. Throw in some body swapping, a murder frame-up, characters entering something called "Level 2 gloom" (only the truly powerful can access), and the most entertaining subtitles EVER, and you have yourself a grand time at the movies.
Even if a written description can't do justice and make it sound like the script was written by a 15 year old boy with a fever.
What makes the movie work so well is how it takes and expands the environment we're in. I said it before with Night Watch that these are the films the Underworld series wishes it was. It makes a compelling world viable, even if what happens in the world could best be described as ridonkulous.
Aside from a brief re-introduction to the events of the first film, the movie has little exposition to deal with, and can focus on the characters and situations.
Saints be praised to director Timor Bekmambetov, who juggles the balls with adept skill. The movie has an assured visual style, good performances, and a sense of fun that's missing from a lot of epic movies of this type.
(Apparently if I were Russian, the movie would be funnier as I would be able to understand all the jokes on the signs in the background). Oh, and the visual effects are outstanding. I marvel that a film like Spider-man 3 spends millions to have a fight scene look like a Playstation game, while Day Watch's effect budget probably wouldn't match the cost of bagels on Spidey, yet it manages to look twenty times better.
The last sequence, involving a multitude of deadly steel ball bearings and a ferris wheel (Like the rest of the movie, it makes sense in context) was more thrilling than anything I saw in the big tent pole releases this year so far. If you liked Night Watch, Day Watch will not disappoint. It surpasses Night Watch in all aspects: scope, story, performance and effects.
It's probably the best effects driven film you're likely to see all summer. In fact, I'll go on a limb and say it's the best sci-fi movie of the year. (It's not quite horror or fantasy, and calling it a foreign film is silly).
Bold statement, I realize, but once you check it out, you'll see the truth. Now all we have to do is wait for the third installment, and hope it doesn't lose the focus of what made this movie so damn great.
One last thing, I briefly mentioned the subtitles before, and if you remember the first movie they had a lot of fun playing with them.
And, like everything else about this film, it exceeds it's predecessor and does even more fun presentations of the subtitles. It adds a whole other layer of fun to the movie. Day Watch is unbelievably enjoyable.
I cannot recommend this movie enough.
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