DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Night Watch

By Jeff Swindoll Jun 16, 2006, 16:40 GMT

From Russian director Timur Bekmambetov comes the first movie in an epic trilogy about the forces of light and darkness. The movie was a surprise blockbuster (maybe the first) in Russia, and now Fox finally brings it to U.S. audiences on DVD.

In medieval times, two armies meet on a bridge. One is the army of Light and the other the army of Darkness. Neither wants to let the other pass, so an epic battle on the bridge begins. However, Geser (Vladimir Menshov), the leader of the army of Light, sees the bloodshed and realizes that the battle will not be over till every soul on the bridge is dead. He calls a truce with Zavulon (Viktor Verzhbitsky), leader of the army of Darkness. It’s decided that the Light will watch over the night, hence Night Watch, and Darkness will have watch over the day (Day Watch) to make sure that neither side breaks the truce. Cut to 1992, Anton (Konstantin Khabensky) is going to see a witch. Seems his wife has left him for another man and he wants her back. The witch tells him that the wife is also pregnant with the other man’s child. The witch can cast a spell to make his wife return and get rid of the kid. While she’s attempting to do the spell, members of the Night Watch burst into the room to stop her from completing the spell to kill the child. These members are usually invisible to humans, but Anton can see them. It seems that he is an Other, a human with special powers. When you discover that you’re an Other, you have to choose sides – light or dark. 12 years later, Anton has chosen Light and is part of the Night Watch and on a case. A boy is being “called” by a female vampire, so that she and her male vampire lover can feed upon him.

Anton kills the vampire

Anton has to tune in on the Call and follow it to the vampire’s lair and keep them from feeding on the boy since they’re going to kill the boy without the proper paperwork (seems it’s okay to do this, as long as you have the paperwork). He catches up with the boy on the subway and thinks he sees the vampire on the train. It turns out not to be a vampire, but a blond woman with a vortex swirling over her head (this will be important later). To make a long story short, Anton screws up the truce by killing the male vampire in saving the boy. However, who is the boy and what is his role? Who was the woman on the train and what does she have to do with the mysterious happenings around Moscow? A prophecy is coming true that will lead to the end of the truce and the end of the world, can Anton and the Night Watch stop it from happening?I really liked the movie. I enjoyed the characters (Anton is not your typical action hero) and the idea behind the Night Watch. There are also some cool special effects. However, casual viewers be warned – it is part of a trilogy and not all of the questions posed above are answered in this film. In other words, there may be more questions than answers by the time the movie is over. This was a blockbuster in Russia and according to the director’s commentary was made specifically for Russian audiences. Other audiences responded favorably and now Fox brings the film to the U.S. What’s interesting is that in doing so they’ve let the filmmakers add some interesting touches. The filmmakers decided to be proud of the subtitles and add some style to them. For example, they disappear behind objects as the camera pans past and the some of them are red and dissolve in water. I thought this was a nice touch.

Truce between Light and Dark with Others in between

Night Watch is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and enhanced for 16x9 television. The film is presented on a dual sided disc. One side has the film in its original Russian (sorta, more in a minute) and the other side is a dubbed version. I say sorta because the prologue has an English narration which I doubt was on the original film and the burnt in subtitles were probably not on the film in Russian theaters. These appear to have been put in to make the Russian version more palatable to American audiences. Special features include a commentary on the Russian side of the disc. The first is by director Timur Bekmambetov (in English). He has some interesting things to say and if you like the movie, I’d definitely suggest a listen. He mentions some things that aren’t really made clear in the movie (Why Anton wears sunglasses indoors for instance, I just accepted it but there is a reason for it.). The other is a commentary by author Sergei Lukyanendo in Russian with English subtitles. The dubbed side has an 6 minute extended ending, either dubbed or Russian audio, with optional commentary by director Bekmambetov. Also included on the dubbed side are several trailers (one is a 3 minute talk by director Bekmambetov on the trilogy) and a fist look trailer for the new Omen remake (that kid looks creepy). Olga

Olga

I really enjoyed Night Watch and suggest that genre fans at least give it a rental. I’ve only touched upon the characters in my plot write up, so there’s still plenty of fun characters to be found (the Night Watch team trio of shape shifters, Anton’s partner Olga) so definitely give it a look. Night Watch is now available for pre-order at Amazon for a June 20th release. It is now available at AmazonUK. Visit the DVD’s database for more information.

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SpJun 20th, 2006 - 00:07:45

Hi Jeff,

just finished your review for Night Watch and it read more like Dull Watch !

For a movie you enjoyed why such a bland review and the review itself sounds for the most part a regurgitation of the box back panel until you get to the last few paras which sound again like the box tech specs mixed in with an occasional 'I liked it' type of thing.

Just for starters, where is the reference to that this is based on a top selling Russian comic book series ? And the release date for the UK (stated in the info box at the top of the page) is incorrect as it was released in the UK back in April and not June as indicated. The tip of the iceberg, but hey I am not going to give a review of a review because that's not my job....

But just a q for those out there.... is it not about time that reviewers actually did some homework on what they watch and type away to give an informed read to the punters who view these very pages ?

In short, a great movie but a poor and lazy review.... the site should hang it's head in shame :(

SP

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DVD EditorJun 21st, 2006 - 18:02:12

The UK release date was changed on the listing to give the movie more exposure on the main DVD page since it didn't have coverage when it came out on April 24th in the UK. We have also posted several news articles about the movie since the date for the U.S. release was announced and are participating with Fox in a web-based scavenger hunt to help promote the movie.
As to Jeff's review of the film, I haven't seen the movie so I can't compare it to the review. I will leave that to him to defend. He gave the movie three and half stars and seemed to have liked it, but there can always be more detail put into a movie review. Of course, some people prefer a short 'get to the point' review so I guess it is a matter of taste. Sorry for the confusion on the UK release date. The information has now been changed. As always, thanks for reading M&C!

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Jeff SwindollJun 21st, 2006 - 22:01:19

Question posed by SP:
But just a q for those out there.... is it not about time that reviewers actually did some homework on what they watch and type away to give an informed read to the punters who view these very pages ?

Response: Night Watch is from a series of NOVELS by Russian author Sergei Lukyanenko, not a comic book. Nightwatch is a superhero character in Marvel comics and has NOTHING to do with this movie. That's the only Nightwatch COMIC that I could find. I digress.

More importantly, knowledge of either of those Night Watches really has nothing to do with the enjoyment of the movie. I know nothing about Lukyanenko's novels and am only reviewing this DVD (again you don't have to know anything of the books to enjoy the movie). Fox did not send me a copy of the book, comic or otherwise.

Did you want spoilers in the description maybe? The idea is to give the reader a general idea of what the movie is about. My description has much more information than the back of the box.

I believe that you've already been informed about why the date was changed on the main DVD page. That was a technical issue and had to do with the promotional aspects of the site.

You don't have to know the history of ANY movie to actually enjoy the movie you're watching. If that were the case, there would be no reviews. We'd all be down at the library researching. ;}

Cheers and keep reading.

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