Imported the All Region DVD of this recently.
I have to say: the preview makes the movie look far better than it is. I suppose it just made me expect something that the movie wasn't.
Far from being some kind of mystical, epic, monsters, good v. evil battle, the movie was more of a character piece, set against this epic background. The only problem with that is that the background is just that--behind everything else. More than just leading to confusion, this leads to the viewer the sense that momentous things are always just around the corner. Unfortunately, they never seem to arrive.
It's interestingly filmed, and the sound track is really good. The acting seems to be up to par, but then, I'm going solely on audio delivery and physical acting, since I don't speak Russian.
[spoiler, highlight to read]It's basically a piece about a man who's been drawn into this epic conflict, but isn't quite committed to it. The movie is about the steps needed to make him committed to the fight, and how it takes incredible mistakes, missteps, pain, betrayal, and ultimately great loss to make him committed. The promise is there for future movies--his mistakes may destroy the world.[/spoiler]
All in all, I recommend it for the visuals, but I can't recommend it for anything else. I was basically Underworld Redux; in other words, an incredibly promising movie that never, ever delivers.
Throughout our history there are those ghosts
Compelled to illustrate our dreams and hopes
Victors hang in pictures, losers from ropes.
Regardless they all swing in the same boat.