remylass Wrote:I saw this as well. I must say, I was actually confused and/or bored during about half of the film. Now, I love a lot of foreign flicks, but this was not at all what I expected.
"Confused and/or bored." That's the way I feel about a lot of the live music I see these days. Come to think of it, that phrase would be a excellent name for a band.
Went to see Night Watch on Saturday. All by my lonesome. Hell, I couldn’t even get my parent to come with me. They were both rather put off by the idea of a Russian fantasy thriller.
90% of all Russian media makes my gorge rise. Can’t help it. I’m not part of that culture any more. I don’t understand the jokes, the films, the shows, even the news anchors rub me the wrong way. Despite my Russian background, my formidable years were spend in Los Angeles and culture-wise that is what I am familiar with most.
The reason I say this is that despite my adverse reaction to all things Russian, I wanted to see this movie. It seemed just as "Americanized" as I was. Both of us drawing from the same reserve, so to speak.
My personal opinion of the film? Too ambitious. They bit off way more than they can chew. The storyline was a little clumsy and convoluted and it was a little hard to keep track of all the characters.
However, the acting was superb. The main character’s pain radiated practically in waves at the audience. There was a certain humanity feel about this movie that most films didn’t even come close to capturing. I truly enjoyed the film. I liked the swanky effects and the artsy way they did the subtitles.
SPOILER
Fell in love with the jaded, weathered down Light-father and his innocent, beautiful Dark-son.
90% of all Russian media makes my gorge rise. Can’t help it. I’m not part of that culture any more. I don’t understand the jokes, the films, the shows, even the news anchors rub me the wrong way. Despite my Russian background, my formidable years were spend in Los Angeles and culture-wise that is what I am familiar with most.
The reason I say this is that despite my adverse reaction to all things Russian, I wanted to see this movie. It seemed just as "Americanized" as I was. Both of us drawing from the same reserve, so to speak.
My personal opinion of the film? Too ambitious. They bit off way more than they can chew. The storyline was a little clumsy and convoluted and it was a little hard to keep track of all the characters.
However, the acting was superb. The main character’s pain radiated practically in waves at the audience. There was a certain humanity feel about this movie that most films didn’t even come close to capturing. I truly enjoyed the film. I liked the swanky effects and the artsy way they did the subtitles.
SPOILER
Fell in love with the jaded, weathered down Light-father and his innocent, beautiful Dark-son.
"Life — and I don't suppose I'm the first to make this comparison — is a disease: sexually transmitted, and invariably fatal."
Death Talks About Life Neil Gaiman
nijimeijer Wrote: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.
This movie has been sold out for the past two weeks. It went citywide this past Friday, so I plan to watch it tomorrow between classes. I have not read =any= good reviews, but I like the premise. Keeping my fingers crossed.
AC
P.S. Ponare my two cent review durante la semana. Ciao.
i loved it.
When I first saw this trailer was a year ago. And now, and now, finally I saw this movie. Today was the opening day, and the theatre was full of people.
What a terrific film! I enjoyed it. I doubted "Is this a really Russian movie?" Visual and hard action, blood and violence...well, it was a taste like a Hollywood movie. But language was Russian and English subtitles were put on screen, so this is evidently....Russian movie. English subtitles were very unique. I liked that!
I heard this is trilogy. This first one is "Night Watch", and part 2 is "Day Watch", and part 3 is "Dusk Watch". Oh, I can't wait!
And, interestingly, sometimes they mentioned about "Other", and "Light vs. Dark" in this movie. They reminded me of "Otherness" and "Ally vs. Adversary". Coincidence? Without doubt, Sergei Lukyanenko read AC and RJ!
What a terrific film! I enjoyed it. I doubted "Is this a really Russian movie?" Visual and hard action, blood and violence...well, it was a taste like a Hollywood movie. But language was Russian and English subtitles were put on screen, so this is evidently....Russian movie. English subtitles were very unique. I liked that!
I heard this is trilogy. This first one is "Night Watch", and part 2 is "Day Watch", and part 3 is "Dusk Watch". Oh, I can't wait!
And, interestingly, sometimes they mentioned about "Other", and "Light vs. Dark" in this movie. They reminded me of "Otherness" and "Ally vs. Adversary". Coincidence? Without doubt, Sergei Lukyanenko read AC and RJ!