Review - Nochnoy dozor (Night Watch - the Russian film)

[jack]

I went to see Night Watch with CUSFS. It was a bit odd but pretty engaging.

The subtitles had some effort put in, eg. subtitles for someone reading from the computer had a pseudo typing/cursor effect; emphasised phrases sometimes appeared called out; they occasionally were wiped by people walking or falling past. They seemed to me more harbingers of footnotes to come: it makes sense for a film with a significant market abroad to put some, indeed, much, effort in, rather than have someone in an dingy office transcribe things badly onto low-contrast parts of the screen, and this did waaay more than most, but seemed mainly to make me think of other tricks you could do.

The whole good/evil supernatural beings never makes sense. Though was a bit different to the complete cliche.

It had a lovely dingy feel, that these groups were doing the best they can in a slightly run down city, rather than being the be-all and end-all of shiny.

It had a nice wry sense of humour.

There were two nearly unrelated armageddon plots.

I liked all the characters, there were quite a few, and all interesting and distinct.

The gloom was in interesting concept, but could have done with being explained a bit earlier and more.

Comments

[despotliz.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much my thoughts (I'm pondering writing a proper review). I found the subtitle effects to be incredibly annoying and distracting, with an occasional overuse of Americanisms (do russian children actually say "My bad"?).


WARNING: probably verging on spoilers below.

I liked that Anton was not your typical athletic action hero, and is really a bit shit at the fighting and has a receding hairline, and when he wears a trenchcoat and sunglasses he does not automatically look cool. the leaders of the two factions were good too.

There were lots of ideas, not all of which were properly fleshed out. Are the others supposed to be invisible to non-others, as was suggested at the beginning, or can they just see into the Gloom when normal people can't? the gloom is a nice idea not really elaboarated upon. There's no reason given why Olga is an owl in a box, other than it's pretty cool and you get some nudity. why does it go all medieval in places?

Overall I liked it, and it was a bit different. I'm told it's a trilogy, so there might be answers in the next part.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I thought it was based on a book, though I'm not sure. This would explain why it was confusing, why some things weren't explained or fleshed out and why some things were cliches.

I thought when they were invisible they were in the gloom? Am I confused? But I'm not sure why it wouldn't be dangerous.

I liked Anton. He was cool in his own way. It's often foreign films that have more interesting actors than we're used to, I don't know how to interpret this.

[despotliz.livejournal.com]

The credits suggest it was based on a book.

I thought when they were invisible they were in the gloom? Am I confused? But I'm not sure why it wouldn't be dangerous.

I thought that too. but at the arrest of the witch-lady other at the beginning, they are surprised when anton can see them, so presumably they're in the gloom, but later on we are shown that the gloom is dangerous and you can't stay there for too long, and it doesn't look like a place you'd want to go for very long anyway.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

The credits suggest it was based on a book.

And it seemed obvious from the plot, too :)

I thought that too. but at the arrest of the witch-lady other at the beginning, they are surprised when anton can see them, so presumably they're in the gloom, but later on we are shown that the gloom is dangerous and you can't stay there for too long, and it doesn't look like a place you'd want to go for very long anyway.

Exactly. We need someone who's read the book. WAG: the gloom became dangerous with a light and dark other there, or when it's attention had been drawn, or later on when the apocalyspe was growing