Night Watch

Language : Russian

 

Year of release : 2004

 

Run time : 1h55min

 

Genre : Supernatural Horror / Action / Fantasy / Thriller

 

Director : Timur Bekmambetov

 

 

The movie is based on the 1998 book written by Russian author Sergei Lukyanenko,in a series of five .

 

Since the beginning of time, The Others - vampires,shape-shifters,witches - ,existed.

 

The Others battle the eternal war between Darkness and Light. The Light Others are good,and protect humanity,the Dark Others plagued and tortured humanity.

The legend says the two armies met one day on a bridge,and neither wanted to let the other army cross first,so they started fighting each other. As both armies were as strong,the two leaders called a Truce.

The Truce was that no one could be forced to choose the Dark or the Light,the Light Ones keeping guard would be called Night Watch,and the guardians of the Dark,the Day Watch.

The legend also spoke of an Other,more powerful than any one,who would break the balance,and would have to choose. The legend says he would choose evil,because it's easier to be evil than good..

 

Our story starts in 1992,Moscow. Anton visits a witch,after his wife left him for another man. He wants her to come back to him,and the witch tells him she's pregnant and the baby isn't his.

Just when she's about to make his wife miscarry, unseen characters step in,and stop her.

As Anton feels weird as the witch gave him something to drink,the unseen entities are questioning the witch.

 

12 years later, a new vampire is calling her prey. The prey is a 12 year old boy,who leaves the swimming pool he was in,and walks the streets of Moscow all day long ,until he finds her.

 

Anton now works for the Night Watch,as apparently he's a seer, and is given a new mission,to find and rescue the boy. In order to find the boy,he needs to drink blood,just like vampires do,to be able to track him. So,he goes to his next door neighbor,a vampire he's friends with.

He finds the boy in the nick of time,and kills the vampire in self defence,as the vampire almost killed him.

This leads to problems from the Dark Ones,as they can feel when an Other dies,as they are only a few left.

 

Anton is given a partner,Olga, the owl. They must find the boy,as the new vampire tracks him.

Rescuing the boy again,with Olga's help,who turned out to be a woman,punished to live as an owl for 60 years,Anton discovers the boy's mother is his ex wife.

 

He is given a new mission,as they discovered the Vortex of Damnation,a virgin woman,who was cursed to sicken and kill everyone she comes in contact with.

His colleagues stay with the boy,Igor, as the vampire is stalking him.

 

This is one of my favorite movies ever since I watched it,back in 2006,I think. I watched it after I read the review someone made in a magazine,at the time. I think it was a two page long review,written so beautifully that I wanted to watch the movie,and it did not disappoint,as most of the time it does (when I'm reading or watching the review someone who loved something, wrote). And this started my passion for Russian movies,because ever since, all the Russian movies I watched were awesome!

 

The acting was great.

 

The visual effects were amazing,they still look amazing today!

 

I also liked the way the movie was directed,and if you're wondering how exactly was it directed, think of the movie Wanted,as it was directed by Timur also,and it was obvious the Americans wanted him to use the same directing skills and visual effects he used in this movie and its sequel.

 

The soundtrack written for the movie was good, but I didn't like the music of the Russian artists played every once in a while,as it sounded too commercial .

 

The link to the free, YouTube movie,but without subtitles,here:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBRlD5yWy6c

 

The movie is for rent / sale on Amazon Video, DirecTv, Google Play Movies, Vudu, YouTube.

 

Rating : The stuff dreams are made of!