Wächter des Tages

After reading the book trilogy I was looking forward to these movies. As in any adaptation, not everything makes it the screen. The movie was OK, I like the supernatural subject matter so I was able to stomach watching the whole movie. What drove me crazy is the translation!!!! I speak Russian and the subtitles were totally off. I understand that some things don't translate literally but in some parts the subtitles had nothing to do with the words that the actors spoke. If anyone is in the industry, can you please enlighten us on the process of how the subtitles come about??? Do the people at FOX think that there will be no Russian speaking people watching the movie?

Generally, sequels are inferior to their parent counterparts. However, this is one of those great times when the sequel surpasses the quality of the first and stands on it's own bearings. The plot line was well written and the acting was absolutely fantastic! Watching in the native language with the subtitles merely added to the essence of the story.

GO SEE THIS MOVIE!

But, if you have read the books these movies are based on, please do not compare. It's as if Lukanyenko decided, "This is how I wanted it as a book, but it should be this way for the movie." They are basically separate entities. Yet, both extremely satisfying. You will not walk out of the movie saying, "The book was better than the movie," because you simply cannot equate the two. And if you haven't read the books. READ THEM! It is very interesting to see the absolute contrast of the author's ideas on paper and on film.

Day watch manages to be something none of those Hollywood sci-fi saga type movies never could. It combines EVERYTHING in itself. Action, drama, suspense, CGI that's definitely better, and more believable, than in any of the matrix movies, a very intricate plot, that you have to follow carefully throughout the movie, wonderful acting and great dialogs. Well you'd say, lord of the rings has all of that too. The only thing that lord of the rings lacks is that, those three hours get a little bit boring at times. I don't know why, but i know i'm not the only one who feels that way. Day watch is three hours long too. After the movie, i went back to the ticket shop, and watched it again. That totals up to six hours of movie watching. And it wasn't boring even for a second. So why did i give it a nine? It suffers from the same thing the first movie suffered. The whole super power thing is not really explained, no one ever tells the audience how they work. You just have to live with it.

The visual effects are superb, using state of the art CGI with true artistry to create an original and interesting new look.

Unfortunately the characters are all clichés: a troubled loner cop haunted by his past, his doormat girlfriend, the crusty chief of police, the sexy bad girl, the aristocratic villain, etc.

The problem is not so much that the film makers populated the film with clichés, but that they don't do anything with them. They all play their predictable roles with predictable dialog and that's all.

Another major problem with that there is a lot of fighting, done with magic, but they never explain the magic powers, so you never know what is going on. Sometimes getting punched is bad, sometimes getting hit by a bus doesn't seem to hurt the guy. Sometimes they can shoot magic at each other, and sometimes they can't. It's visually stunning, but you don't know who is winning or losing or who is dangerous and who isn't. It's like watching a sport where you don't know the rules.

The first movie had many of the same problems, but it also had some interesting scenes, like the vampire girl in traffic and the first time the main character encounters magic. "Day Watch" has one interesting scene, the opening one set in the past, but it's bland from then on.

Phew! What an imagination these boys have!! This entire experience is very dream-like in that the strangest things make sense in this universe, you can flush yourself down a toilet, or perhaps drive a car in a MOST unusual manner, or maybe slip into another dimension to escape your enemy.

This is a world where dark ones and light ones live in an uneasy truce among the unsuspecting living. Once you get your head around this world's rules it starts to make sense and it becomes an action drama like any other, yet unlike any other. And for that, you should see it- but don't expect to understand it very much at first.. it helps if you saw the first film of this series- Night Watch, but that film sucked in comparison to this one in my opinion- and maybe that was just budgetary constraints but hey- it still sucked.

The good thing about having seen Night Watch is that it will make you like this one a whole lot more because you will understand what's going on and then focus on the plot and the action- which is quite an orgy of bizarre circumstance.

So suffer through Night Watch, then watch this and I think you will get a really unique experience out of this- it's fantasy, vampires, spell-casters and a very omnipresent Russia woven into this all. It's a must see because of it's uniqueness and to be forgiven for the occasional stupidity or clumsiness in transition it presents, it has a unique beauty that needs preservation just like a Russian. :-)

I must applaud the director for creating a scene with women and high action where you would have expected to see a man. When you see the movie- you will see what I mean, and it's just one of many of the clever and confounding -dream-rules apply- plot twists this thing will throw at you with total abandon.