Dnevnoy dozor
Tags: murder, cult, atmospheric, flashback, good versus evil, psychedelic

Plot synopsis:
MOSCOW, January 2006. It is the day after New Year's Day, over one year after the events in the first movie Nochnoy dozor/Night Watch. Night Watch agent Anton Gorodetsky [Konstantin Khabenskiy] and his trainee, Svetlana 'Sveta' Nazarova [Mariya Poroshina], the Virgin, are driving along the freeway near the Moscow Expo Center. Sveta is reading aloud a book about the legend of how Tamerlane came to possess the Chalk of Fate, an ancient artifact reputed to possess the ability to change one's fate. Suddenly, an emergency APB comes over the truck radio. An old woman has been attacked near the Expo Center by a Dark One wielding a long needle that he plunged into her back and began sucking out her lifeforce. Anton and Sveta quickly locate the woman. When Sveta sees the ski-masked assailant running away, she takes off after him with Anton trying to keep up. The assailant leads Sveta into the Gloom. Anton follows, but when Sveta and the assailant pass into second level Gloom, where only Great Ones can go, Anton is unable to penetrate the shield. As he calls to Sveta to come back, the Dark One sneaks up behind her and stabs her with his needle. Sveta spins around and pulls off his black ski-mask to reveal a young boy. Anton gasps. It is his son, Yegor [Dmitriy Martynov]. Before Sveta can eliminate Yegor with her UV flashlight, Anton manages to break the shield and pull Sveta back from the Gloom.After their ordeal, Anton and Sveta stop for beers at Cafe Zoar. Sveta wonders why Anton protected the Dark assailant, but he won't talk. The leader of the Light Ones, Anton and Sveta's boss Gesser (now going by the name Boris Ivanovich), enters the restaurant and reminds Sveta that she has a lecture to give tonight. After Sveta has left, Gesser/Boris [Vladimir Menshov] reminds Anton that it is forbidden to have personal relations with trainees, but his warning comes too late. Anton has already fallen in love with Sveta. After Gesser leaves, Anton finishes his beer and reads a little more in Sveta's book, the part about how Tamerlane was buried in Samarkand with his right fist clenched, presumed to be holding the Chalk of Fate. He then has Zoar [Nurzhuman Ikhtymbaev] wrap his remaining manti and, drunker than a skunk, Anton leaves the restaurant and heads for home.Zavulon [Viktor Verzhbitskiy], leader of the Darks, and his fiancee, the Dark witch Alisa [Zhanna Friske], are checking out the hall at Hotel Cosmos where they plan to hold Yegor's 14th birthday party coming in a few days when Yegor suddenly races in, upset about the fact that he was chased into second level Gloom. Just then, Zavulon gets a phone call about the attack on the old woman, warning him about the ski-mask left behind. It is imperative that they get it back before it can be linked to Yegor. The mask has been stored in the Night Watch archives, so Zavulon sends Yegor's teacher, Galina Rogova [Irina Yakovleva], to intercept Anton on his way home and ask him to go into the archives and get the cap in order to protect his son. Anton refuses, but later he sneaks into the archives and gets the mask anyway. While there, he also enters the Central Asia vault and reads the files on the Chalk of Fate, which confirms the legend that Tamerlane was buried in the Gur-Emir mausoleum in Samarkand and that he was believed to be clutching
the Chalk in his right hand. Anton also learns that Gesser made a request to search the tomb back in 1941, but it was denied.Galina is murdered on her way home by an unknown assasin, and her body found the next morning. The Darks' suspicion immediately falls on Anton. Since the Truce between Lights and Darks forbids any Light to kill a Dark (and vice versa), Zavulon orders Alisa to dig up some evidence on Anton so that they can take it to the Inquisition. Alisa talks with Galina's five-year old daughter Mashenka, but Masha denies knowing Anton. Next, she talks with Anton's neighbor, Kostya Sergevich [Aleksey Chadov], who has recently received his vampire papers, having been turned by his father Valery [Valeriy Zolotukhin] when he was a child dying of pneumonia. So far, Kostya has resisted drinking human blood. To Alisa, he admits to peering out the window last night and seeing Anton talking with Galina.Gesser has also received news of Galina's murder and that Anton is being accused. Gesser knows that Anton was in the archives at the time that the murder took place, but he also knows that Anton will never admit to that because it will finger his son as the attacker of humans, so Gesser contrives to have Anton and mage Olga switch bodies and then sends Anton (in Olga's body) to stay with Sveta. Although Sveta has the power of introscopy (the ability to see objects behind closed doors), she fails to accept her initial feeling that it is Anton in Olga's body and starts telling "Olga" about her feelings of love for Anton. When they get to Sveta's apartment, Sveta takes a shower while "Olga" fumbles around in the kitchen. Sveta asks "Olga" to bring her a towel, and "Olga" is mesmerized by Sveta's naked body through the shower curtain. "Olga" confesses that she and Anton have switched bodies and that "she" is really Anton inside. At first Sveta is angry, but soon they are in the shower together, kissing and hugging. Later, they go out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant.Meanwhile, Alisa has gone to pick up Kostya at his apartment. She tells him that they suspect Anton and Olga may have switched bodies, and she wonders if Kostya would recognize Anton in a different body, but Kostya isn't sure. When Alisa begins to caress Kostya's hand, he notices that she is wearing a gold band on her ring finger. It's actually a magic
ring that connects her feelings with Zavulon, and Alisa is unable to remove it. Makes no difference. They drive around in Alisa's Mazda, kissing each other.Back at the Chinese restaurant, "Olga" goes to use the rest room and mistakenly opens the door to the men's room. On the floor lies a dead man. Recognizing him as a Dark, Sveta and "Olga" run from the restaurant, straight into Gesser's car. It's a set up, Gesser explains as they find their car surrounded by Zavulon and many Darks. Zavulon informs Gesser that he's filing a formal charge of murder against Anton. Knowing that Anton is in Olga's body, the Darks lead her away. It is forbidden for any Light agents to interfere, but Sveta will have none of that. She rushes at Zavulon. When Gesser stops her, she wills a bus to appear and run smackdab into Zavulon, which only serves to anger an immortal. Zavulon knocks down some electrical wires and uses one of them like a bullwhip, striking at "Olga" as she flees. fortunately, "Olga" makes it to a taxi and gets away. She places a call to a friend at Samarkand and requests to be allowed into Tamerlane's tomb. She also calls "Anton" and demands that they switch back into the correct bodies. They are to meet at the airport in 30 minutes.Meanwhile, two Inquisition agents visit Gesser at his office in the Gorsvet Light and Power Company. They give him until dawn to prove that Anton is innocent in regard to the deaths of the two Darks or they will issue a warrant for his elimination. If Gesser refuses to hand Anton over, the result will be war. If he files an order of protest, it will be
denied. Gesser's hands are tied either way.Olga and Anton are back in their own bodies, having exchanged in an airport elevator. Anton purchases a ticket to Samarkand and, after a bit of a problem getting through security with his weapons belt, he boards the plane. Olga follows him on board, and they sit in aisle seats opposite each other. The plane tries to take off, but Olga and Anton use their powers to start and stop it until Olga relents and lets the plane take off. Once in the air, Olga confesses to Anton that she knows the Chalk is not in Tamerlane's hand because she tried to get possession of it in 1941. At the same time, Sveta is asking Gesser why he isn't doing anything to save Anton. Gesser, hoping to stop Sveta from interfering, tells her how he once broke the Truce and how Olga tried to help him. He was acquitted, but Olga was sentenced. Back on the airplane, Olga explains how she was warned by Zoar, Tamerlane's right hand man, that to open the tomb would start a war. Anton suddenly realizes that the Chalk rests with Zoar (right hand = right hand man) and asks Olga to help him mentally direct the pilots to return the airplane to Moscow. Unknown to both of them, Zavulon's spy Popugay [Igor Lifanov] (Parrot) has been listening to their conversation.After returning to Moscow, Anton heads for Cafe Zoar. He requests that Zoar hand over the Chalk, and Zoar does it willingly, informing Anton that he need only write his wish on the blackboard. Anton writes Yegor, and Yegor suddenly enters the cafe. Father and son embrace. While Anton gets some warm rice plov to eat on this cold and snowy night in January, Yegor takes a call from Sveta on Anton's cell phone. Yegor tells Sveta that Anton has a family and warns her not to call him anymore. When Anton returns with their rice plov, Yegor asks his father to come home and eat again with his mother, but Anton says that he has another life and can't do that. Angry and upset, Yegor smashes the cell phone and runs out of the cafe. Zoar explains that the Chalk didn't work for Anton because it had to be written at the place where Anton carved his own destiny... the apartment where he conspired with the Dark Witch Darya Leonidova 14 years ago to abort the child being carried by his wife Irina, a child he thought belonged to another man. Anton puts on his coat to leave the cafe and, checking his pockets, discovers that Yegor has taken the Chalk.Later that night at 1:00 AM, Anton calls Irina [Mariya Mironova] anyway and asks to speak with Yegor. She says that he's sleeping. After hanging up on Anton, Irina checks on Yegor and finds him not there. Yegor is with Zavulon, getting a haircut. Yegor presents Zavulon with the Chalk. Unable to touch the Chalk, Zavulon suggests that Yegor give it to Alisa. Anton tries to hitch a ride to the Expo Center, but he recognizes that the driver of the car that stops for him is a Dark. Anton manages to get away by hanging on to Popugay's passing car until he thinks he can safely drop off. Popugay continues to follow, so Anton jumps through a Metro sign into the Gloom and lands in a Metro station. When he sees scores of Darks coming down the stairs, he jumps into a moving train and escapes.Sveta, Gesser, and Olga look for Anton at Zoar's but find only his smashed cellphone. When Gesser mentions that Yegor has taken the Chalk, Sveta retreats to the ladies' room, disappears outside, and hops into a taxi. Meanwhile, Kostya and his father Valery are washing clothes together when their doorbell rings. It is Sveta looking for Anton. Sveta recognizes Kostya as a vampire, and he jumps at her for the shock value, but his father pulls him back, claiming that no laws have been broken. Sveta assures them that she's not interested in accusing them, and she departs. Finding it hard to deal with his budding vampirism, Kostya puts on his coat and hat and leaves the apartment.In her room at the Cosmos, getting dressed for the party, Alisa slips the Chalk into her cleavage. On second thought, she takes it out and writes Kostya on the wall. Suddenly, there is a knock at the door. It is Kostya, come to run away with Alisa. Alisa explains that the ring she is wearing connects her to Zavulon in such a way that he can feel everything
she feels, so she can't just leave. Kostya promises to help her get the ring off, when there is another knock on her door. It is Zavulon, come to hurry Alisa along to the party. He recognizes Kostya as Valery's son, but Alisa covers for Kostya, saying that he's here because he can recognize Anton even if he's wearing another body.Anton has made it to a pay phone and tries to place a call. He is interrupted by Popugay, and they proceed to fight. Then Anton has an idea. He presses Popugay's face into the snow, digs out the impression, and places it on his own face. When the snow falls away, Anton has transformed into Popugay and can now attend Yegor's birthday party without drawing notice to himself. Unfortunately, he addresses someone with the wrong name and gets his face punched for it, returning him to his real face. To escape, Anton jumps through the Gloom and goes looking for Yegor. His face bloodied, Anton runs into a large, dark banquet hall. Suddenly the lights are turned on, and he finds himself in a room filled with Darks, all celebrating Yegor's birthday. Zavulon hands Anton a microphone and tells him to say a few words to his son. Anton wishes Yegor health and happiness and then downs a toast to him, not knowing that his drink has been inadvertently mixed with blood, which affects Anton as potent alcohol would.Reeling as though drunk, Anton makes merry with the Darks. Alisa asks Zavulon whether she should alert the Inquisition that Anton is here, but Zavulon says to wait, because there is one more guest who still hasn't arrived, that guest being Sveta. Legend says that when Sveta and Yegor, the two Great Ones, meet and spill only one drop of blood, it will begin
the annhilation of the world, shifting the power between Darks and Lights, and that's what this birthday party has been arranged to do. Zavulon informs Anton that the Inquisition is coming to take him away, but Anton just laughs. "Do you really want to know who murdered Galina Rogova?", he asks the crowd, just as Valery arrives at the party. Anton has figured it out: Valery made a deal with Zavulon in order to save Kostya from being labeled as a vampire. Zavulon agreed to delay the papers in return for Valery killing Galina so that Zavulon could lay the blame on Anton.Two Inquisition agents suddenly appear in the door. The Great Truce has been broken, they say, and ask Valery whether he will confess to the crime. Valery admits it, and the agents finally pronounce Anton innocent of the charges. As Valery leaves the hall to go away with the Inquisition agents, Kostya leaps to his feet, grabs his father's two-sided wooden stake, and rushes at Zavulon, intending to kill him for setting up his father. Zavulon grabs the stake and places it between himself and Kostya. So that no one will suspect what is actually happening, he pretends to tango with Kostya as he thrusts the stake through Kostya's chest. Realizing that Zavulon has just stabbed Kostya, Alisa jumps from her chair, but Anton grabs her and asks for the Chalk. Still clutching Kostya to his body, Zavulon leaps from the window, just as a taxi drives up to the hotel, and Sveta gets out.When Sveta enters the banquet hall, Anton notices her and tells her to go home. For a moment, Yegor is fooled into believing that his father does not love Sveta and has become a Dark, but Zavulon (returned from his trek outside) explains that Anton is just casting shadows, i.e., pretending. Wanting to get Sveta out of his father's life, Yegor remembers that he stuck Sveta with a needle when they were in the Gloom together. "I could drink from her now", Yegor says and starts sucking on a juice container. As Yegor drains the juice, Sveta's lifeforce starts draining out, too. Sveta falls to the floor, and her face starts aging.Meanwhile, outside of the Cosmos, Light agents have begun amassing. Olga and Light agent Simeon [Aleksey Maklakov] are racing to the Hotel, but their truck keeps getting intercepted and surrounded by Darks in their trucks and on their motorcycles. Sensing that Sveta is being drained of her lifeforce, Olga calls Sveta on her cellphone. When Sveta answers, Olga tells her not to close her eyes or to stop breathing. As the motorcycles ram Olga's truck, she keeps talking to Sveta, instructing her to get up off the floor and stay away from Yegor. When Sveta finally manages to get to her feet and stumble out to the hall, Zavulon hands a yoyo to Yegor and tells him to practice with it. This isn't just any yoyo, however. It is a yoyo of mass destruction.Yegor follows Sveta into the hall and confronts her with the yoyo. Sveta refuses to fight and turns to leave. Yegor rushes at her, and the two of them collide with a third person, knocking Yegor to the floor, with Gesser there taking photos of it all. When Yegor gets to his feet, his nose starts to bleed, and a drop of his blood falls to the floor. The war between Darks and Lights has begun! As Olga and other Light agents run down the hotel halls, knocking on doors and telling the guests to evacuate, Yegor tosses the yoyo at Anton. The yoyo cracks open to reveal more yoyos, and these yoyos multiply and begin flying around the banquet hall, destroying tables of food, knocking holes in the walls, and killing
both Darks and Lights. Soon the yoyos are unleashed on the city of Moscow. Within minutes, all of Moscow lays wasted.Back inside the banquet hall, Alisa has finally managed to get the ring off her finger... by cutting off her finger. Zavulon and Anton both go looking for Alisa so they can get the Chalk, but Anton gets to her first. Alisa is writing Kostya zhiv (Kostya lives) on the wall, but Anton tells her that it won't work because she was not the cause of his death. Anton
admits that he is to blame, so Alisa gives him the Chalk. As Anton races to exit the hotel, he is intercepted by Sveta and Yegor, each grabbing one of his arms, trying to pull him to their sides. All around him, the building is collapsing. As a large shard of glass falls down, headed right for Anton, certain to slice him in half, Gesser appears and snaps a
picture with his camera. Suddenly time stops, leaving only Gesser and Anton able to move and speak. "What a mess you've made," Gesser says to Anton.Gesser warns him that the camera will only hold for a short exposure so Anton must hurry and fix what he created from all this. Anton races back to the old apartment building where he first made the deal with Darya. The building has been destroyed, but the walls are still standing. He climbs to the old apartment, takes out the chalk, and writes Nyet (No) on the wall....Suddenly, everything reverts back to 1992. Anton is facing the Dark witch Darya [Rimma Markova] over her wanting to perform a spell to kill his pregnant ex-wife, and Darya asks Anton whether he wants her to perform the spell and agree to bear the responsibility for killing an innocent. "Nyet," replies Anton as if he is under some kind of spell. As he leaves the apartment, he runs into the three Light agents -- Ilya [Aleksandr Samoylenko], Lena [Anna Slyu], and Simeon -- in the hallway. Simeon asks him for a cigarette, but Anton says that he doesn't smoke and keeps going, giving no indication that he recognizes the agents. "He's human again," Simeon assures Ilya and Lena.Anton goes outside. It is spring and raining. As he walks down the sidewalk, a pig-tailed Sveta walks past him. Seated on a bench, Gesser and Zavulon watch, making bets on whether or not Anton will recognize Sveta, Gesser betting 'yes' and Zavulon betting 'no'. As Anton passes Sveta, he turns to look at her, then rushes to catch up with her. "Have we met?" he asks Sveta. "Maybe we did," she replies, as they walk off together.[Full summary by BJ Kuehl]

Review: While it can definitely appeal to a wider international audience (my girlfriend, albeit a bit of a Russophile, is an indication of that), it is at the same time literally packed with all sorts of clever wordplay and references to various realities of Russian life, ranging from political satire to hilariously blatant product placement.Even though I can enjoy a less obnoxious art-house film every now and then, on the whole I prefer clever commercial movies, and Day Watch falls into that category very neatly..
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.
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.
Really good continuation of Night Watch assumes you've seen the first film as it furthers complicates the war of darkness and light..
There are no reintroductions, just forward motion so be prepared, see Nightwatch.Picking up some time after Night Watch ends this film concerns two parallel stories Anton's search for a means of righting all that has gone wrong since he joined the Watch, and his framing for the murder of one of the Day Watch.
Ironically, there is something kind of impressive about the sheer sloppiness of Day Watch (sequel to Night Watch) I would never have thought it possible for a fictional movie to be this big a wreck and still allow me to follow the plot (but barely) Day Watch is ridiculously demanding of an audience members attention and it doesn't give us anything in return.
The ending is the kind that makes the whole thing seem pointless, and by the whole thing I also mean the plot of Night Watch.How ever much you may have loved the first, is not gonna be enough to make Day Watch a worthy investment of time.
If you've watched the original film in this series you probably have a fair idea of what to expect from this offering: a surreal and dark Russian fantasy of battling supernaturals, enlivened by incredible special effects and impressive set-pieces.
Unfortunately the producers invested lots of money in the movie, but forgot the most important and used a confused story that makes no sense; indeed we have just watched this film and we did not understand the plot.
good effects though.bottom linethe makers of day watch have tried way to hard to come up with anything solid that surpasses night watch (even that was a bit iffy) and have moved well away from what this film should have been (not underworld 1 or 2) to an almost Charlie Chaplin like production.
In the movie, they tell you the whole story in the first minutes, so that you can already know what to expect, but then, instead of developing the characters and building understandable situations, they just recur to a chaotic display of events with no logical or sensible way to connect them.
I am under the impression that the writer gets paid for his not meddling in the filmmakers' work."The Day Watch" is a mixture of an action film, a melodrama, a detective story and fantasy.
The is some nice CGI and that is the only reason I am willing to give this piece of cr*p 2 stars.The people who actually think of this movie as one of the best ever made should be forbidden to write their reviews because they are clearly "others" ;) who are trying to get into to our minds and alter our perception what is real quality film making and good story telling.Don't go see the movie, really, don't...just read the book and leave it at that.
Worst yet, I didn't even care about the characters.Obviously, a lot of people had put money and effort into the movie, so I assumed I must not be "getting it," -- like a dog watching a car being fixed, waiting for a ride to the park.But the car never got fixed and I never got to go for my ride!
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.
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.
I've seen a few reviews that say you would need to read the book first to understand but if that's the case then what is the purpose of even watching this crappy movie.
--- all kinds of destruction and annihilation plus lots of the accompanying noise.Summing up: a music video director with plenty of cool ideas plus many CPU-hours spend on special effects does equal a good movie.
We love cars, money, parties, extreme more than other people of this planet :) The First film of the year - the first triumph of pop-movies with a humor, glamor, cool effects and arty director's work!
(Not litterly but close enough..) I think everyone should see both Night- and Day Watch simply because of the incredible story, actors and actresses and the unbelievable special FX!
I sometimes thought to myself: "This is more or less (has nothing to do with the story at all!) what War of the Worlds should have looked like with so much realistic destruction made by the SFX guys!!" I give it a 10 because this is one of the best Sci-Fi movies ever!.
u don't see this stuff in Hollywood.The idea,the effects the acting the scenarios are totally different than any other movie you ve watch.Pay attention to single details because great movies are usually a bit complicated.Follow the idea and if u can read the books they are really interesting.
This trilogy is tarantinos 2nd favorite trilogy.I never thought that Russian movies will ever call my attention again but they did it and in a great way!.Movie wont be in the theaters soon i watched it already from a Russian DVD and i can tell u that it deserves your time and attention.Lets support independent films.Enjoy day watch and just wait for Dusk Watch.
Well, the visuals were amazing, no doubt in that, but the story...So I read these boards, hoping to find some answers, but apparently all the answers are in the first movie: which isn't very helpful when I just paid to go see the sequel.I've read some of the reviews, but it seems everyone is all hyped up about this film - the exact opposite of what I've experienced.
The first 10 minutes I thought were good, they sort've outlined what was going on - and then it crashed and burned into a twisted entropy of randomness (which I am guessing was explained in the first movie).The problem I have is that the story didn't help anyone who didn't see the first movie - which is a bit humorous because no where did I see to go see the first movie before watching this movie - or at least a plot explanation in the introduction.
But then still I think "Day Watch" is an overall disappointing film that basically hasn't got much of a story to tell and certainly doesn't deserve the hype and attention it's getting.
Others will have described the massively complex plot here better than I ever could but I just came here to add that, even watching this is a foreign language with English subtitles, I 'got' enough of the in jokes (maybe it would even be called satire?) to laugh at the right parts of this film.
I found it very difficult to care about any of the characters, couldn't tell what the hell was going on for about half of the movie and didn't really care what was going on by the time it lurched to its predictable conclusion.The film was basically 146 minutes of boredom alleviated only by Zhanna Friske in That Dress, and my attempts to use my rather rusty Russian language skills to decipher the street signs in the background.
Couldn't Understand It, So I Didn't Like It. I had heard some very good things about DAY WATCH, so when I found the original DVD with Russian language soundtrack in DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 I promptly bought it.
The DVD blurb says— "Like 'The Matrix', DAY WATCH combines cutting-edge digital effects and mind-blowing action to create a stunningly original world."To be very honest, I did not understand 'The Matrix'.
In fact the first time I saw the movie I actually wasn't sure what to make of it, I decided I liked it because of the brilliant cliff hanger of an ending, that and of course the great action sequences.
Maybe I had too clear a view of how I wanted it to end, maybe I need to see it another time to like it better, but on first viewing its not my favourite ending of all time.Overall Day Watch is a movie I cannot recommend highly enough and is certainly better than nearly all the blockbusters of this year.
If you watch Nigth Watch and was a little bit disappointed and thought the movie had great potential, feel safe on watching Day Watch, but do not expect to see all the problems solved.The story is less confusing than the first one, but I still think they could have done it better, and that's the only problems that I've been having with the two movies, that the creators have the chance to create no only a great movie, but also a great world of fantasy, and became another star wars, having people going crazy to know about this world, but they just could not do it.Still, go and see it if you like these type of movies, see it also if you want to see something different....if not, go and see something else you are not going to miss a lot..
In contrast to the first movie "Night watch", this one is a bit less complicated to understand what's happening and why, but the special effects are much more advanced.
As a lot of people,I admired the style,creativity and direction of the film Night Watch.But,the story left me perplex.But,knowing that the film was based on the first part of a trilogy,I trusted that the two following movies would explain some mysteries.Day Watch,the second part,answers some mysteries and a few things things are clearer.This second part is totally fun, and better than the first part.The story in this second part is better developed.It also is visually spectacular and always fun.The characters are very well constructed.I also appreciated that the film leaves some things to the spectator's imagination.I like a lot when a movie does not explain everything and it leaves things for the spectator to conclude.Day Watch shows us how an innovative perspective can change the North American typical clichés of action movies.Day Watch is an enormously fun movie which did not bore me even one second..
Day Watch it's more than a plot of special effects and action, it's the other side of creation : real ART.It's full of emotion and poetry which involves the watcher in a story about the equilibrium of the bad and the good side of humanity.
His actions are a breech of the weak truce that keeps both the Day and Night Forces at peace.This is the sequel to Night Watch, a movie that I haven't watched and, after watching this film, I will never do.Day Watch is a moronic senseless and pretentious film, with mediocre and pedestrian acting, and good special effects.
The second film in the 'Watch' series builds on the same strong cinema messages as the first one, but the surprise is missing here, and as in the Matrix follow-ups repetition without too many new elements makes the best ideas look a little bit tired.
Although watching the action becomes tiring and confusing, the pace kills the development of the story and of the characters and makes it look much more a Hollywood production than a Russian movie, it is still a different kind of film, worth seeing..
But the fun isn't in plot, anyway, but in the would-be hammy performances that these guys (and you can tell from the making-of on the DVD) take so damn seriously.Thank goodness, then, that in the midst of this 'city-fantasy' as the producer dubs it, Bekmambetov allows for some earned camp, like when Anton- in disguise as a switcheroo with another Light-one agent- reveals to Svletlana that she is really Anton, and then Svetlana gets mad (she's in the shower, by the way), and then the two have an explosive, sensual kiss as they're transposed in front of a jungle waterfall (?) Or with little things like that freaky spider-doll-head-out-of-Toy-Story-thing during the climactic birthday party.
I thought NIGHT WATCH was bad, but DAY WATCH is even worse: it's an endlessly long mix of over-complicated plotting, ridiculous characters and outrageous special effects scenes added in for nothing other than lousy spectacle.From the very beginning I was out of my depth, caught up in scenes (forever muddled up with flashy editing) involving posturing characters fighting over a delicate balance between good and evil.
There's some nonsense back-story involving magic chalk (I kid you not) and when things threaten to slow down a pointless action scene is thrown into the mix (like a car driving along the side of a building for no apparent reason).There's over two hours of this trash to sit through, during which time I became convinced that the filmmakers thought they were making an epic along the lines of LORD OF THE RINGS.
this has been the case for me with day watch, in fact, night watch also helped a little bit.the main problem is that we don't have these movies in theaters in turkey (at least i didn't come across) or as original DVD's.
"Day Watch" attempts to make the plot even more confusing, but still remains almost as enjoyable as the first.The main problem here is the story, I didn't know where we were going or who people were half the time.
I didn't think "Day Watch" was as good as the "Night Watch", the story sort of got lost and it's easy for you to get lost amidst the fantasy any-thing-goes narrative.
And although the ending did seem like a complete cop-out and a waste of time, just sit back and enjoy the mind-blowing special effects, incredibly paced editing and exciting action.
After the first one might have been a little bit too confusing for western audiences (although still many loved the movie), this time around, it's much clearer (the plot that is) and even has an element (involving a man and a woman and vice versa) in the story, that seems to strengthen that point.Still if you hated the first one, don't bother watching this one.
The first movie opened to much fanfare here with overnight festivities and a graveyard hour premiere, but reality set in soon after that local audiences perhaps aren't game for something too foreign, despite it that it stuck to the familiar action-effects formula.So Day Watch will soon premiere on the local screens with less of the ra-ra fanfare, and while it helped a bit with its summarized recap of the first movie, my advice would be to ensure that you'd watch Night Watch first so that the characters who appear don't look too odd to you, and it'll be more satisfying come the ending because it makes the two movies just perfect and a wrap up.
It is hard to follow the dialogue, with the Russian accent voice-over and the impossible transitions from a scene to the other, but there is an underlying dark story that is hard if not impossible to be expressed by any Western culture and makes the film really stand out.Imagine Constantine, the Keanu movie, but with a really complex relationship between good and bad, less guns, more rules and breaking of rules, all of this around a poor guy who only wants to get back his son from the hands of the evil that adopted him, but has almost no power to affect any change except when it matters.
The CGI effects are better than the last movie, Night watch.
I don't know but whatever the second sequel is coming, I will be watching it.Overall, it does make a great action-packed movie.
So, a couple of days after watching Nochnoy Dozor I gave this one a try hoping to have more fun, much more, and I didn't.Dnevnoy Dozor is a fair sequel but lacks of the exact same elements I referred to Nochnoy Dozor.For both movies I was hoping to see crazy special effects to go with a crazy story and characters.
Needless to say, Day Watch was my most anticipated film in a long time and I bought it as soon as I could find it, confident that not even the possibility of horribly translated subtitles could ruin this movie for me.