Visually Spectacular Day Filled with Nonsense

I’m not about to say I was a humongous fan of Russian director Timur Bekmambetov’s 2004 film Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor). I’m also not going to begin to claim I loved (or even understand) this second chapter of the proposed trilogy Day Watch (Dnevnoi Dozor). What I will say is that this is one seriously talented filmmaker who knows how to throw visual marvels at the screen like almost no other. He’s certainly good, I just only wish I could say the same thing about the pictures he’s making.

That’s probably a bit unfair. For one thing, I’m not Russian. Sure I loved reading War & Peace and, yes, I definitely believe Tarkovsky’s version of Solaris might just be one of the greatest motion pictures (not just sci-fi) ever made, but that doesn’t mean I have the first clue what it means to grow up a Russkie. The only Moscow I’ve ever been to is in Idaho, and while it isn’t my favorite city in the United States I’m hard-pressed to believe my visit there compares to life in the former U.S.S.R.

Still, cultural roadblocks aside, this sequel is seriously messed up and all over the place. Throwing in pieces of Tolkien, Lucas, Miller, Spielberg, Jackson, Scott, Tolstoy, Gorky and Dostoevsky, Bekmambetov uses the kitchen sink and then some to tell his tale. This may be based on a series of best selling novels by Sergei Lukyanenko (who co-writes the screenplay) and Vladimir Vasiliev, but that doesn’t make any of it remotely compressible. For those who thought Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End was a convoluted mess than I give you this, anyone able to figure it out and not come up with at least a couple of vexing conundrums please drop me an email and let me in on what was going on.

Basically, the story picks up just a short time after the events depicted in the first film. Anton Gorodetsky (Konstantin Khabensky) is still fighting the good fight as a member of the Night Watch, even if his son has gone over to the other side training to be the Dark’s newest, and maybe most lethal, weapon. Currently he’s training his own potential Great Other, Svetlana (Maria Poroshina), the love of his life whom he freed from attracting tragedy yet who also helped set the stage for Egor’s (Dima Martynov) descent into evil.

Tiring of the truce between the forces of Light and Dark, Zavulon (Victor Verzhbitskiy) comes up with a plan which could lead to outright hostilities and the devastation of a still-clueless humanity. Framing Anton for the murder of a Dark Other, the evil mastermind sets in motion an horrific choice for the lovely Svetlana. Only one thing, the Chalk of Fate, can stop the tide as the playing field slowly tilts towards open war, the still hurting father the only one with the knowledge of the exact words to write with it to save mankind.

But where is it? Lost for generations, no one knows its whereabouts, not even Gesser (Vladimir Menshov), Anton’s superior and the current leader of the Light doing all that he can to make sure the truce isn’t destroyed. But the falsely accused supernatural cop will not be deterred. He will find the Chalk, will stop Svetlana from trying to save him, will force his son to make a different choice because, if he doesn’t, the world as we all know it won’t just end, it will be destroyed.

That’s the simple explanation. If I were to really try and do a synopsis I think my brain might explode. This thing moves in so many directions, and moves there so unbelievably quickly, by the time I thought I had it all pretty much figured out the director had the film suddenly sprinting off into an entirely new direction altogether. More, at almost 140 minutes it just keeps going and going and going, the film stretching on into infinity yet never stopping for a single second to try and catch its breath.

But as head scratching as it all is Day Watch is never less than mesmerizing no matter which direction it is currently going in. There is a sequence where the whole of Moscow is suddenly besieged by a hurricane of tiny metal balls, towers crashing and building disintegrating in an absolutely mind-blowing cavalcade of visual magnificence. Considering Bekmambetov made this on the fraction of the budget of say a Spider-Man 3, one can’t help but wonder where Hollywood puts all of their dollars. Here, every dollar, every penny, is right up there on the screen for all to see, the special effects, production design and technical virtuosity every bit as good as any of this summer’s blockbusters released so far this year.

The director has also assembled one heck of a cast, too. Khabensky is just perfect as the comical yet stoic Anton, while Poroshina continues to impress as the tragically fragile Svetlana. Both Verzhbitskiy and Menshov are still excellent as the leaders of Dark and Light, while returning actress Galina Tyunina almost walks off with the entire picture as Anton’s would-be protector and Night Watch vixen Olga. Her scenes as a gender-swapped male, a male placed in her body against his wishes, are just about priceless, just the sight of the actress checking out her own body enough to make me giggle embarrassingly out loud.

I just wish the whole thing wasn’t such a loudly obnoxious mess. There are more twists and turns here then in a random episode of a daytime soap opera. By the time it was all over, I felt like I had just hit up against the side of the head with a ten-ton brick filled with nothing but nonsense, Bekmambetov and company keeping me watching even if I was never really quite all that sure why. Day Watch is certainly one of a kind. The problem is, I’m just not sure what that kind is or, for that matter, if is even worth recommending.

Film Rating:  êê1/2  (out of 4)