Brief plotline: Vampires meet the Matrix in Moscow.

NIGHT WATCH was a very Russian movie: epic themes spanning centuries, classic battle of good vs. evil, and a greying of the lines between the two sides. This is the first of three movies (DAY WATCH and DUSK WATCH are to follow) based upon the novels by Sergei Lukyanenko, which I haven’t read. But the basic moving conflict is not tough to understand: the forces of light and dark have a Truce, and have police forces to watch over each. The Night Watch are superhuman forces of Light (”Others”) that ensure that the Dark minions hold to the Truce. But soon a new Other is coming that will tip the balance between Light and Dark, plunging the world into chaos forever….

You get the idea.

NIGHT WATCH lurks in the dangerous world of vampire/matrix cliche films like UNDERWORLD or ULTRAVIOLET or what have you, where it’s all too easy to slip into convention, never to re-emerge. While the film tries its best to avoid these well-worn Hollywood pathways, it nevertheless succumbs at times — I mean, how can you do an original vampire movie these days? NIGHT WATCH has a level of complexity and moral ambiguity to it that renders it more interesting as a work than those other hack-pieces, but at the same time it cannot completely leave them behind.

NIGHT WATCH succeeds because it is utterly devoted to its world. It’s an intensely atmospheric film; characters live in worlds of grey and dark, with occasional peeks into the day world which seems garishly, unnaturally bright. No one wears patent leather or spouts pseudo-intellectual gibberish. Instead NIGHT WATCH presents the world as it is, with a strange, sad tone. The forces of Light are tired of their struggle, and the forces of Dark relish in the growing gloom over the world. It strikes me as a particularly Russian way of approaching the genre, even though I have no real basis to make such a statement.

Overall, I enjoyed it and would recommend it. I plan on watching the sequels as well to see how this world and its story unfold. I agree with the review in The Stranger: “Taps into its own cultural wellspring of downright weirdness. I’m not sure what the hell I saw, but I wouldn’t mind watching more of it.”

Final note: the film wins the award for best subtitles ever. They animate, move, dissolve and change color for the characters and scenes. Characters whose voices are muffled show distorted subtitles and screams come in giant ALL CAPS. I’d recommend the movie on the basis of its subtitles alone, but the film itself isn’t bad, either.