Day Watch (2007)

The plot is so inflated with useless subplots and it's hard to understand what's going on. There's many things that could be cut out and the story wouldn't be any different. Not to mention the film itself is directed poorly, with flashing and confusing scenes. It's hard to know what's going on. And the idea of good versus evil had been done a million times. This isn't better than those others. And there's not a single likable character. The characters are actually quite despicable, for example, Anton, the main character, while inside a female body, entered Sveta's, a woman, shower without permission then when she orders him to leave he kisses her, all without her consent, and the movie portrays this sexual assault as romantic.

I'm note sure what to say. All of this film is excellent and a very worthy sequel to its predecessor. Only one problem. A very disappointing ending. It didn't seem like it was going to be, until the last minute or so, when everything unhappens. This was a fairly obvious possibility, but it makes me sad that they went for it. I suspect this very tired idea transcends culture. I haven't read the books, so maybe this was how it went, but it is not an original idea. The idea of undoing things is dangerous for a story to remain sound, but I felt cheated just as I have in various other films that have used this device. A story is a journey from one place to somewhere else, the characters who live there, the world they go through, and the changes that happen as a consequence of actions we take. We all make mistakes, and we must live with the consequences, and Anton is a very flawed person who makes many.The film is still a must see, in spite of what is sadly a common Hollywood cliché.

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. There are no thrills/chills, scares or visual splendour, but there are a few laughs. Day Watch collapses under the weight of too much content and not enough legitimate story. Regardless of whether this is a noble adaptation of the novel, it cheats a movie goer out of a good time. I approached Day Watch hoping it would enrich the story of Night Watch, which had a cliffhanger ending. What I saw is a completely different ballgame. All the same faces are back but the performance quality is so dreadful that these feel like new people. 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. This sloppy, overlong enterprise is in desperate need of a redo.

It was quite a few years ago that I watched the first movie in this series, Nightwatch. It had a quote on the jacket from Quentin Tarantino saying how this Nightwatch was as spell binding as The Lord of the Rings, and how it reminds him of works done by Ridley Scott. High praise indeed.So, I bought it. I was extremely disappointed. The movie is very slow paced. Borderline boring. It is a very interesting idea that could have used a Hollywood-like budget.Some of us may have watched some European movies during the 70s and 80s. Those movies always seems strange and boring to me, with weird music and a laid back style. Similar to older Canadian movies. This is how I found Daywatch to be. Although it is better than the prequel Nightwatch just because it's not so boring, but it never really delivers the coolness, anticipation and edge of seat action I would come to expect from a movie of this genera. It's a nice attempt, but it doesn't quite reach its goal. They also seem to completely skip character development. There's not too much of a plot, at least it's not explained all that well. The overall story of both movies is that an agreement has been reached between the forces of good and the forces of evil. They have rules in place to prevent a war between the two sides such as one that happened in their past that almost destroyed both sides. So, they have a Nightwatch and a Daywatch that are sort of like cops keeping an eye on each side to make sure no one breaks the rules. Of course, the rules get broken and these "cops" have to to break some heads.If you're really bored anyway, and you're in the rental store or a big box movie section, or even looking over the list of available movies for download at your favorite website, AND you just can't find anything you want to watch that you haven't already seen AND you just HAVE to find ANYTHING to alleviate the boredom, then by all means if you see one of these two movies go ahead and pick it up. Especially if you can get it for a cheap price (like $5).If you have something better to do or watch, then skip these movies until you're desperate.