Day Watch (2007)

I saw Night Watch on a whim a year ago and thought it was pretty good. Not good enough to rush out & buy Day Watch immediately, but a good flick. Well that was my mistake.I'm here to tell you that Day Watch is such an impressive experience that you MUST rush out and watch it immediately after seeing Night Watch. In the history of cinema, very few sequels have been as good as the first. The Empire Strikes Back is one. The Silence of the Lambs is another. Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan oh hayell yes. And DAY WATCH.The budget clearly got a shot of steroids after the success of the first, and this is evident in very slick, heart pumping CGI scenes. Funny I was never one for car chases but there's one here which alone is worth the price of admission. It involves a car driving on the side of a skyscraper, how cool is that.But believe it or not, it wasn't the flashy effects and excitement that really got my attention. It's the way the characters were more confident, more human, and more charismatic than the first. This led to much humor, sentimentality, and a very powerful love story--none of which detracted from the pace and action. In fact this is an excellent example of how breaks for humor and sentiment can greatly augment the momentum of a film.A word of caution to the English-speaking audiences. The subtitles, while adequate, do not cover all the dialogue. So if you have trouble keeping up with the plot, there's your culprit. I watched it with subtitles and managed to hold on, but I was left with a few questions. I've since been told that this is one of the few movies where dubbed English is the best way to watch it. I dunno about that; I've never been a fan of dubbing because you lose the original actors' performances. But it's up to you.The latest news I heard is that the third installment "Dusk Watch" has been scrapped. Although that would be a sad development indeed, I'm not too broken up simply because I thought that Day Watch wrapped things up beautifully and no more needs to be said. All the same, I hope this director and his troupe continue to make more films of this calibre in the future.

I saw NIGHT WATCH and I loved it, I saw DAY WATCH and I loved it more. All I can say is, WOW. It's hard to make a good sequel to film that already was fantastic, but they did it.The characters, again, show how well developed they are and, again, the actors show how good they are. I can't say much about the special effects but sure there is a slight improvement to the first one, but I don't give a damn about that. This film isn't about special effects, but more about what makes a good film. Well developed characters, very good acting, a good story, a good director, ... what every film should be about.Just to make one thing clear, it's not a perfect film, but it is as close as a film like that can get. I recommend it highly.

OK. So let's get one thing straight first and foremost. Most of the time, when I see a horrible review, I am immediately intrigued. (I for one, love lifetime's made-for-TV movies from the 1990's. They are great-just great.) So I appreciate the camp movies, horribly acted movies or the "it's so bad, we've made it an honorary member of the movie club" film. But. . . . . I promise you. This is not a film you want to watch simply to defy my review. This was a hot pile of steaming mess. A hot steamy pile of messy mess that is awful. Just awful. First off, it was completely incoherent. Have any of you waited til the last minute to complete a project or do your homework? And when you go to turn it in and you look next to you and see your coworker's project or classmate's project and thought, "God. I really should have put more time and effort into giving mine the appearance of hard work?" -Anybody? Show of hands. A-ha. This is what happened here. The special effects superseded the need or possibly even the interest in creating a baseline for the movie's course. It was completely void of good acting, congrugent script writing, and furthermore, the "timeline" was WAY off. It didn't hold any integrity as a film. There was no backbone or "meat" to the story's purpose. It was truly fumbled together and the person who clipped all of these scenes together could have cared less or wanted to be sooooooooo far off in left field in an effort to attract attention, that he or she left that fu***** ball back on the field. Out of the game, my friends. I can usually muster up some compassion when rating movies and ultimately, I backpeddle, fearful of bad movie karma. LET ME TELL YOU, I'm willing to take whatever the Russian movie Gods want to throw at me because this was awful. Lastly, I find it difficult to believe that even Russians liked this film. And if they did, it was only because they were paid to be an extra in the film. Don't buy these positive reviews, people. I'm telling you-you will feel utterly betrayed and really. . . it will be like the Twilight Zone where you slowly back out of the room all the while keeping your eyes on the odd guy to your left.Usually, when I see a train wreck, I want to know the details. Not here. Don't care out the train went off track, we've already fired the conductor. Won't happen again. Gaaahhhd.

Night Watch by all means is a very good way of entertainment - Day Watch is the same thing, almost. This movie has some strange parts in it (eg, Anton and Olga body swapping) which is the only point of negativity that I will say about it.The Idea of The Chalk Of Fate might sound cheezy, it has some very good relevance to the plot and one time it is used makes me believe there will be no sequel (where can they go from Anton reversing everything that happened in both films?). The Character Development like the original is almost top notch, it makes Zavulon more of a prick than in the first one.Now I am responding to hated it reviewers that call it the worst movie ever made - These people have not seen Night Watch. Viewing Night Watch will make sense of this movie and therefore this movie will make no sense if you don't view the original, for a fantasy film expect that.