In Which Russia Gets a Two Part Trilogy Of Its Very Own

In Which Russia Gets a Two Part Trilogy Of Its Very Own by willhubbard

January 8, 2008, 11:10 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

All For The Sake of Angelina Jolie

by Alex Carnevale

Night Watch and Day Watch

dir. Timur Bekmambetov

Russia is usually my least favorite country. No offense to the people of Russia, I don’t blame you for living in the godforsaken cold and being hate-gifted with a series of leaders you wouldn’t be proud to see as Scientologists.

the great dark other and his protector

I’ve never liked Saudi Arabia either. At least Iran produced some electric filmmakers.

Of course Russia has had its share of filmmakers, too. Tarkovsky…I could go on, probably. Since everyone is now aping Hollywood, it’s no surprise in Timur Bekmambetov’s Day Watch that he has his main character, Anton Gorodetsky, crash through a poster of the second grossing film in Russia’s history, on the way to its first. After all, a communist is just a wannabe capitalist at heart.

anton gorodetsky

Based on a popular fantasy novel, Night Watch and its sequel and conclusion Day Watch are alternately fucking brilliant and silly and stupid.

Since the second one was made for $4.2 million and looked like an $80 million dollar picture, Hollywood paid attention. The special effects in these films are spectacular for their cost, and very believable. Both films feature madness in the form of shapeshifting and of course plenty of vampire logic. The films are not generally scary-think Star Wars with vampires, but with part of it set in Kazakstan.

Night Watch begins with a extended montage sequence about the light and the dark that features a series of fascinating images. As in Star Wars, we starts with a fable.

the great light other

The film’s story becomes immaterial the second that the director’s wholly original visuals take the stage. With all the conventional Hollywood markings of cool, the vampire soldier Anton badasses his way through two waging factions, a small kid and a secondary lust for blood.

“She’s a Projector” – Of Montreal (mp3)

“Faberge Falls For Shuggie” – Of Montreal (mp3)

Angelina Jolie saw the first film and agreed to be involved with Wanted, a Matrix-clone with a sweet angle originally conceived by comic book writer Mark Millar.

The series was originally conceived as a trilogy, but they sort of ran out of steam in the second part. Bekmambetov, after he helms Mark Millar’s amazing, amazing comic book Wanted, decided to instead do a U.S. English-based redo of the first movie, likely with a few of the characters from the original. That’s too bad, because the subtitles of Night Watch and Day Watch are amazingly expressive, and the attention to detail is fun, especially in the second film.

Anton and daemon

Day Watch is the less exciting of the two films. There’s a scene where one character drives a Corvette across the side of a hotel, and other scenes that rival it for ingenuity. The script is Michael Bay with an injection of Tolkien, jutting around various rooms with the attention span of National Treasure. Then again, National Treasure opened to 65 million U.S. so that’s not all bad.

They’re certainly worth a rental, especially the first one.

Alex Carnevale is the editor of This Recording.

Klaxons website.

Thanks to Missing Toof for this first track.

“As Above, So Below (Justice remix)” – Klaxons (mp3)

“Forgotten Works” – Klaxons (mp3)

“Totem on the Timeline” – Klaxons (mp3)

PREVIOUSLY ON THIS RECORDING

Cheney got wicked mad.

Dan Murray and Hotel Chevalier.

A win is a win.

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