Having seen this film in Russia, it is an honest fear of mine that it'll gain any popularity or even a hype in the West.
The popularity of this film has to be understood and can't really be shared in the West. The Nochnoy dozor books were awfully popular in Russia. I can't really comment on the quality of those books, having only casually read the first few a bit, but I can say that if you look at the popularity of those books you would realise that it didn't really matter to the Russians how good or bad the film would be. They *wanted* a film and any would do. In my opinion, the Harry Potter movies weren't bad, but imagine they were. Would the first Harry Potter film not still have been a huge hit and even hugely hyped by the avid book readers, just because it managed to put the books into film-form? The same holds true here, but it has to be remembered that the West doesn't share the hype that the Night Watch books gained in Russia. I would be highly surprised if this movie popped in on the Oscars, as I've heard many Russians suggest, and would definitely be insulted if next to the many quality films produced by foreign countries including Russia this one would be listed. Many recent Russian films, like Sibirskiy tsiryulnik or Zvezda or Vostok-Zapad or even Voina, deserved the Oscar more than this film.
It is interesting to Sibirskiy tsiryulnik (the Barber of Siberia) in comparison to this. Mikhalkov's ambitious project was seen by many to be little more than an attempt to impress the West. This assertion is not fair, but it does reveal a lot about the flaws of that film, which sometimes hung right in between Western and Russian styles, and other border-crossing attempts, like Viona or this film. Voina fails in giving an otherwise excellent film an American ending. This films fails by giving a somewhat usable premise a heavy Hollywood coating.
The acting is, to be honest, not that good and the storyline is confusing for those that are not avid readers of the Night Watch series, e.g. everyone outside Russia. This does not kill off the film though, it is killed by the script (which I will not go into in detail except to say that it is confusing and implausible up to a point of annoyance) and by the awful camera-works, which feels like mix of Russian styles, Matrixized actions and shocky Blair Witch filming. The net result is one hell of a head-ache and no clue as to what you just looked at.
Maybe, just maybe, this film has a leg to stand on as a simple action-film with a nice fantastic background, weren't it for the confusing plot and the poorly directed action scenes. I would advise everyone except the Night Watch-fans to stay well away from this work.
The popularity of this film has to be understood and can't really be shared in the West. The Nochnoy dozor books were awfully popular in Russia. I can't really comment on the quality of those books, having only casually read the first few a bit, but I can say that if you look at the popularity of those books you would realise that it didn't really matter to the Russians how good or bad the film would be. They *wanted* a film and any would do. In my opinion, the Harry Potter movies weren't bad, but imagine they were. Would the first Harry Potter film not still have been a huge hit and even hugely hyped by the avid book readers, just because it managed to put the books into film-form? The same holds true here, but it has to be remembered that the West doesn't share the hype that the Night Watch books gained in Russia. I would be highly surprised if this movie popped in on the Oscars, as I've heard many Russians suggest, and would definitely be insulted if next to the many quality films produced by foreign countries including Russia this one would be listed. Many recent Russian films, like Sibirskiy tsiryulnik or Zvezda or Vostok-Zapad or even Voina, deserved the Oscar more than this film.
It is interesting to Sibirskiy tsiryulnik (the Barber of Siberia) in comparison to this. Mikhalkov's ambitious project was seen by many to be little more than an attempt to impress the West. This assertion is not fair, but it does reveal a lot about the flaws of that film, which sometimes hung right in between Western and Russian styles, and other border-crossing attempts, like Viona or this film. Voina fails in giving an otherwise excellent film an American ending. This films fails by giving a somewhat usable premise a heavy Hollywood coating.
The acting is, to be honest, not that good and the storyline is confusing for those that are not avid readers of the Night Watch series, e.g. everyone outside Russia. This does not kill off the film though, it is killed by the script (which I will not go into in detail except to say that it is confusing and implausible up to a point of annoyance) and by the awful camera-works, which feels like mix of Russian styles, Matrixized actions and shocky Blair Witch filming. The net result is one hell of a head-ache and no clue as to what you just looked at.
Maybe, just maybe, this film has a leg to stand on as a simple action-film with a nice fantastic background, weren't it for the confusing plot and the poorly directed action scenes. I would advise everyone except the Night Watch-fans to stay well away from this work.