Day Watch

Supernaturally-imbued Night Watch agent and defender of the world's relative peace, Anton (Konstantin Khabensky) continues his struggle against Zavulon (Viktor Verzhbitsky), the immoral leader of the Dark Others. We first met them in Night Watch, and should see the conclusion of the epic battle in the upcoming Dusk Watch.

Anton's powerful young son Yegor (Dima Martynov) is still in allegiance with the baddies, so Anton goes on a quest for the mythical "Chalk of Fate", a magic marker that can actually change the past and perhaps prevent Yegor from ever meeting Zavulon.

I'll refrain from the nails-on-a-chalkboard references when it comes to Day Watch — not because I can resist whacky wordplay, but because the movie was so monotones to me, I couldn't muster an actual cringe. (I'm hoping we can just, er, chalk it up to suffering from the usual middle-movie in a trilogy slump, and that Dusk Watch will be worth watching for.)

The movie is visually dazzling and, as in the first one, makes audacious use of the extreme English subtitling. There are some awesome action scenes – particularly one showing a sports car racing through the upper floors of a high rise office building — but it's not a standalone film. Unless you have seen the first movie, this one, in spite of some recaps, will make absolutely no sense whatsoever. In fact, even if you have seen Night Watch – which I understood completely, and absolutely loved – Day Watch is still likely to muster not a lick of logic.

The first film had some humorous elements to it which slipped naturally into the story, but this time around there is far too much celluloid devoted to an absurd "gender / body swap" subplot that reeks of dated American 1980s comedies like All Of Me, Like Father Like Son, 18 Again!, and Vice Versa. Then there's an absurd romantic shower scene that makes one pine for the days of Bobby Ewing on Dallas. (Which brings to mind the extremely disappointing ending of Day Watch; Patrick Duffy might as well have been there bathing, all along.)

I didn't wholly hate Day Watch and I'll give it another try on DVD, but be warned: It's a very uneven experience and those who adored Night Watch are likely to be disappointed in the continued adventures of Anton and the Dark Others (not to mention the fact the vampiric aspects of the story are all but blood-drained).

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson