Here’s what I wrote about Night Watch when I first saw it in 2006 and gave it a “D.”
As if we needed more proof: cool special effects are fun to watch for a while, but if you don’t have an original or interesting story to tell, you have no movie. And even if the first half-hour is jaw-dropping, the remaining three half-hours simply hurt your ass. There is only one truly neato concept in “Night Watch,” but it hit me mid-way through that it is stolen from “Lord of the Rings” (how is entering “The Gloom” not the same as when Frodo puts on the Ring?) Some groovy shots, yeah — I certainly recommend this to anyone on drugs who wants to see cool images. And props must go out to whomever decided that the English subtitles should move around the screen, fade in and out, turn red, change size, etc. (I think using subtitles as a quasi-diagetic graphic element is basically without precedent.) But I won’t be lining up for the sequels.
Watching it again last night, I was a little more accepting of the baffling plot (maybe because I knew what to expect, but probably because I peeked at Wikipedia for a “what the hell is happening?” break) and still wowed by the look. This picture was made for under five million bucks, if you can believe that.
Something I both condemn and congratulate this movie for: I have no idea who is good and who is bad. I automatically assume that “the light” is good and “the dark” is bad, but who the hell knows.
Night Watch feels like walking in the middle of a movie, or an ongoing fantasy series, three different times. There’s no beginning, certainly no end, and no way to follow the plot. But, still. . .looks great.
