"Night Watch": No plot, but horror flick is a thrill a minute
If it weren't for its scruffy cast of Muscovite vampires, shape-shifters and prophesied combatants in an epic battle of good vs. evil, you could easily mistake the Russian blockbuster "Night Watch" for yet another chaotic Hollywood horror fantasy like "Constantine," "Blade" or "Van Helsing." It delivers everything and the kitchen sink — in this case, a sink used to shatter the skull of a blood-sucking predator.
Russia's 2004 Oscar nominee for best foreign film (!) is a calculated example of globalized entertainment, catering to American teenagers while struggling to retain its national identity. This capitulation to Hollywood began in France with "La Femme Nikita." What's next ... Iran's answer to "The Matrix"?
Even the film's creative recipe is a cliché: Co-opt "a milestone of Russian literature" (the best-selling novels of Sergei Lukyanenko), hire a hot-shot director of commercials and music videos (Timur Bekmambetov, who cites Roger Corman, Quentin Tarantino, Ridley Scott, James Cameron and the Wachowski brothers as major influences), shake vigorously and simmer over hellfire. Bring extra napkins, 'cause this is one messy smorgasbord.
As the first installment of a trilogy that's two-thirds complete and breaking box-office records in Russia, "Night Watch" is guaranteed to thrill indiscriminate horror buffs. Those who prefer coherent plotting needn't bother, since any sense of Lukyanenko's "literature" is lost in a maelstrom of sloppy ideas and CGI wizardry.
A medieval prologue sets up the present-day Moscow scenario, in which forces of good and evil police each other with teams called "Night Watch" and "Day Watch" to maintain a 1,000-year truce that's about to be broken. The fate of humanity revolves around a Night Watcher (Konstantin Khabensky) whose son plays a pivotal role in the mayhem.
Bekmambetov's exuberant style makes "Night Watch" tolerable when the chaos kicks in, with a high-rise "vortex" full of doom-laden crows, a crashing jetliner, clever use of subtitles and witty pop-cultural references that genre buffs will appreciate.
If Bekmambetov had any skill in actually telling a story, his kitchen-sink trilogy would be something to celebrate. It presently qualifies as a dubious achievement.
Jeff Shannon: j.sh@verizon.net
"Night Watch," with Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Maria Poroshina, Victor Verzhbitsky. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov, from a screenplay by Sergei Lukyanenko and Bekmambetov. 116 minutes. Rated R for strong violence, disturbing images and language. In Russian with English subtitles.