Night Watch

Based on the trilogy by Sergei Lukyanenko, Night Watch incorporates all the best elements of the first Matrix, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Yup, we got shape shifters, a 12 year old boy, and a snowy owl. The exception here is that everything is dark, gritty, depressing, and spoken in Russian (with English sub-titles, of course). The “light” characters appear to permanently suffer from the DTs and the “dark” ones are a bunch of vampire junkies - one even looks like Elizabeth Wurtzel in her pre-medication days. The plot is the standard battle of good versus evil, but with some serious violence – one particularly gruesome scene involved a small pair of scissors doing an awful lot of damage. Blood flows freely and frequently and the special effects are quite graphic. My only complaint was that the first part of the ending was a bit disappointing – however, the ultimate conclusion more than made up for it. I’m definitely looking forward to the next installment. Let's hope it won’t suffer the same afflictions as the Matrix: Reloaded…