Review of Day Watch (2006) by Bastet 0 — 03 Oct 2009

I can't say I hated this, but I do wonder where it went wrong...

Spoilers.

From the beginning, Anton is completely unlikable to me. In the previous movie, he was identifiable now he's just a broody jerk. Granted, his son has just sided with the dark side but still, he only knew the kid for a few hours so while I'm sure it would be frustrating to know, suddenly he's super dad.

Svetlana is now a Light side trainee. We discover she is the powerful Other that will balance out Yegor joining the Dark side. Plot hole: The prophecy said there would be ONE powerful other that would determine the battle between the sides, and whichever side that Other chose to join, that side would win. But let's forget about that.

Instead, there's male/female body switching which only seems to be a plot device for 1. laughs 2. Svetlana to unwittingly confess her love for Anton to Anton as a woman 3. a faux lesbian shower scene that really is more comedic than anything and 4. to have Zevulon know all along which body Anton was in, rendering the gender switch pointless.

There was also other pointless plot points but you'll know them when you see them. The story was very blah compared to the first one. It was almost as if they covered 4/5ths of the story in Night Watch and felt the need to put a cushion in between Night Watch and the last 5th of the story.

In the end, Yegor and Svetlana manage to cause the destruction of the world because they are annoying/frustrating characters like that but the above aside, it's the other characters that make the film still watchable. The ending felt like a cop out to me, but since Anton had become unlikable to me, I felt it was a good way to wrap it up.