Day Watch

My strategy of not knowing much about films before I watch them usually pays off. I've had many great experiences over the years that would have been lost if I had watched certain trailers or read certain reviews.

But sometimes it backfires. I didn't know that Day Watch was a sequel... and I haven't seen Night Watch. There is a narrative reminder at the beginning of the film which explains some of the plot so far; but that is probably only just enough for people who have seen the first movie. If, like me, you haven't then it doesn't help you a great deal. But it gives you a chance.

There are lots of good effects in the film and I liked the characters. But from time to time I would just find myself completely lost. There don't seem to be many distinguishing features between the Light Others and the Dark Others. And they all seem to live in similar flats in Moscow somewhere.

I also failed to grasp what was special about Svetlana and Yegor; other than that they were going to be Great Others for some reason. I have no idea if there were any other Great Others in the film, if there even ever had been any, or if there was some sort of Highlanderesque competition to be the only Great Other.

And who were the two old twin guys?

Of course, I understand that I probably asked for all this confusion by watching the sequel before its precursor. I guess credit must go to director Timur Bekmambetov for creating a movie that is actually enjoyable to watch even if you don't know what is going on.