Was it just me or did it seem like a lot of things just happened for the sake of happening, like at the end when yegor throws that stupid ball thing and it splits up into a million other balls and it nearly destroys the world ( not that it didn't look kool ) and little things like that.
shareThe randomness was in your head. Those unrelated events were your thoughts.
shareThat's a bit unfair. It WAS kinda weird in its randomness.
I mean, Zabulon is playing with the yo-yo thing throughout the movie and gives it to Yegor, who has a tantrum after getting thrown on his ass by his dads new girlfriend and throws aforementioned ball thingy, which proceeds to tear most of Moscow up, killing Others dark and light but for some reason only blinded Svetlana. A car is driven over the surface of a hotel when Alice isn't allowed to see her future husband (seeing a link between dark others and tendancy to overreact). After nearly crashing an aircraft full of people, Olga THEN tells Anton the chalk isn't in Sarmakand. Olga and Anton swap bodies to fool whoever is trying to frame Anton but somehow Zabulon seems to know all about it without explanation. Anton is drugged at some point but for what reason, I don't know - the bad guys were all for offing him before. Then the whole romance between Alice and Kostya was just... odd.
Why? I really need to see the film another couple of times to get more of it but the first film wasn't nearly this confusing and choppy.
you are totally right Chilly Flamingo! there was a lot that went on that was just random and didn't really need to be like that, I think they made it that was just to have "cool" things in the movie... like the little yellow truck driving THROUGH that semi. or the part where Alicia and Kostya were in the car and just started making out ans spinning in circles on the freeway.. what was they point of that? I think you are right that the dark others seem to be over the top and over react)
also, there were a lot of parts that didn't seem to have logical explanation. like how Anton just KNEW the butcher killed those people. Yes he could have reasoned it out eventually but I just don't think there was any way for him to KNOW, maybe have suspicions but not know beyond any doubt. also, what was the deal with the parrot guy? they sent him to take down Antons plane right? well he didn't do that he just screamed in the back of the limo until Anton took his face.. also for no reason since apparently every dark other has the ability to know what Anton is going to do next, and they all know where he is at all times no matter what disguise he has on... which makes Kostya useless because Alicias excuse for having him in her room was that he "knows Anton in any disguise" anyway.. it was a fun movie but A LOT of it was random and unnecessary.
Only vampires who are familar with him could track not all the dark others, thats why when the body swap didn't work, Anton was able to figure out it was the Butcher, 1 of th 2 vampires who lived next to him.
sharewait blackair.. that makes sense.. can you please explain it a bit better. Im sorry if I sounds dumb but I was so confused by the movie lol.
shareAfter the dark others can't find Anton, Alisa (the one who does the cool car driving on the side of the building) goes to Kostya (the butcher's son). She want his help tracking Anton, because he is a vampire who is familar with Anton (he's his neighbor), she asks him if he would be able to track Anton no matter what body he is in. That let's us know a vampire who is pretty familar with a person could track them no matter what body they are in, and around the same time Anton in Olga's body and Svetlana are out on their date and Anton is set up for the second murder. So if Alisa would know that a vampire who is familar Anton could track him, so would Anton. Anton also knows that Kostya's father works for Zavulon, and that Zavulon is the one framing him. Zavulon sent Galina to Anton to get him to steal the hat to help his son. Zavulon knows Anton was stealing the hat at the time Galina died, but still blames Anton for the murder, and Anton can't admit to the theft or he'd get his son in trouble (his son had been killing humans, punishment for him would be death). So Zavulon set Anton up completely.
Anton should have been able to figure out the killer, because the first murder points to someone in Zavulon's employ or that he controls, and the 2nd murder points to a vampire who is familar with him.
Sorry if that is long and overly complicated, but Anton figuring out the murderer was not one of the plot elements I had problems with.
I don't see why people think this movie is randomness.
There are two storylines involving Anton's character. As in the first movie. In Night Watch he had to:
1)Save Yegor from the vampires.
2)Deal with the cursed Svetlana.
In this movie, both of his storylines aren't identified as clearly as in the first movie, but they are well defined if you think about it:
1)Anton wants to correct an error from his past, so he researches on Tamerlane and searches for the Chalk of Fate. This storyline is wrapped up when he uses the Chalk.
2)But a murder accusation butts in, thanks to Zavulon who wants Anton bad. First, he is forced to change bodies with Olga to confuse those who framed him, but that doesn't work out. Then, he has to counter Zavulon's direct attacks, including a bunch of Dark Others running after him. This storyline is wrapped up when the Inquisitors take away the real killer and Zavulon has no more excuse for coming after Anton.
All this, while being torn between his new romance with Svetlana and being Yegor's father.
Here it is, plain and simple.
Well yeah, the basic story is pretty simple but to get to it you have to strip off layers and layers of *stuff*.
There's all the stuff with the hat, the irrelevant romance between Alice and Kostya, the impending marriage between aforementioned Alice and Zabulon, the unneccesary body swapping (which apparently made no difference at all to protect Anton), a big chase scene to the airport where the plane is turned around just after take-off because it turns out that Anton didn't need to get on it in the first place, cars being driven over buildings and yo-yos of mass destruction.
Can we really be that surprised that some folk found it hard to understand? The Russian students that were in the cinema at the same time as me looked just as confused as I felt.
I don't know if a lot of it is irrelevant as such, rather the fact that because of these themes and the frenetic pace at which this movie moves during parts, it is difficult to take it all in the first time around.
For knowing when Anton and Olga had switched, kind of a tough one but at the start of the movie Svetlana can tell when they have switched bodies, only she doesn't know it yet. This leads me to believe that powerful ones can sense people and this might have helped them find him. Then again it might have been Kostya who saw/felt something and told them when asked. I must admit I am a bit hazy of this concept in the film, but I don't think it needs to be explicitly spelt out, it adds to the mystery a bit in that you less likely to expect it.
The yo-yo isn't irrelevant. When Svetlana knocks him to the ground a drop of blood escapes his nose and hits the ground. This goes with the quote of "if one drop of blood is spilt we will war". The dark ones want a war and look for any excuse, as soon as that happens he unleashes the yo-yo to break the truce and start the war - in it, he is destroying civilisation and the destruction of the city is meant to show this.
Alice and Kostya and two trapped souls, dark ones who can't find peace with themselves. Alice is trapped in a relationship with Zabulon, her every thought felt by him, whilst Kostya throughout the two films struggles with his identity and being an outcast dark one. They find comfort in each other and it is this that probably allows her to release the chalk to Anton.
I don't know what Russian students have to do with understanding the concepts delivered in the film. I am of Ukrainian heritage and have seen a number of Russian films, they have their own distinct style but the ideas in this film are born from the writers and director, not their nationality.
My point about the Russian students was that one of the elements that causes confusion is that a lot of meaning can be lost in transtlation and the previous film has been proven to have been inaccurate in many parts. So when I saw that they were struggling with the movie as well, I knew that it wasn't because it was translated badly.
With the whole yo-yo thing, yes it was a big part of the plot but the whole premise behind the Watch series is that both sides were equally strong and an all out war would only result in annihilation of both the Dark and Light Others. Yegor was a Great Other for the Dark but then along comes Svetlana, who balances it all out. So what can Zabulon possibly get out of waging war against the Light because one drop of blood was spilled (besides, the first blood had already been spilled in the confrontation with the guys on the motorbikes and the lorry - so why doesn't that count?) when he can't win. The destruction of the city (not civilisation - we only see Moscow get mangled) seemed like a device to up the ante since we see both Light and Dark others killed by the Yo-yo.
In the first film, Kostya seems quite comfortable with his vampire heritage but again, that could be something that changed for the international edit - I still haven't seen the original Russian Channel One version.
I guess we all have our different interpretations of the Watch films and they seem to be ambiguous by design. I really need to see Day Watch again as it's only just out on DVD here and I only got to see it in the cinema. The one thing I learned from Night Watch (as well as some more practical applications for yer torch) was that it benifits multiple viewings to pick up on the details.
It's said repetedly through out the film that light ones issue licenses to the dark ones, but it doesn't work the other way around. Many dark ones find this hard to accept. If they would have a war, with two equal sides in it, it's just a matter of time when light ones would suggest truce again, and then the dark ones could've easily place this thing as condition for signing peace.
As I remember, and I really should, since I saw both movies last night, again, there was realy no exploring of any character that deeply in the first movie.
Yo had light nes and dark ones, and that was it. In this part you are not even sure if the main character is realy the light one, and Alisa, Kostya and even Yegor at times, seem to be to good for bad guys. Yegor just seems like troubeled teen who wants his daddy back, not at all like really evil guy.
So if Kostya was cool with being dark or if hes mind rumbling just wasn't shown, is realy a question.
And one more thing. I kinda like it that they don't explain everything. It looks so dumb in movies which are not even fantasies when they go on and on in attempt to explain technical details, and it's clear that not even writer doesn't get it. It's more natural this way. To them it's all clear. I mean, just imagine someone get in touch with a witch, and she turns him into frog, and sits with him to explain him how did she do it. I don't think so.
----------------------------
Pardon my weak spelling, English is not my native language.
You are right that it is good that not everything is explained in detail (I laughed about what you said about the frog) it would slow the film down to a standstill and it cracks me up when people argue over something that could never happen in our reality anyway.
I think that reading the books help to explain the world that the Others inhabit so you don't need to think about it too much when watching the films. That said, some seem to get caught up in the inconsistencies in plot and characters between the books and the movies. I think it is best to think of the films as a distillation of the books. It is a shame that some of the characters are underused in the films like Tiger Cub and Bear. We don't even get to see Bear as a...y'know, bear! You would think that in a showdown between the two sides, it would be handy having some huge wild animals on your side.
I have ordered my copy of Day Watch and should get it today (yay) so I will finally get a chance to see it again to make a little more sense of it.
Don't worry about your spelling, it's a lot better that some people I know that have english as their first language! ;)
the unneccesary body swapping (which apparently made no difference at all to protect Anton)No difference? If he had not been swapped, he would not have figured out who committed the murder he was about to be executed for! It not only saved his life, it allowed him to get the chalk and fix his past mistake (and thus probably save also the lives of those murdered and, therefore, their murderer) and remove the reason why his son chose the Darks, and the reason for the end of the world (or at least the destruction of Moscow), etc, etc, etc.
Yeah there were tons of random things happening (like the style will suddenly change - It's all dark like an Alex Proyas film and then all of sudden they take a page out of Baz Luhrmann's book and everyone starts doing the tango)
I figured it was just something common in Russian cinema. I've only seen 2 other russian films from 2 different eras (Eisenstein's October and Klimov's Come and See) and I'll be damned if there weren't elements just as confusing. Russians seem to have this idea that it's appropriate to stick some random element for the sole purpose of evoking an emotional response from the viewer, even if the element isn't directly related to the film's reality. If they want to show, for instance, that a politician character is a total puppet with no real power, what do they do? They cut away to an actual PUPPET and use the juxtaposition to get their message across.
It just happened to look cool (like the car on the building thing)
It's lame, it's random, but it's supposed to look kool...
====================
Omae wa mo shinde iru
The whole movie was random. I understood it, but on a whole, the movies crap. Aside from the ending...which was alright, no two scenes in the movie seemed to be related in anyway..Just one completely unrelated scene after another...was there a plot?
shareabsolutely.......this movie is just pure randomness ......it's like director made stuff as he needed it!
Check My Guitar Video here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXVYXprSS_c
A big part of that "randomness" comes from the fact that it adapts 5 short stories. It gets the main storyline from 2, and then throws most of the themes of the other 3 as side stories and details.
Night Watch adapts the first short story of the book Night Watch (which is made of 3 short stories). Day Watch then adapts the 2 remaining short stories of Night Watch, and the 3 of Day Watch. And that happened because Fox wanted the movie to be Day Watch, instead of Night Watch 2, and both Bekmambetov and Lukyanenko (writer of the books) where like "*beep* that, we are putting EVERYTHING in the next movie".