Filmclub 2K6 Vol 6

Since the entire Lodge saw the same flick last night, I’m going to do film club a little differently. This week will be just about Nightwatch, and the other films I was going to do write ups for will get added to next weeks column.

Nightwatch

Plot Summary -- …nevermind. If you didn’t get it when you saw it, I can’t help you here.

Review/Thoughts -- I’ll start with the bad before I hit the good.



- The pacing at times felt terribly off.
- I didn’t like the editing during the whole Anton/Video Game guy face off at all.
- If you didn’t know this was part of a trilogy (or your name is goose), you’d probably hate the flick.

I’m going to go ahead and jump straight into the Star Wars vs. Nightwatch comparison. It’s always interesting watching two filmmakers try to pull off the same story in different ways. In this case, why does the cute innocent kid become evil? In Star Wars we had three movies of the audience saying “Well, I guess that makes sense…” The Jedi are knights in shining armor, yet Anakin jumps to the dark side due to having some bad dreams. I know that’s overly simplistic, but just go with me on this.

What I really loved about Nightwatch was that you could really see why someone would choose the bad guys. This movie isn’t really a case of Good versus Evil. The good guys aren’t truly good. They just realize that someone has to stop the Dark side. The light is flawed, and f**ked up and doing whatever they can to win. Really, it’s less of a case of these guys being good and more of a case of them being not evil. There’s an interesting Star Wars parallel there. Lucas tried to add a flawed level to the Jedi order, making them arrogant and egotistical. Unfortunately it’s never clearly established in a way that resonates with an audience.

The second thing that I really dug about the way the kid was converted was that it was through sheer manipulation and truth. As opposed to Palpatine who just lied through his teeth until he got his way. The Video Game dude simply revealed something that would shatter the child’s trust in the light, and more importantly, Anton.

Which brings me back to Star Wars, does anyone really get why Anakin stopped trusting the Jedi? Seriously…it’s a stretch, and we only buy it so we can see Obi-Wan kick the crap out of him later. All in all, I think it’s actually sad that in 3 movies Lucas couldn’t establish why an innocent person would choose the Dark side, and really Nightwatch sums it up in one scene.

Another thing that I really, really loved about Nightwatch was the films use of subtitles. This was the first movie I’ve ever seen use subtitles as a story telling device, and I think it worked better than anyone could have hoped. But adding things like fades, or color or even motion in certain places, the filmmakers were able to add to the viewing experience. Subtitles are usually considered a hindrance, but they turned it into a tool.

The other comparison I had read about quite a bit was between this movie and Underworld (They were both made at the same time). Now, aside from Kate Bekinsale in tight black outfits, there’s really no comparison between the two. Underworld is kind of a crappy movie (albeit an entertaining one).

Part 2 (Daywatch) of the trilogy just opened in Russia on January 1st, and should be out in the states this time next year (or maybe sooner if this does really well in theaters). It’s doing monster business in Russia and early reviews say it’s better than Nightwatch. Part 3 (Duskwatch) is oddly enough going to be filmed in English with big named actors joining the cast (the director has expressed a strong desire to cast Tobey Maguire…I wonder if it’s for the role of the now grown up child). I for one am really excited to see how this series plays out.