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Note to self: Even if you are a B person, going to Copenhagen for a midnight showing of a movie while forcing yourself to be on a schedule that allows you to get up sinfully early in the morning some days to make it to school - might not have been your brightest idea. Not when the only thing keeping you awake while waiting for the train home was a Swedish pirate walking by. Nevermind.
So, I finally got to see Day Watch. Which I have wanted to ever since I saw Night Watch. (I have also wanted to read the books, which alas is still on my to-read-list - or maybe not alas, something to look forward to and all that).
Anyway. First of all. I liked it. It was dark and gritty, fast-paced and entertaining - the Film Festival catalogue described it as a ramasjang movie (using a very appropriate Danish word) and it was. The story was alright - the truce between the Light and Dark Others are endangered and Anton, our hero from the first movie, has got to prevent the war from breaking out again, because if it does, it will be the end of the world - somewhat confusing in places, but hardly as confusing as the first movie - which might be because I've seen the first movie or might be because this movie was simply less confusing than the first movie. I'm not quite sure. There were battles between good and evil, magic done pretty well, mongols (as in horse-riding warriors lead by Tamerlane - who could apparently ride through walls) and a bodyswitch subplot that I feel did very little for the story (I suspect it was only in the movie to allow for a bit of pseudo-lesbianism, but nevermind). The ending, though - the ending is an anticlimax and kind of disappointing.
The special effects are spectacular. Reckless driving on the side of a hotel is just one example - the end of the world is another. Though my favourite things were considerably smaller - details here and there, blink and you miss them (I probably missed several) that makes the movie more realistic somehow...
My favourite bits of the movie, though, were when Kostya - the young Dark vampire neighbour of our hero Anton - and his father was on. And no, it's not just because the actor playing Kostya is good-looking. It's simply a good bit of story. Also Kostya has the biggest fur hat you've ever seen a vampire wear. Seriously. Unfortunately there isn't much slash potential between Anton and Kostya in this movie - they are barely in any scenes together - unless you count the "Kostya-can-recognize-Anton-in-any-body" thing. Surely you can count that.
I'm a bit disappointed to find that the version I saw was not the original, but an edited and shortened version meant for the American market. Forgive me for saying this, but I don't trust adaptions for the American market. I have heard people say that you shouldn't judge a book by its movie - I'd like to make my own version of that and say that you shouldn't judge a movie by its American remake. I'm undecided about American editings, but in general, I find censorship (which is what I think when I hear "edited for a specific market"), even self-imposed, quite tasteless. Still, from what I can find they didn't cut out anything major, but come on. Don't do that. It's rude to the original film makers - and sort of insulting to you intended market too. Don't you think them able to handle the un-edited material? On the other hand, I liked the subtitles. They were - bouncy. And colourful. Very lively. I think somebody had fun doing those...
So, to sum up - entertaining movie. And I really need to get around to getting my greedy hands on those books.
The special effects are spectacular. Reckless driving on the side of a hotel is just one example - the end of the world is another. Though my favourite things were considerably smaller - details here and there, blink and you miss them (I probably missed several) that makes the movie more realistic somehow...
My favourite bits of the movie, though, were when Kostya - the young Dark vampire neighbour of our hero Anton - and his father was on. And no, it's not just because the actor playing Kostya is good-looking. It's simply a good bit of story. Also Kostya has the biggest fur hat you've ever seen a vampire wear. Seriously. Unfortunately there isn't much slash potential between Anton and Kostya in this movie - they are barely in any scenes together - unless you count the "Kostya-can-recognize-Anton-in-any-body" thing. Surely you can count that.
I'm a bit disappointed to find that the version I saw was not the original, but an edited and shortened version meant for the American market. Forgive me for saying this, but I don't trust adaptions for the American market. I have heard people say that you shouldn't judge a book by its movie - I'd like to make my own version of that and say that you shouldn't judge a movie by its American remake. I'm undecided about American editings, but in general, I find censorship (which is what I think when I hear "edited for a specific market"), even self-imposed, quite tasteless. Still, from what I can find they didn't cut out anything major, but come on. Don't do that. It's rude to the original film makers - and sort of insulting to you intended market too. Don't you think them able to handle the un-edited material? On the other hand, I liked the subtitles. They were - bouncy. And colourful. Very lively. I think somebody had fun doing those...
So, to sum up - entertaining movie. And I really need to get around to getting my greedy hands on those books.