Night Watch 8/10
I actually passed over this movie a few months ago cause I thought it looked like a generic vampire flick. After reading some good reviews I decided to give it a try. Wow. Much better than expected. There's actually a storyline, probably because it's based on a popular novel (I'll have to read the book now
). There were even some twists in the storyline that lead to an interesting finale.
I liked the main character, a quirky anti-hero who is
not angst-driven. The supporting cast seemed under developed, probably because there were too many of them and only 2 hours to go around.
Also, because this movie had a small budget, it had very limited special effects. I'm sick of seeing big Hollywood movies that are nothing but a load of colorful eye candy blowing up. This movie took all the eye candy time and spent it on story and character development.
Day Watch 7.5/10
Of course after Night Watch I had to get the sequel that pretty much picks up the story really well. Again this was based on the sequel novel so the storyline was pretty good. Some of the unresolved issues in Night Watch are finally addressed here.
It's obvious that this movie had a much bigger budget because of the success of the first one. I wasn't impressed by the standard car crash scene in middle, but the finale with the little bouncy ball was very nicely done.