Wait...so...the bad guys are vampires?

As we delve more and more into the contemporary side of Russian cinema, one begins to notice more and more similarity between what we are used to today as film. The interesting world of the Night watch seemed to be a combination of a few different popular themes that we, as Americans, are used to: vampires, mystical epic movies, things of that sort. At first I was a little tentative about how the movie was going to play out, given that the first scene looked like the costumes could have been made using cardboard and super glue. Also, it seems that this was probably one of the first films in which Russians had CGI (computer generated image) technology, as it seems to be heavily used throughout the entire film. My initial feelings aside, I genuinely enjoyed the film, although this genre tends not be one of my particular favorites. The vampire plot, along with the initial battle with the two different teams, or guards, watching one another, seemed like it was trying a little too hard to incorporate EVERYTHING into one film, but overall the film was a classic epic film, utilizing new technology as well as new filming techniques, such as slow motion, and "screen magic".