Night Watch

I finally saw this movie last night. I'm so glad I did.
It's trip, a hell of a ride, pretty wrenching and gritty.
Gritty in the non-Hollywood sense.
Not just an artful smudge of dirt over someones' makeup indicating grime, or a touch of blusher to show a bruise on the forehead after a fight.
The fight sequences aren't artistically and balletically performed, the use of jump-cuts and close-ups in the action sequences in this flick *add* to the realism rather than (as is usual) hide flaws in choreography.
The fights are visceral, bloody, painful and very very final.
The movie starts with one of the most gruesome medieval-battle sequences I've seen - a true melee, formless, gory and exceedingly violent.
Also, as it turns out, pointless and unwinnable.
This is by no means the best movie ever but it is an excellent riposte to Hollywood. It has all the trappings of a Hollywood fantasy/action flick: secret societies of 'Others' living amongst us, the Good vs Evil fight, magical powers, vampires, car chases (alright, bus chases, but the effect is the same), explosions, fight sequences, impending doom and destruction of the world to avoid, etc.
All by-the-book things from the LA studio manual.
But the fact that it wasn't made in the US or with any Hollywood input gives a very important edge and twist.
A twisty edge in fact.
The Light Others (the eponymous Night Watch) aren't really all that good. Some may mean well - especially in the case of the main character, the beautifully conflicted and ambiguous Anton, but their truce with the Dark Others and the rules of that uneasy peace strip away much of the supposed goodness. As any bureaucracy does.
Organise something and you take much of the passion out of it.
But they do their jobs. And their jobs involve very morally questionable things like using humans as live bait and tokens in their game.
As long as the rules are followed much evil is allowed on either side.

I'd say more but it'll give too much away.
The overall mood of the film is one of melancholy and impending doom, and the ending is very Russian.
This is one movie I seriously hope they make a sequel to.
Go see it.