[HEADING=1]Night Watch
[HEADING=2]Novel & Film Comparison[/HEADING][/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]Novel & Film Comparison[/HEADING][/HEADING]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMHQsjgQDrA[/youtube]
Following the
Yes, I am that out of ideas.
Anyway, time for an exercise in stating the bleeding obvious: the world is crawling with Vampires.
Bad vampire TV shows, worse vampire movies and enough literature to choke a dozen vampire donkeys. Personally I blame 30 Days of Night for this, since it all seemed to start shortly after it's release.
Anyway, because Nosferatu Fever has hit the nation it seems that we are cursed to walk the earth suffering endless stories of lust, darkness and redemption.
I thought it was about time to comment on this rather disturbing trend, and what better way to do this than by starting with the cultural barometer that is Twilight? It was the obvious choice.
Now, I could rant about it. I could proclaim from the highest rooftops that it's a travesty against celluloid, a turgid thing meant only to convince starry-eyed tweens that far, FAR older men are the way forward. I could also infer that it is fit only to be cast into the deepest pit until the world forgets it's pretentious, vague name- but all of this hinges on me watching the fucking thing.
Not in this lifetime.
So instead I thought I'd review a more interesting film, Timur Bekmambetov's Night Watch.
At the time of release, in the blissful era when I could turn on my TV and not see fangs perforating virgins, Night Watch was compared to Harry Potter.
Now, I loathe Harry Potter.
It's not the weak plots, the bad acting or the fact that the endings always suck.
It's the fact that my rebellious phase of dying my hair black, getting glasses I'd never ordinarily choose and generally being in school happened on the same week the Philosopher's fucking Stone was released.
Harry Potter was my nickname for years, and many people died in my attempts to shed it.
Even after the notorious "Wand Murders" I only managed to get the slightly better moniker of Severus.
But I digress, I'm here to talk at you about Russia's premiere export- next to AK47's, vodka and matryoshka dolls, naturally- Sergei Lukyanenko.
The Watch quadrilogy aren't vampire novels per se, but they have strong fantasy ties and include a myriad of different night-time creatures.
This diversity made the books a success, and when the inevitable movie producers came a-knockin' it was hastily turned into the highest grossing Russian film of it's time.
But can any novel like this be compressed into two hours of movie, aha, magic?
Can ten hours of reading ever be justified by two hours of watching?
Let us drink deep the cup of adaptation, gentle reader, of Cinema vs. Literature, and ask ourselves those very questions.
... "drink deep the cup of..." Christ, who reads this crap?
It has to be said, things work a little differently in Russia.
It's my impression that whenever a Hollywood producer gets their grubby, overpaid mitts on a franchise of a certain caliber they chop, change and dilute everything they can to appease the masses.
There's a sense of fear that the audience are always too skittish, impatient or downright thick to get exactly what's going on.
You need only look at Constantine for evidence of this.
Overseas, it seems, things are done all topsy-turvy.
Observe:
I've never seen a character screwed backwards before.
But it doesn't stop there.
In fact it just doesn't stop.
All of the characters are changed in no small way. Not as bad as Anton, granted, but just little things.
Take Anton's boss Gesar, and the arch nemesis Zabulon, for example.
In the books they have this strange relationship in that they've been enemies for so long that they are, in a twisted way, friends. They move their people around like pawns, subtly achieving their ends in ways so delicate you hardly even notice what's going on until the big reveal.
They show nothing but respect for each other, and even understand the benefits of teaming together when something bigger than themselves threatens the world.
Here however, their relationship has all the understated nuance of a crowbar to the teeth.
Similarly we have Anton's son (mentioned in the above conversation), Yegor.
This left me scratching my head until I felt skull.
In the novel Yegor was just a random boy who happened to be rather important.
The thing is he's not important because he's him, hes just a fleshy McGuffin, a character device to set the plot in motion, but for some reason they deemed it necessary to plonk him in the middle of the proceedings like he was ever anything more than an allegory for the general public if they ever knew about the fantasy world around them.
In fact this is commented on by the author Lukyanenko in the Last Watch book, wherein Yogor tells Anton about a dream he had where they are father and son, and Anton says it sounded like a nightmare.
Ouch.
It is here I must admit a shortcoming of mine.
You've probably noticed that I've not praised / massacred the star's turns in their respective roles yet.
It seems that, in my attempt to seem arty by choosing a film with subtitles, I completely forgot that I can never judge the acting quality of foreign performers.
It's just beyond me, I can't make the two things going on gel together.
And I'm sorry but I can't watch it dubbed, especially since the English voiceovers insist on doing attroshus Russian acksyents... it wery syad.
Honestly, the few minutes I could stand seemed like hours of borderline racism.
So as far as everyone else goes, I can't tell you if Svetlana, Olga, Bear, Semyon and Alice give Oscar worthy performances which could bring grown men to tears.
But I can tell you that they couldn't find their original characters with a telescope, compass and The Flying Dutchman.
[HEADING=2]"Night Watch! Everyone step out of the the Twilight!"[/HEADING]
Newcomers to the franchise who simply want a few hours of fantasy fun will notice, about halfway through, one very strange thing:
Nothing is bloody explained.
It may be something lost in translation, but things just seem to happen, and you're expected to know what they are.
In fact, if you'll indulge me, it's like watching an installment Diagnosis Murder on mute.
Once it is finished, a man walks into your home and demands that you write an essay on the episode you have just watched.
And if it is wrong he will shoot you.
And you're blind.
And you don't have a pen.
The thing is that the film is actually rather interesting despite this.
There's a huge, almost buffet-like choice of ideas on display.
Unfortunately, there are so many ideas crammed in that none of them really take the spotlight and they don't have the chance to expand.
As a result nothing really blossoms in the way that is quite needed.
The key factor of Night Watch, or any book of it's ilk, is Time.
The book has the time, and space, to build on all of the ideas presented.
You are festooned with the notions that there are several Watches being run like businesses, of the complicated heirachy that the Others (any magical being is called an Other. In fact these brackets just cleared something up the film never really did) are a part of and you get a real sense of community within the undead factions.
Vampires, for example, are portrayed as victims who try to live ordinary lives and most of them have no want, or even need, to hurt normal people.
If you want a potent example of how the film fails this, I can tell you that I was watching it with a friend who hasn't read the book and she asked "but he's a vampire... why didn't Anton kill him?".
Another race the film loses because it's in completely the wrong Olympics is the use of magic.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't want Anton bursting into rooms and flooring everyone with spells of untold, arcane fury, but he did use a wide range of magic throughout the book.
In the film he has a pair of shades and a flashlight to fight the forces of evil.
This certainly gives the film a unique and interesting flavour, and it definitely has never been thought of before, but it doesn't make any sense because it isn't explained.
[HEADING=2]"For it is easier to kill the Light within oneself, than to scatter the Darkness around... "[/HEADING]
Right, now, you might be wondering why I've included a picture of a jar of coffee.
Let me introduce you to the main character of the film.
Oh wait, no, it's not a character, but it gets more screen time than the fucking protagonist.
Nescafe is shamelessly whored throughout the entirety of the film.
The characters hug branded red mugs close to their bodies as if they are their firstborn.
In one scene there is a darkened room, and in a single pool of light there sits a jar of caffeinated delight.
Gesar, leader of the Light, reaches out and cradles the pot gently in his benevolent fingers.
Then this man, this doer of great deeds, works masterfully and distills a rich, creamy beverage from the contents within. He brings the cup to his wise lips, reverently savouring the robust aroma before letting the smooth liquid pour into his mouth.
Relaxed and sated, his gaze drifts back to the mug and he thought it... good.
Believe it or not this is not explained either, but allow me to volunteer my opinion:
The film crew was running out of money. They went "downtown", bent over, and let anyone in with enough cash to buy the film's dwindling self-respect.
This has officially vetoed me from getting a sponsorship deal with Relentless.
Damn, I was looking forward to selling out.
Wasted opportunities aside, the irony is that it's not like the film even got an awful lot of bang for it's buck.
Or vice versa.
Whatever.
I can't really say anything else without repeating myself; the plot is extremely interesting, but slight. There is no magic used, but they have an inventive, if weird, way of getting around it.
I've also heard from different sources that they found it rather slow, but to be honest I quite liked the thoughtful speed it went at... even if there wasn't all that much thinking actually going on.
The film is actually quite good, despite all it's flaws, but you have to take it on it's own merits.
In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if this was just a film by itself, without the book being written, then it would have forced more explanation (you would hope, anyway) and it would truly be a classic of the genre.
As it stands, however, it uses the book as a crutch, hoping that with enough enticement you'll go away and read it and it won't have to do any more of that boring making sense stuff.
[HEADING=2]"It's okay, I'm here."[/HEADING][small]I couldn't find anything else, so I just gave up.[/small]
The Verdict?
Certainly unique amongst it's peers, in that it's not an identikit horror flick populated by chiseled twenty somethings chatting up high school children.
But if you're looking for something deep, something to really, aha, sink your teeth into, then for the love of God read the book instead.
To go back to my original question (seems so long ago now), about novels like this and if they can ever truly be adapted: if you take this film as evidence then the answer is "no, but an honest attempt can at least be made".
There are simply too many sacrifices you have to make; you have to trim certain things, add others to make it work on camera and basically bend it out of all recognition to appease fans who will despise you for changing anything about the book they like so much they want to see it on screen in the first place.
So, if you absolutely, positively must adapt something like this onto screen, then the only thing you can do is play it by ear.
But it will never be as good as playing it by eye.
[HEADING=1]SMOOTH AND CREAMY
BUY NESCAFE[/HEADING]
BUY NESCAFE[/HEADING]
___________________________________________________________________________________
Can't sleep? Me either.
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Game: Resident Evil 4 Retrospective [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.148447#3440710] / Mass Effect [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.145571#3296970] / Final Fantasy: Dissidea [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.144913#3266704] / Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.140353#3149506] / Far Cry 2 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.139317#3129015] / Street Fighter IV [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.136868#3079685]
Other: A Review of Society, via Call of Duty 4 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.151891] / A review of My Cat [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.146281#3332788]
