Night Watch (2004)

Without any connection to the seasonal holidays, I somehow finally managed to see "Night Watch", the first part of a Russian "trilogy" (that's what the poster says) that as far as I know stopped eventually after two movies. The film is directed by Timur Bekmambetov, more known after some visits to Hollywood for "Wanted", "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" and the latest "Ben Hur". Actually it seems these came after the success he had with this production, which for me is part of very narrow niche of movies that don't make much sense, but somehow managed to keep me watching till the end.

There's a story that puts the light and darkness forces in conflict since ages, having momentarily a sort of truce with some not very clear rules (there's nothing very clear in this movie). We have some human agents on the light side who can see other invisible agents who, again it's not very clear if they're human or not, but in brief they are responsible with enforcing this order. Anton, a guy recruited by the good side, gets involved in a rescue operation for a plane heading towards a potential crash over Moscow, unless a curse on a blonde woman living in a tower doesn't get removed. Meanwhile, Anton should also take care that his son who is not his son doesn't become food for vampires. If all this summary seems already between too entangled and semi-absurd, trust me is way clearer than the way the action unfolds in the movie. We have a sort of surrealism a la "Fisher King" by Gilliam combined with a tint of "apocalypse is coming" that looks like a mix between "End of Days", "Omen" and "Warlock II: The Armageddon" (maybe the latter is too obscure, but has its place on this list).

The movie is very good on visuals and audio. Considering how well the end of the world touch is blended into what's a normal evening in Moscow, I think you can forgive the way too obvious Nescafe advertising. No pun intended, probably that's what kept me awake to see it until the end. Even so, I have some doubts I'll have the patience also for "Day Watch" (the second part) that should bring closure.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Blade Runner 2049 vs PKD's Electric Dreams

"Electric Dreams" is a series recently released by Channel 4 in UK, where each episode is based on a short story of Philip K. Dick. "Blade Runner 2049" follows the '82 adaptation of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by the same P.K. Dick and probably doesn't need more introduction. What's need maybe is a bit of context...

1) Contrary to the general opinion I've never considered "Blade Runner" (the old one) to be a masterpiece. It's just good and that's it. Actually, story concerned, given how much it loses from the original written material, I could even say it's average.
2) What I always appreciated on "Blade Runner" are the visuals and the audio. As much as it loses on the subject from the book, as closer it gets with the rest to a P.K. Dick "feeling".
3) The biggest plus of "Blade Runner", and the one that actually saves the story, is the mystery you're left with.

Now, moving to "Blade Runner 2049": 1) still holds - the movie is ok, but sorry - still no masterpiece here; obviously we have nothing to do with PKD's writing, but that's not such a big problem (was expectable)... 2) is fortunately still sort of valid, although I have complaints... and 3) all is lost, or well... 99%.

I'm gonna use 3) as an excuse not to tell anything about the story. It's already much too... "clarified" let's say. The major issue is the directing here. The movie has way too many lengthened scenes that really don't fit there. I understand the idea of "building momentum" for a scene and the need to relax the pace after others, but here this technique is extremely overused. My eyes shut twice in the first 40 minutes (it's true that I was tired). After, I managed to stay awake, but it still couldn't prevent me to check my watch a couple times. Moreover, the visuals and the audio are indirectly affected by these "zero-action" long scenes. There's one thing to watch for several seconds a transition frame = the dystopic environment, with all the visual filters and the audio synth on background (which is more like Brad Fiedel than Vangelis, but anyway, it works). There's a whole different thing to have that lengthened for minutes or worse, having scenes like that repeated with a noticeable frequency. It's exactly the same thing as in a Michael Bay's "Transformers" - if you would have one single explosion in the whole movie maybe you could get the details up to the piece of shrapnel flowing out Optimus Prime's wheels, and you'll think on how good the VFX team was to manage that. But when you have one hundred explosions is more probable to get tempted on computing if you have enough time to fetch another popcorn until the next story intermission.

I'm too hard on comparing these two indeed, here we don't have explosions, it's not happening for 100 times, and the movie is above all impeccable on the technical side, so at least for a first view the visuals won't bore you. However, fragmenting the action with these lengths is something that doesn't get away. And here I can draw a comparison with "Electric Dreams", or how "Blade Runner 2049" could've been better. An episode in "Electric Dreams" has less than one hour, in which we have story that at least in the 1st, 3rd and 5th part is comparable as amplitude with what we get in BR2049. "Electric Dreams" also doesn't care much about the written original, and obviously we can't compare the budget on an English TV show with a Hollywood production. And still, the idea of alternate reality, thing not being what they seem, and escaping from the current existence, which is the ground of pretty much everything by PKD, seems much better expressed by "Electric Dreams". Maybe it's also the way to leave open to the viewer to figure out what's there, stuff that's pretty much lost at the end of BR2049 and in ED is present in almost every episode. But I think is more continuity you have, or better said the lack of "dead" scenes. So, still the "lengths" are the issue :) ...

Rating: 3 out of 5 (for "Blade Runner 2049", "Electric Dreams" is still open ;) ...)

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)

Still recycling summer movies... or more precisely "Snatch" meets "GoT" = "King Arthur"... or even more precisely that was the wishful thinking, but unfortunately was neither of the two...

When I heard that there's a new release of Camelot related stuff directed by Guy Ritchie my hopes went high. After watching the movie (or actually while watching it) I realized that the fantasy ground is not that easily mergeable with his style of directing and even worse for the screenwriting, at least compared to the ground line of a classic crime story as was "Sherlock Holmes". It just doesn't work. The context doesn't get well along with the specific short witty lines, the London ghetto feeling, the alert editing filled with short cuts and frequent flashbacks and there are also others. The story itself is ok. Arthur loses his parents at a very young age following the eternal battle for the crown and gets to be raised in a London brothel. In peace and harmony. Until he reaches the age where he can be a problem for his evil uncle (a Jude Law who doesn't seem to age ... probably the dark magic effect). The rest is more or less like a soap opera, but I don't want to give extra spoilers.

It's obviously far from the original writings, but in the end is ok as an adaptation, a quite dark one and which wants to be more settled in the real world. At least it is comparing with John Boorman's "Excalibur", which probably remains the main reference in the "knights of the round table" niche. The problem is with the mise en scene as I was saying, which is bit too chaotic and looses a lot on impact due to this. You don't get to sympathize or to hate any character. There's not enough for this. I won't get to the absurd scenes or to the fighting that bypasses the limits of a swordfighting marathon. I'll stick to my own reference.. which is not "Excalibur" (too metaphorical, completely opposed to this actually), but the TV mini-series "Merlin" starring Sam Neill. The last 10 minutes in that worth watching more than all we have here...

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Trapped (2017)

To let it go or not to let it go?... that is the question. That's not about "Trapped", which is just another movie recycled from what I managed to see earlier this year, but about the blog... But since I'm struggling with one more entry it's probably "not to let it go" yet...

So "Trapped"... I think it's the only Indian movie that I had the patience to watch in the last 10 years. Without having any surprise of (spoiler alert!) somebody starting to dance between two scenes. So for who's allergic to musicals, and even more to the Bollywood version, don't worry, you're safe. The story: we have love at first sight between a guy and a girl working in the same company, with the problem that him seems struggling with the money and her having an already arranged marriage (well... we have some sort of typical Indian setup). In any case, he manages somehow to convince her having second thoughts about the marriage by trying to find a new home for them. Which home, given the budget, is a rent on the black market on the top of a barely finished tower of flats, completely empty, that was not given into use. Just that he doesn't get to tell here anymore... Because after the first visit for arranging the new place he somehow manages to get stuck in the apartment. No neighbors. No phone battery. No electricity. No water. No food. Up in the sky. With just a sort of building guard, half deaf and completely absent sleeping all day at the ground floor. There you have it... The perfect setup for a catchy movie. Unfortunately the result, although not bad, was a bit below what I expected. Well, that's all about it, until next time...

Rating: 3 out of 5