"disappointed by the obvious Hollywood influence"

Day Watch is the second part of the trilogy adapted from novels by Sergei Lukyanenko and Vladimir Vasiliev. The story itself focuses on the battle between the forces of Light and Darkness. The Darkness rule the night, but the Light's Night Watch is always watching over them, while during the Light's precedence of the day they are kept in check by the Dark's Day Watch. To make things a bit more complicated there's also witches, vampires and psychics, collectively known as The Others. And then there's the forbidden love story between Sveta and Yegor, body morphing, needle stabbings and blood spiking. Oh, and while all this is taking place in Moscow its human inhabitants remain totally oblivious to any of it.

The cinematography is amazing from the start, with a slight Matrix feel to it. Personally I was disappointed by the obvious Hollywood influence, being more used to Russian films oozing emotion rather then special effects. Still, it's got all the makings of a blockbuster and maybe this is what's needed to secure a space in the mainstream for Russian films. I would definitely recommend seeing Night Watch first as the complicated plot and fast pace make it hard to keep up without knowing the back ground.