Day Watch (film)

The plot of the film is very different from the novel “ Day Watch ” and to some extent is consistent with the second and third parts of the book “ Night Watch ”.

The prologue tells of the chalk of fate. The main acting character of the prologue is Tamerlan , who manages to rewrite his fate with the help of this artifact - in the first version of fate, showing mercy to the enemy, he was mortally wounded in his back.

Next, the Bright One, Anton Gorodetsky and Svetlana (still a trainee) drive in a company truck. They are being challenged - the Dark attack on people. Anton, however, prevents the detention of the Dark Other, as he recognizes in him his son Yegor. During the persecution, Anton manages to move to another level of Dusk, which was previously inaccessible to him. Yegor's mask cap as material evidence falls to the Light, the Dark ones are very concerned about this.

Meanwhile, the elder Saushkin asks Zavulon to give a respite to his son, since Kostya Saushkin does not want to kill people and is completely costing donor blood. Zavulon for this requires a certain service from him (as it turns out later - to compromise Gorodetsky).

Gorodetsky steals material evidence, that same mask-hat, from the storehouse of the Light. It was at the same time that the murder of Dark Ina Galina Rogova, who is Yegor's mentor, takes place. Evidence points to Anton. Anton and Olga (Great Light) change bodies by order of Geser . Anton in Olga’s body goes to Svetlana’s home. A scene follows in Svetlana’s bathroom: he admits that he is not Olga, and tells her about his love.

Meanwhile, the Darks are leading their game. Zavulon’s mistress, Alice, and Kostya Saushkin fall in love with each other.

Anton finally gets Mel and finds out that with his help you can only change your fate.

The culmination of the film is Yegor's birthday. His encounter with Svetlana leads to the resumption of the war between the Light and the Dark, Zebulun kills Kostya, and Alice tries in vain to revive him with the help of Mel. Moscow is in chaos. Dark energy destroys houses, destroys the Ostankino television tower . At a critical moment, when Anton Gorodetsky is in the balance of death (a large splinter of glass falls on him), Geser appears and “freezes” time. Anton tells Geser that he returned the Chalk of Fate stolen by Yegor. Anton appears for a while while “freezing” is in effect, and he writes the word “no” on the dilapidated wall of the old house of the old witch, to which he came at the beginning of the first film, thereby returning the moment that became key in his life.

Having refused the services of a witch, Anton, remaining an ordinary person, leaves her apartment and meets Semyon, Ilya and Katya, preparing for a raid, and then Svetlana, also an ordinary woman in those days. He gets acquainted with her, and they leave together in the rain, and after them look Geser and Zebulun, peacefully playing dominoes and discussing further options for the fate of Anton and Svetlana.

The scene before the credits: Semyon rides on his ZIL and watches the signs on which the names of the creators of the film are written.

Guests at the birthday party: Alexei Mitrofanov , Yuri Aizenshpis , Maria Arbatova , Pierre Christian Brochet , Maria Kiseleva , Boris Moiseev , Nikas Safronov , Vasily Shandybin , Anita Tsoi , Sergey Shnurov , Willy Tokarev , Artemy Troitsky , Yuri Longo

In the press, The Day Watch was not rated as highly as the first part, The Night Watch. The opinions of critics were divided, neutral and moderately positive reviews prevailed, but they were also sharply critical ^[1] .

In the positive reviews, many noted the successful special effects of the film. Browser Dmitry Puchkov on his website noted that there were “much more special effects, and they look much better than the first time” ^[2] . According to Mikhail Popov from the magazine “ Fantasy World ”, special effects “were done generously, not too deliberately, but in the end it turned out all the same well” ^[3] . “The Ferris wheel, slowly traveling through Moscow, and the Ostankino Tower, majestically falling to one side, are really impressive,” says an editorial review of the Poster Mail.ru site ^[4] . Critics also noted the acting game as a whole positively ^{[4] [3] [5]} .

The film earned negative reviews for the confusion of the plot. Igor Varnavsky wrote in Igromania magazine: “The script wiggles from side to side, now and then the story threads are confused, and everything that needs to be explained and chewed is left overs” ^[6] . Stanislav Zelvensky agrees with him in the Afisha magazine: “for a film claiming leadership in the national box office, such a plot laxity should be fatal” ^[7] . Indeed, “the plot turned out to be similar to a picture drawn by careless, wide strokes. But wasn’t this part of the director’s intention? ”- they asked a counter question on the analytical site“ Memes and Media Viruses ” ^[8] .

A number of publications noted that the film is practically not connected with the book source, but did not consider this a drawback ^{[3] [9]} . The "sentinel" sequel in itself is perceived quite holistically, as a completely logical continuation of the film story with dusk and others. But there is a huge plot difference between films and books, which is aptly captured in an anecdote proposing to place captions: “All coincidences of names and events with S. Lukyanenko’s novel are random,” Alla Latynina noted in the magazine Novy Mir ^[10] . However, as the observers of the site “kino-govno.com” wrote, “even we - such ardent fans of the book series, which still to look for - we have nothing against. Because Bekmambetov’s world finally healed according to its own laws ” ^[5] .

The Day Watch uses hidden advertising ^[11] , although it is less active ^[12] than the Night Watch . However, at the same time, the creators of the film earned on advertising much more than in The Night Watch, in which, according to some estimates, the volume is estimated at half a million, while at the same time in the Daily Watch the volume reaches $ 3 million ^{[13] [14]} .

• Alex exler
• Goblin
• Kirill Razlogov
• Konstantin Krylov
• Mikhail Popov. Review of the film: Day Watch // The World of Fiction: Journal. - Moscow, 2006. - No. 3 . - ISBN 9-771810-224009.
• Nikolay Pegasov. Review of the film: Day Watch // The World of Fiction: Journal. - Moscow, 2006. - No. 4 . - ISBN 9-771810-224009.
• Pavel Yelchenko. Our film. "Day Watch" // World of fiction: a magazine. - Moscow, 2006. - No. 1 . - ISBN 9-771810-224009.
• Alexander Gaginsky. See with “The World of Fantasy”: “Day Watch” // The World of Fantasy: Journal. - Moscow, 2013. - No. 8 . - ISBN 9-771810-224009.

• "Day Watch" on the site "Encyclopedia of Domestic Cinema"
• " Day Watch " on the Internet Movie Database
• Official site of the film "Day Watch". // dozorfilm.ru
• The site of the film company Gemini Film. // geminifilm.ru
• Kinolyapy in the "Day Watch". The newspaper " Komsomolskaya Pravda " // kp.ru
• An article about creating special effects in the movie Day Watch. // cgtalk.ru