Susan Hated Literature

aka Dnevnoy dozor sequel to Nightwatch
Dir: Timur Bekmambetov
Writ: Timur Bekmambetov, Alexander Talal, Vladimir Vasiliev based on the book by Sergei Lukyanenko

• Konstantin Khabensky … Anton
• Mariya Poroshina … Svetlana
• Vladimir Menshov … Geser
• Galina Tyunina … Olga
• Viktor Verzhbitsky … Zavulon
• Valeri Zolotukhin … Kostya’s Father
• Aleksei Chadov … Kostya

This film starts off pretty much exactly where Nightwatch finished up, there is a quick voice over recap and then we are into the action, with Anton having just lost his son to the Dark Others, Zavulon in particular. Svetlana is now in training with Anton; he spends much of his time hiding how he feels about her while she tries to show him how she feels. Of course dating the trainee is a big no-no according to Geser, especially one that will probably be such a Great Light Other.

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Dir: Patrick Lussier
Writ: Matt Venne

• Nathan Fillion - Abe Dale
• Katee Sackhoff- Sherry Clarke

Okay, so I wouldn’t have gone to this film at all if it hadn’t been for the fact that Nathan Fillion was in it. I hadn’t seen the first White Noise film so why would I go see the sequel.

I didn’t have a horrible time, but if I had paid I would’ve been a little annoyed, because this was a crap film. Maybe twenty minutes into it a group of lads left our screening, and as they walked out one called over his shoulder “This is a shite film!” At that stage I was still giving it the benefit of the doubt, clearly I should have listened, because it was a shite film.

Not that I expected greatness from a film about a man who tries to commit suicide after his wife and son are murdered and leaves his suicide note on his answering machine so that when his best friend calls he is in plenty of time to save him. Lack of organisation and forward planning there Abe.
Let’s see, what else happens in the film? To be honest not a lot, it isn’t even scary. One or two moments when the music cues are so overpowering that you have to give in, but for the most part total and utter pants. And the ending! I’m not even going to bother explaining how pointless and crap it was. Let alone the fact that it make no sense, then again, not much in this film made sense, so at least it was consistent.

In conclusion: Bleurgh, it isn’t even bad enough to laugh at.

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Dir & Writ: David Twohy
Writ: Jim Wheat & Ken Wheat

• Vin Diesel - Riddick
• Colm Feore - Lord Marshal
• Thandie Newton - Dame Vaako
• Judi Dench - Aereon
• Karl Urban - Vaako
• Alexa Davalos - Kyra

I’m a big fan of Pitch Black, that low budget horror in space. And I used to be a big fan of Vin Diesel’s but recent film-roles have made me all a bit meh. Still, I’m surprised it took me this long to get around to watching this film, but I finally caved and got the dvd last week. And I’m not too disapointed that I waited so long, because to be honest this film is trying so hard to be something that it isn’t.

I’m not sure why they bothered to keep the name of Riddick, marketing I suppose. Because this film is totally unrelated to the original. The universe we are shown in Chronicles is totally unlike that of Pitch Black, and the characters are also pretty unrecognisable, those few who actually survived the first film.

But lets ignore all that and try to treat Chronicles as though it were a standalone film, with no history.

It is a sci-fi film, one of those with the clichéd army of evil. Here in the form of Necromongers, an army who are trying to convert or kill all the planets of the universe in order to reach their promised land, the Under-verse. It tries to get out of the stereotype by having this evil army do battle, not with good, but with a “different sort of evil”. Trouble is it doesn’t really work, because in this film Riddick isn’t really all that evil. Sure he kills people but what action hero doesn’t? And everyone he kills here was actually trying to kill him first. Fair enough I suppose, maybe the ending of PB really did change him.

Overall this is a question of style over substance. Style over story. And style over characters.

And yes, it all looks great. In a “look at all our cool spaceships”. And they try and make this intricate back story about the Necromongers and the Furyans (I don’t really care how it should be spelled), and invents this reason why Riddick is so great at killing. But it just doesn’t work for me. None of the characters have even half the presence of those in PB. I did quite enjoy Karl Urban’s Vaako, but not enough to make up for the rest of the film’s shortcomings.

It is an average enough film. Nothing spectacularly bad about it, but nothing great either. Though I’ve heard that the director’s cut makes it a better film overall. I can’t say, I watched the theatrical cut.

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I’ll admit to being a fan of the first Underworld film. Not that it was a great film or anything, but it had style and an interesting premise. Although the execution was lacking it still kept me entertained enough to buy it on dvd. So I was looking forward to this sequal.

I should remember that expectations exist to be dashed
The film looked great. Dark and gloomy, stylish and, well, cool. But the plot and characters were a let down.

The story line was so convoluted that it needed a text introduction, aided by flashbacks to the 13th century, and then a voice-over, and then more flashback, and even then the characters had to keep repeating various plot points so that the audience would know what was going on. Or, maybe all that wasn’t needed, but the makers thought it was, so there it is, part of the film. Maybe there will be a special recut director’s edition for people who can follow a plot.

And the characters were meh. Seline was a lot more interesting in the last film, and Michael was boring. We should’ve have more Kraven, at least his all-over-the-place accent from the film was entertaining.

But that doesn’t mean I didn’t like the film. I did, its just that it isn’t as good as the first. And if you didn’t enjoy that you won’t enjoy this. I’m not really sure why I did like it. Maybe it just the genre, or the world that Wiseman has created is interesting. Who knows? But I will be buying this on dvd, eventually.

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