Night Watch

Herald rating: ***

On the face of it, Night Watch exudes much potential cult-cool.

It's a violent sci-fi horror from Russia, where it was a huge domestic hit. It's big on dark, rapid-fire style set against a grim, modern Moscow. It's also the first in a trilogy based on Sergei Lukyanenko's novels about a cold war between the forces of good and evil for the soul of humanity.

But as much as Night Watch can intrigue with the feeling you're watching something made very far from Hollywood, but which hasn't skimped on the computer special effects, it's also a bit tedious.

It's as if it's forgotten that, as well as kicking off an apocalyptic trilogy, it's also got to make some sort of sense all by itself. It doesn't much. Especially at the end.

It concerns the balance of power between unseen "Others" playing for the Light and the vampiric Dark Teams.

They have maintained a centuries-old detente allowing mere mortals to choose their own fates.

But the balance is about to be tipped and mankind's only hope is possibly Khabensky's Anton.

He's a reluctant psychic referee between the two sides who goes about his otherworldly duties while seemingly permanently tipsy, which is fitting in a film which seems a little drunk on its style and its ultimately baffling mumbo-jumbo.

CAST: Konstantin Khabensky
DIRECTOR: Timur Bekmambetov
RATING: R16 (horror and violence)
RUNNING TIME: 114 mins
SCREENING: Academy Auckland (sneak previews this weekend) and Rialto Hamilton from Thursday