Day Watch

Night Watch - director Timur Bekmambetov's stunning Russian sci-fi extravaganza - outgrossed both Lord of the Rings and Spiderman on home turf.

Its visual invention and Matrix-style setpieces shackled to a lean and slightly surreal plot made it one of the more intriguing releases of 2004.

Three years down the line and the second part of the trilogy sees the truce between the forces of Light and Darkness under severe strain.

Each side has gained an all-powerful "Great Other" - one the errant son of copper Anton (Khabensky) and the other the rookie plod - Svetlana (Poroshina) - he's taken under his wing. A bit of a coincidence, but never mind.

Anyway, with the coming of Armageddon being engineered by the ruthlessly amoral Zavulon (Victor Verzhbitskiy) the last thing Anton wants to be framed for is a murder he didn't commit. Then he's framed for a murder he didn't commit.

Where Night Watch scored highly was its wry comment on the old Russia's unyielding bureaucracy. Unfortunately, that subtlety is lost here and the injection of roubles sees this sliding towards the tried and the tested.

Bekmambetov can't resist the temptation to tinker with a scene, be it by shoehorning in some weird Matrix-style device or playing silly beggars with the subtitles - a gimmick that is now merely annoying.

That said, some of the action setpieces are genuinely inspired - the scene where a sports car roars around the outside of a workers' paradise apartment block is definitely worth a look.

Yet, the genuine otherworldliness that distinguished Night Watch is missing and it's difficult to distinguish between this and any other Hollywood sci-fi fare.

Tim Evans