Night Watch, you may recall, told of an ancient feud waged between the forces of Light and Dark. The hero, Anton Gorodetsky (Konstantin Khabensky), found himself tangled in the fates of two über-Watchfolk called the Great Others. Everyone ran around willy-nilly, things exploded, etc. Based on a trilogy of Russian best sellers, the film was a huge hit in Russia and went on to make a decent chunk of change in the States as an art-house/fanboy crossover. Day Watch dawns with a whiplash refresher course in the backstory before diving into an inspired set piece concerning the provenance of the Chalk of Fate. This hilariously lo-fi magic implement will be sought after by Anton to thwart the diabolical schemes of Zavulon (Viktor Verzhbitsky), a nefariously nouveau-riche Day Watcher who masterminds a standoff between the Great Others with the help of a vixen in cherry-red leather with a penchant for gunning her sports car across the facades of skyscrapers. Rad, no? Actually, no. Strange to say in a season of mind-splitting mayhem, but not nearly enough shit gets blown up in Day Watch. Timur Bekmambetov lovingly crafts a world you want to see shatter to bits, but he obliges only grudgingly, instead throwing a hug around the inconsequential psychodramas of his vague principals. He invests in their two-dimensional conflicts at the expense of three-dimensional marvel.