A couple of weeks ago I headed out to see Day Watch with Jon, Grace, and Chris. We had to drive out to Irvine on a weeknight, but it was worth it! This movie follows after Night Watch, which left our hero Anton a bit devastated when his son, a great Other, decided to side with the forces of Darkness. Svetlana, the girl who cursed herself in the first movie, is now in training with the Night Watch, and joins Anton as he tries to save his son, despite schemes from the Darkness to bring on an epic battle between both sides. This is one of those rare times when a sequel is superior to its predecessor.

The interesting additions to this movie are those in which we learn more about the rules of the supernatural world (different levels of Gloom, training, rules of pursuit, arrest, etc.), and the introduction of the chalk of fate. I admit, I laughed when I heard that everyone was going crazy over a piece of chalk, but I ended up liking the way they went with it.

In all sorts of ways, this movie takes the original movie and improves on it. While the first focused a lot on setting up the plot and making the action happen quickly, this one takes time for relationships and character. And, as such, the movie has a lot more laughs as well. In fact, I don't remember laughing very often when I saw Night Watch, but this time around, there were plenty of light-hearted moments, which were good relief from the (literal) Gloom. The special effects, action, and acting are all a lot more impressive too. I keep wanting to give examples, but I don't want to spoil anything.

And at the end of the movie, we're left with the wonderful question, "What now?" If you see it, you'll get what I mean. It's an ending that leaves one slightly frustrated yet mostly satisfied - at least that's how I experienced it. I know it sounds like just a battle of dark and light like so many that have gone before, but this series of movies has an awesome style and such a creative take that it's worth checking out. If anything, you should see the movie just to experience subtitles used to their best ability. They're almost another character, the way they get responses from the audience!

I'm definitely looking forward to Dusk Watch (or Twilight Watch, as it's called on imdb), although I have no idea how the story will continue..

Live Free or Die Hard comes out today and I'm pretty excited about it. I'll probably go sometime this weekend. From all the reviews so far, it sounds like it's a fun movie and people are digging it. Kevin Smith is getting very positive reviews for his brief role in the movie. I'm also interested to see the pairing of Bruce Willis and Justin Long, who I really dig. This came out a few days ago, but I forgot to post it, so check it out. It's a pretty good clip of Kevin interviewing Bruce Willis about the movie. There's also some good clips from the movie itself. With this, Ratatouille, and Transformers all coming out in the next week, it appears the summer movie season is still moving ahead with full steam. Should be fun.

You know, many things around campus make me smile, but I never thought something in the parking lot would be one of them.