Russia's first blockbuster, Night Watch — or Ночной Дозор [Nochnoy Dozor] in its native tongue, finally opened stateside in February. Timur Bekmambetov's first installment of the dark-vs-light trilogy lured Russians to the theaters propelling the film-noir-inspired saga to the top of Russian Box Office with 464 million Rubles (US$16 million).

The movie opens with a short introduction to the mythological universe where the stories would take place. We then follow Anton Gorodetsky as he discovered his true identity and his adventures with the Night Watch keeping their eyes on the Dark Others.

One could argue that the plot is a bit loose and that Bekmambetov's slogan has got to be fashion follows function instead of the other way around. One can't be more right! It seems that every turn of plot in the story was designed to enhance the cinematic visual pleasure that is Night Watch.

Now, does that mean it was a bad B-movie flick? Definitely not! So the storyline could've been tighter but stunning cinematography coupled with the visual effects and jawdropping fight sequences made way up for it.

The only real downside to it was the blatant product tie-ins. After seeing the movie, no one could be blamed to think that Moscow is a Nokia-sponsored city. Perhaps in the future the Russians could learn from Hollywood that subtle product tie-ins work better than putting billboards on every cityview frame.