Interceptor

Starring: Aleksandr Baluyev, Andrey Chubchenko, Aleksey Dmitriev

Synopsis:

Interceptor tells the story of Matvey (Igor Petrenko), a Russian Special Forces agent trained and guided by a celestial brotherhood of time-shifting Angels.

He is betrayed by his partner during the transportation of a new psychic weapon. Left for dead, Matvey escapes and assumes a new identity to enable him to live a simpler life far away from his previous work.

Things don’t go according to plan and he is thrust back into the game. He is forced to return to Moscow to confront a secret organization, led by his former partner, that’s mission is to take control of the country using the new weapon’s technology.

Now he is a key figure in the battle between forces of darkness and light and must fulfill his true destiny as 'The Chosen One'.

Review:

Immediately upon watching this I recognised a certain visual style; it made me think of Nightwatch and Daywatch - both Russian made movies. So, it was no surprise when I learnt that Interceptor used the same FX company. Sadly, the FX can’t make up for a lack of clear narrative in the plot. The movie begins as if we are behind in the story. Whilst I found it easy to work out what was going on, the story is not immediately accessible and asks much from the viewer.

Vasily Golovachev has adapted his own work here as the movie is based upon his hugely successful series of novels. He takes liberties with the audience as if they should know the novel that Interceptor is based on. Great, if you’re Russian speaking and familiar with the source material. This means that watching the movie is akin to a mystery where the viewer is constantly working out what is going on and how the characters relate to each other. No mean feat for the average movie viewer but I suspect that if you are going to sit down and watch a Russian language Sci-Fi film then you’re already going to prepare yourself for something a bit different.

The visuals are imaginative, especially the way in which denizens from another world contact characters from our world. The film has a bleached look to it adding to the atmosphere of a sterile city of the near future.

Summary:

A difficult movie to recommend. If you’re into art house style movies that make little or no sense, you might have fun with it. This won’t be a movie for the general movie viewer. If it is part of a trilogy, I do hope that Golavachez adds the necessary exposition and narrative to make sure that the viewer isn’t left with a headache.

5/10 (Wayfarer)