Did you know it was wrong to kill a vampire?

The forces of light and dark are still battling it out for control of Moscow in Day Watch, part two of a trilogy of films based on the sci-fi novels of Sergei Lukyanenko.

Much better than last year's Night Watch, Day Watch again concerns the world-weary Anton (Konstantin Khabensky) as he does his level best to keep an all-out war from overwhelming the world. For some 700 years, a truce has kept those forces of light and dark from rising up against each other, but hey -- things change.

Anton, meanwhile, has to protect his son (Dmitry Martynov), who may have special powers, and he has to protect his love interest (Mariya Poroshina), an apprentice vampire hunter who may have special powers. If you've already foreseen a showdown between the son and the girl, maybe you've got special powers too.

When a couple of vampires end up dead -- a serious blow to peace between dark and light forces -- Anton is framed for the crimes and has to go into hiding. That is achieved by a body swap with a female member of the force; it's The Matrix meets All of Me, only clever and funny.

By the time Anton goes after the Chalk of Fate -- and, really, this is the place where we stop pretending to have understood the plot -- you'll have seen a woman drive a car across a building, a parrot turn into a man (in a most colourful fashion), entire blocks of buildings explode and a crop of malevolent motorcyclists maraud through the city streets.

Day Watch may not make sense, but it's very funny and the special effects are wonderfully inventive. The action scenes in this one are non-stop. Even the subtitles are embellished with little jolts of energy. You don't need to have seen Night Watch to enjoy this sequel, although it couldn't hurt.

Day Watch is fast and furious and larded with bizarre laughs, and given its ending, we really can't wait to see what happens in Dusk Watch, the third installment.

(This film is rated R)
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