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Cyrillic won't post to the boards, but the original titles are Nochnoy Dozor and Dnevnoy Dozor-difficult to summarize, but good v. evil; truce because both are evenly matched; free will among men; etc. These are my favorite films of the year (that I've watched this year--both movies are actually a couple years old). Definitely, watch them in Russian with English subtitles--skip the English dubbing altogether.
As in most cases, the books seemed far more superior than the films, though the latter were still highly enjoyable to watch but more for their visual delights than the story element (still can't get over Igor being Anton's son, so unneccesary).
The stories do seem to depict a very elegant chessmatch between Light and Dark, until the entire board gets unsettled in the third book, a great series all in all. I can only wonder what route the third film will take, given the ending to the Day Watch film.
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They are original books - the films are adaptations (loose, from what I can tell). They are good, and the translations are excellent, though they tend to dwell on the lyrics of Russian heavy metal a lot. And the interesting thing about them is how Russian they feel, dealing with the aftermath of the fall of Communism and the rise of modern Russia.
I loved the first movie, but the second (trying hard not to spoil) used a plot device that made me ultimately dislike both movies. Movies that use things like the chalk just simply seem like bad (read: lazy) plotting and writing to me.
I was interested in the books, but haven't read them. If the chalk isn't in them, maybe I'll still give them a shot.
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The chalk is in them. One of the criticisms of the books (maybe the films - haven't seen them) is that the leaders of the Day and Night Watches are so inscrutable and far ahead of the game that a lot of hat they do to resolve the plots is like deus ex machina sometimes.
I was reading Harry Dresden at the same time as the Night Watch trilogy. The Dresdens work better from a plotting perspective, but they are more generic in what goes on, and much less dark in tone. The Night Watch trilogy has a great tone, and deals with some much bigger themes (communism, modern Russia, utopian ideals, the nature of good and evil, love and so on) but they are much more like "serious" novels. I enjoyed them, but they are not as easy a read all the time.