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For the last seven centuries, forces of Light and Dark have served a truce: So long as the Dark forces do not persuade regular humans to join their side, the Light will not make fun of the funny hats worn by the Dark.

Or something like that.

"Night Watch," a hyperactive Russian fantasy thriller, unleashes so much convoluted mythos, kinetic battles and head-scratching philosophy that the first time through, it's all a moviegoer can do to hang on for dear life. This is a film so complicated and involving that it demands repeated viewings and ample debates.

All you really need to understand at the outset is that Light and Dark people have superpowers and vampire sensibilities, and are known as Others. The two sides don't like each other. We're talking Yankees vs. Red Sox-level rivalry here. And there's a Chosen One — possibly a symbol for Johnny Damon? — who could shift the balance between the forces. The world is in danger of ending due to the reappearance of a Cursed Virgin from Byzantine lore.

About the only thing both Light and Dark forces can agree on is that Nescafé is delish. Gotta love product placement; it bridges even the deepest of schisms.

The plotting is particularly tricky at the beginning, bouncing among the years 1342, 1992 and 2004 without pausing to adjust its ushanka. Wild, stylish camerawork blisters the screen, strung together with the rapid-fire editing you'd expect to see on youth-oriented cable TV. How do you spell MTV in Russian?

Every moment of "Night Watch" is riveted with raw excitement, and each ounce drips with distinctive style. It's a dynamic work of art, right down to the subtitles, which sometimes drip with red blood or flicker and vanish to emphasize verbal tone.

The story — in which Anton, Light force detective and avenger (Konstantin Khabensky), seeks to right a past wrong and prevent Moscow from succumbing to a Cursed Virgin-wielded tornado — holds up its end as well, merging with the artifice.

It's a Cyrillic combination of "The Lord of the Rings," "The Matrix" and "Underworld." Anton even gets an owl as his sidekick, just like Harry Potter. "Night Watch" is thoroughly influenced by Western pop culture, going so far as to include a scene from the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" TV show. The backstory is straight-up Dostoevsky-style psychological angst.

Before Anton discovered that he was a high-powered Other, he was just a lonely youngster devastated that his pregnant girlfriend had left him for another man. He asked a witch who specializes in love-potion-style magic and remote abortions to do her thing on his ex, but he recanted at the last moment.

Twelve years later, he's traveling the Russian public transit system in search of the One, who could turn out to be Dark bloodsucker target Yegor (Dmitry Martynov), . . . who happens to be 12 years old.

As the dark tale unfolds, Anton must face his past and avoid becoming a pawn of the Dark. He also must get into lots and lots of supercool-looking battles. The fast-paced film is a whole lot of Russian rushin.'

Director Timur Bekmambetov works from a Sergei Lukyanenko novel. He's already made the sequel, "Day Watch," and plans on completing the trilogy with "Dusk Watch."

In any language, "Night Watch" is a must watch.