Death Note

First time ever writing a review here. Had to do it now because I don't want people like me who enjoyed the original anime/manga to waste their time on this movie.

Firstly i didn't know this was a movie until it was released on Netflix. I'm not going into detail, but there is a reason its a long manga/anime and not a movie.

Anyway, the protagonist isn't interesting, L is not interesting and the plot is garbage. They took all the good thing from the original and butchered it and made another bad American adaptation.

Everyone involved in this movie should be ashamed.

Save yourself the misery and never watch this.

This movie was a mess. From a directional standpoint, to acting, to script writing, everything. The VFX is horrible in this movie. It's so low budget, you'd imagine it be a cheap TV show. Ryuk's forehead is too big and feels nonexistent within the mise-en-scene. Light Yagami is everything wrong, changed to a bullied kid to feel politically relevant and correct. He's just eccentric, over the top, and a creepy looking mofo. Mia is supposed to be Misa? She is changed to a typical short girl cheerleader who follows Light around. Also, why would anyone name their kid Light in America is beyond me. This movie was rushed. From the start, we already see the book falling down. There is no build up to this or tension, it just falls and it's one of the cheapest looking movie production props I have ever seen. The design is something you'd see from a fanmade film. Then, the title sequence. They got the colors right at first, but then they went with complete blue, when it should be red and a bit of purple. All of the dialogue is awkward and choppy. Terrible line deliveries from each actor, just overcooked and several mumbling moments. The deaths were immoral, stupid, and just goes to Final Destination B-movie horror territory. The writers they hired wrote Immortal, a terrible movie with Henry Cavill. So, it was doomed to suck to begin with. They hired Adam Wingard too who directed the overrated The Guest. He's just bad, they should stop hiring him. His camera tricks are cheap, choppy, and horrible to look at. Blair Witch was unwatchable, this one is almost too. Ugliest looking cinematography of the year, muddy, unsmooth, bad shot composition, and student film level. The music choice is pop/techno like music and it is all wrong. Death Note was Gothic, operatic, and heavy metal. The only thing they got right was Ryuk's voice.

2/10.

As a fan of the original Death Note anime I am very disappointed in this film. It was poorly acted, horribly paced, and the drama felt more edgy than composed. The characters personalities were completely changed to the point where I didn't see why they even bothered maintaining the original names and The events of the story were changed so drastically I forgot that I was watching Death Note. In the original anime both L and Light were very calm and rational in how they made each decision, creating a suspenseful psychological drama, but in the film both of them do things that were very out of character and essentially made no sense. Overall this felt very rushed and poorly directed, I wouldn't be surprised if the director had never even heard of the original anime before doing this film.

The original Death Note was a masterpiece, some of the legitimately smartest most well written television of all time so all these years later hearing it was getting the American treatment I was understandably concerned.

Sadly my fears were confirmed, all of them. It's as if the creators were given a 30 second explanation of Death Note and based a movie on what they were told.

The characters are simply nothing like the originals, the plot is a compacted mess, this simply isn't Death Note.

Light has gone from an arrogant, smart, cool calm and collected person to a weak screaming baby.

L has gone from a savant secretive quirky quiet child to an out in the open gun wielding threat spewing idiot.

Misa has become Mia and no longer a ditsy blonde bimbo but now a devious manipulative brunette.

The original plot? Forget about it, straight out the window and something that misses the point of the story altogether in to replace it.

I could rant about what an embarrassment this is for ages, I think I could quite frankly write a book on how much of a slap in the face to the fans this is but I'll resist.

But make no mistake, that's exactly what this is.

The Good:

Willem Defoe as Ryuk

The Bad:

An offensive cluster crap to fans of the original

Light Turner........really!?

Terrible representation of Light

Terrible representation of L

Terrible representation of Mia/Misa

Misa becomes Mia.....really!?

So........many..........changes to the rules of the Death Note!

So........many..........changes to the plot

The soundtrack during the big wheel scene.......really!?

I don't suggest you watch the movie if you are a huge fan of Death Note, because it will ruin the whole thing. The actors and actresses were terrible and just everything was a big disappointment. The movie had almost nothing to do with the anime. If you have never heard of Death Note before, watch the anime first and if you are curious to watch the movie, go ahead..But as I said before, you will be disappointed.