Death Note

As others have said, the source material is amazing, full of depth, cleverly intricate with complex themes and characters that feel real. So there were glimmers of hope that the film adaptation would be halfway decent on its own, despite a lot of people hating it. Really did want to like it and be one of those people to go against the general consensus, which has happened quite a few times before (though have found myself agreeing with critics more and more these days, seemingly a sacrilegious thing to say these days with so much over-the-top hate for them).

Sadly, 'Death Note' is yet another film that sees me agreeing with the general consensus and what they have said about it. Not much for me to add. It is not just that it is an abortion of an adaptation, that is the complete opposite of every element of the source material and completely forgot in translation what made it so great. Would go as far to say that it didn't seem to even understand it or what it was about. Having said that, have always believed in judging an adaptation on its own terms, there have been numerous instances of a film or TV series to be not so good as adaptations but good to classic on their own. 'Death Note' manages to be a failure on its own.

Does 'Death Note' have good things? Not many but they are there. There are some creative visuals and touches, this is not a cheap-looking film on the most part by all means and often quite striking. The (incidental) music is suitably moody.

There is also Willem Dafoe who brings menace and gravitas to Ryuk (although the character is nowhere near sadistic enough and that is the fault of the writers not Dafoe, who was giving his all to what he was given), managing to make a memorable impression despite far too little screen time. His performance comes off best of the cast and the only good one.

Found the rest of the acting however to be bland and forced, nobody gets deep into their characters and most don't even seem to understand them. The characters have lost their complexity and substance, they are all stereotypical clichés with no substance or even worse distorted beyond recognition. Complete with far too much emphasis on teen drama that was not really needed and was really not well written (cheesy, shallow and predictable). With more of a psychological drama focus there would have been far more depth and atmosphere and the characters would have been far more interesting.

Early on and sadly throughout, suspense and mystery are lacking and as said the characters are bland and often behave irrationally and out of character to an irritating degree. The dialogue is very stilted and the direction lacking control or tautness, didn't get the sense they were at ease or even they wanted to do it. The editing tended to be nauseating, but it's the story treatment that's most disappointing. It's not just the lack of suspense and surprises, it also feels dumbed down and too tame, anything that made one shocked or biting nails were treated with indifference, and events are far too rushed to the point that parts are incoherent. With nothing to the story or characters, the 'Death Note' manages to also be dull due to not being invested in it.

Overall, a few saving graces but a mess on the whole. 3/10 Bethany Cox

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.

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.

The other reviews are massively not enthusiastic: Even though I'm a huge fan of the eponymous manga, it seems like most of the other fans are disappointed, as a sweet euphemism, by this adaptation. Turning a 10-hours Japanese cartoon into a 90-minutes Hollywood movie is obviously a tough exercise. But, according to me, the result is nevertheless correct. Morality: movie to be watched, and eventually appreciated, BEFORE the manga.

I'm often on the defending party for films. I notice that many reviewers seem to complain much about any movie is released. That was the case with Alien: covenant, for example. That movie was far superior to this one.

Prior to the film, I watched in about three days the entire Death Note series. Because I really just got into it and don't plan on watching the anime again soon, I don't consider myself a fan (never watched animes before, by the way), but I reckon it was a very clever series. At times it had its cheesiness, but still worked pretty well.

When the source material is well written, I don't think that departing from it is the right choice. The Martian proved that, for instance. Changching the plot should be always for the benefit of it, and not to overly simplify the story and to take out some of it core aspects.

Death Note's film adaptation chose this second route. I have the feeling that they didn't understand at all what was the series about. The anime mostly focused on L and Light's intellectual fight, battles of tricks and making one and another be unsure about what his intentions are. Ryuk (who I thought would be a practical effect and not CGI, as instead it sadly proved to be) had more importance. Truth is, this movie had also a very low runtime in order to cover up the plot well, it might have needed an extra 40 minutes (so a 2h 30m film), but it would have needed an entirely different plot.

Instead, when the movie finished, it turned out to be just a rushed sequence of events, most of which seemed incoherent if seen next to the anime, which was a very clever story. Ultimately, the film settles for a needless and overly bloody gore feast. The speed of this film is so fast paced that, by when I arrived to the 1 hour mark, I could not believe that we had forty minutes left. And I came to realise that nothing that happened felt relevant to the whole storyline. Death note should have been adapted in a slightly slower paced film, and had minimal gore (most of people died by heart attack). That wouldn't mean that it had to be necessarily a boring film, or a non-R rated one. The themes of moral ambiguity and killing powers make it anyways a very dark story to tell.

The only positive note I could find in all of this is that sometimes both L and Light's actor delivered scenes which made me suggest that they where up to the roles, if the original anime was to be followed. L sometimes used the anime character's same line delivery, Light seemed capable of behaving as a bloodthirsty, dark and evil character. Sadly, the movie didn't allow the actors to perform their characters rightfully. Williem Dafoe's voice sounded exactly like the original Ryuk's. That said, Ryuk appeared for about 4 minutes, so there wasn't much there.

Ultimately, this is the perfect example on how an adaptation of a good source material can simply suck. I recall only Eragon being such an unfaithful, unrightful and almost offensive adaptation to a very clever and deep story.