L: Change the World

First off, a note to the Death Note fans who have only enjoyed the anime/manga series: This movie is a sequel to the two live-action Death Note movies. The two movies follow an alternate ending to the Death Note anime/manga storyline, and this movie follows up to that. Therefore, if you don't know the movie ending, then you'll be left scratching your head where this movie fits in the timeline.

Another note to the people who are expecting another epic battle of wits between L and a new Kira and/or a new Shinigami (Death God): This movie does not have it. At all.

Light, Misa, and Ryuk only make a brief appearance, pretty much to recap and wrap up a small loose end from the previous movies, and that's it. This movie is about a whole new case, unrelated to Death Notes and Shinigamis. There is a reason why the words "Death Note" are not in the title of this movie. This is likely going to be a major sticking point to most fans of the Death Note franchise.

Not helping is the fact that the new case and the storyline (and the way it's told) isn't really much to write home about. The villain is supposed to be a super-genius of L's ilk, but we never get the kind of duel of the minds we've come to expect from Death Note. And for all the threat that the villain poses, the movie simply doesn't feel that suspenseful. In fact, one "horrific" death scene just ends up being unintentionally comical. As a crime thriller goes, this is a mundanely written and directed work. If such aspects are what you will be watching this movie for, you are going to be seriously disappointed.

So what should you be watching this movie for? L being L (and the actor Ken'ichi Matsuyama's top-notch portrayal of him), and L making human connections with children.

Does that description make you roll your eyes? If so, then this movie is definitely not for you.

But if you are the kind of person who enjoys L's eccentricities -- and maybe even finds him flat-out adorable for those qualities -- then you are absolutely going to love this movie. The director Hideo Nakata has said that he wanted to show L's previously unseen "human side" with this film, and in this respect, he delivers in spades.

I watched this movie at Los Angeles Anime Expo 2008 in an auditorium with 1000+ people, and I got a huge kick out of this movie. Fans were giddily screaming when L did one of his signature eccentric moves, oooh-ing and awww-ing when L showed his tender side, and hollering "YEAH!!!" when L made a triumphant heroic entrance. Grand joyous time was had by all.

To me, this movie was the perfect homage to L and his fans. And as such, I'm giving this movie an unabashedly inflated score of 8/10. If I were to rate it as a straightforward crime thriller movie, I might go as low as 4/10.

This movie is strictly for the fans of L's eccentricities only. Everybody else can safely skip this movie.

Let's be clear the Death Note movies were works of art and mostly loyal to the original material, the performances were fantastic and they delivered on every front.

I was deeply concerned about this L themed spin off for a number of reasons, primarily because it's very existence felt like a cash grab.

Immediately it felt like it was part of the franchise, integrated into the last film and following on nicely.

Of course if the movies had followed the original material this movie for obvious reasons would never have been possible.

Trouble is now it was entirely L's story and could he carry a film by himself? Honestly, no. And that's a shame because bringing L into other cases could in itself be brilliant and worthy of an entire television show but somehow, someway it simply didn't work.

L himself was great, the actor once again knocks it out of the park but is dropped into a non-Death Note themed story that simply isn't worthy of him or the franchise.

Thanks to him and the general quality of the film it's still quite good but isn't as smart as we've come to expect from the series and just not that great.

Add a team of interesting characters with L and I stand by this being perfect for a television show but as a movie it just doesn't stack up.

The Good:

L is perfect once again

Is following on from the events of the main movies

The Bad:

Story is very bland

Not as well written as the Death Note movies

Isn't particularly intelligent

I'm sure everyone agrees that L was by far the more interesting character in the Death Note movies, thanks to a charmingly weird geek-cool performance from Kenichi Matsuyama, possibly channelling Johnny Depp. As such you can't blame the producers for giving him his own spin-off/sequel... only for making it so bad.

The problem, in a nutshell, is that the writers have missed the point on practically everything that made the Death Note films interesting. The intriguing mystical lore about the Death Notes and their keepers is all forgotten about, which is probably better than trying to contrive some re-entrance for them - except that it's replaced by a feeble pseudo-science deadly virus tale that even the cheesiest of direct-to-video American films would be ashamed of. The high level mind games that drove the plot of DN are almost entirely gone - L's opponents are a dim-witted bunch, and in their place is a countdown to destruction and an entirely unforgivable attempt at an action-packed finale. Ugh.

Worst of all, they decided that what L really needed was humanising - to whit, a back-story that reveals him to be part of an alphabetically codenamed secret organisation fighting crime under the stewardship of Watari, and a plot that leaves him taking care of two young children for most of the film. Matsuyama tries his best, and his presentation of L still manages to be simultaneously super-cool and super-cute, but there's only so much he can do with the ill-conceived storyline and juvenile scripting. There are some moments that do work, but they are in a minority. Worth seeing if you enjoyed the Death Note films, just to tie things up, but set your expectations for it several notches down.

First of all, I don't know why some people dis this movie- saying "This has nothing to do with Death Note". For the record, that's because it isn't supposed to have anything to do with Death Note.

I went to HMV last weekend and when I saw this movie, I had to buy it- I am a huge fan of L and seeing the title and cover I thought this would be a good watch. I was right.

From the beginning, I enjoyed this movie. I liked that the last days of L's life were spent solving a case,visiting Wammys and smiling?:D I also liked Near's appearance, and no offence but they weren't going to find a Thai boy with white hair. Near was very sweet and his liking for toys and genius ability showed during the course of the movie.

Maki was an interesting character, by the end I had started to like her, In the beginning I despised her to be honest.

I cried at the ending, it was very touching. Showing this was the end. L's final words were very moving and he actually smiled!

L fans will enjoy this movie a lot, I think.

All in all, this was a very good watch and I'm glad that I bought it.

8/10.

Living up to the excellence of Shusuke Kaneko's Death Note films was always going to be a daunting task. The makers of this film responded to this challenge by avoiding it.

The film's prominent ties to its predecessors, most notably the inclusion of several characters and events from them, are entirely superficial, and I was left with the distinct impression that Nakata's primary desire was to make a bioterrorism thriller, with the Death Note movies and the character of L serving merely as convenient springboards.

After going to the trouble of hiring several actors to reprise their roles, (Such as Erika Toda as Misa, Asaka Seto as Naomi Misora, and Shunji Fujimura) their characters are criminally underused. This is not just lazy, it is cruel. It's the equivalent of dangling food in front of a starving dog only to pull it away after only letting them lick it. Even the unperceptive viewer can tell these are blatant attempts to fake a connection which is essentially nonexistent.

The sheer magnitude of neglected opportunities to capitalise on the wealth of plot and character established by the Death Note films is staggering. A event as stupendous as Kira's reign of death would have a lasting effect on society; the Death Note films show the beginnings of this, with people divided over whether his actions were right, and many supporting him to a religious degree. Yet in L: Change the WorLd, its almost as if none of it had ever happened. Life goes on as usual, with scarcely a mention of the monumental upheaval the world has just undergone. This also could've provided many interesting possibilities, such as the Kira cult becoming involved in the plot, or characters such as Misa and Ryuk playing new roles and continuing to develop. Apparently, Nakata couldn't care less.

What's more, he can't resist falling back on his roots as a horror director, and is determined to scare the audience with the victims of the virus. Unfortunately, the result is corniness rather than adrenaline. The rest if the time, he's either plodding through the drama on autopilot, or inserting light comedy in a haphazard manner.

The writing isn't much better. The script is brimming with trite clichés, yet is oblivious to this and makes no effort to put a fresh spin on them. It has some admirable aspirations, namely its attempts to explore L's human side, and capture the topical issues of terrorism and the Bird Flu/SARS scares in the same way that its prequels addressed justice and the death penalty, but in execution it fails. Overall, it largely plays like amateur fanfiction, overusing the surface strengths of the originals (namely L's eccentricity) while losing its deeper strengths. Interesting ideas are left to rot on a compost heap of generic characters, messy plotting, and lame attempts to emulate the excesses of the typical Hollywood action movie.

To his immense credit, Kenichi Matsuyama lifts L above this malaise and squeezes a river of blood from the stony script in his typically witty and charismatic performance. Once again, he embodies the character down to his finest mannerisms, and makes like he just crept off the set of The Last Name. True, his English skills are modest, but this is actually believable; I met many Japanese people who spoke in this way during my time in Japan.

Sadly, however, much the use of English throughout the film is reminiscent of the Heisei Godzilla series in its grating inanity. Also, the Japanese performances outside of Matsuyama range from decent, (Fukuda Mayuko as Maki) to downright cheesy. (Most of the villains) Even Erika Toda as Misa had none of the spark Kaneko drew out of her in the prequels during her brief cameo.

Even Death Note veteran Kenji Kawai's score, while certainly not bad, is a far cry from his work on the previous films, though largely because he's mostly forcibly limited to low key background music and the long periods of sluggish silence Nakata so adores. He finally finds a chance to shine towards the end, where he provides two impressive pieces; an epic cue that accompanies L's arrival at the climax, and a melancholy piece that fits the fittingly touching conclusion nicely.

Cinematography is also a step down, losing the smooth, rich clarity of the Death Note movies for a dry and altogether bland visual style.

Thankfully it's not all doom and gloom; there's some good apples among the piles of rotten ones. As mentioned previously, the ending is suitably poignant, though the tears it almost brought to my eyes are due primarily to my love of and familiarity with the character. I also laughed aloud at several of L's displays of quirkiness, and flushed with joy at the rare but delicious moments of Death-Note-style "intellectual pwnage." The opening title sequence is slick and classy, capturing the feel of its predecessors wonderfully.

The FX are strong for a Japanese film, and are actually slightly more advanced than those of the first two films. The destruction of the infected village is vivid and impressive, and the practical effects for virus's symptoms are mostly well done. Ryuk's execution via CGI during his brief appearance is about on par with his previous incarnations.

But you know something's wrong when your counting the good moments rather than the bad ones.

In the end, the film's highlights are like sweet chocolate chips in a bitter and mouldy cookie. It succeeds as fanservice and as cold commercial calculation, but fails as art, entertainment, or storytelling. It's an awful shame, because with the ingredients left by its marvellous predecessors, it could have been truly great.