IMDb RATING
5.7/10
3.5K
YOUR RATING
An update to the "Death Note" series in which a mysterious notebook contains deadly powers.An update to the "Death Note" series in which a mysterious notebook contains deadly powers.An update to the "Death Note" series in which a mysterious notebook contains deadly powers.
- Director
- Writers
- Stars
Miyuki Sawashiro
- Ama
- (voice)
Shidô Nakamura
- Ryuk
- (voice)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
Death Note is the one of the best original work that Japanese have developed and created a truly mysterious story, with creative characters. Honestly, I really loved the story (plot) and the developed characters. The story is quite inspiring, full with excitement. Based on the famous Japanese manga written by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, Death Note follows a high school student who comes across a supernatural notebook, realizing it holds within it a great power.
NOTE: The only reason, why people dislike it, is that the two characters "Light" and "L' is not too involved at all in this series.
NOTE: The only reason, why people dislike it, is that the two characters "Light" and "L' is not too involved at all in this series.
I enjoyed the previous "Death Note" movies, well at least the Japanese ones for sure. But I had no idea about the existence of "Death Note: Light Up the New World" from 2016 before late in 2019 when I was given the chance to sit down and watch it. Given my interest in the franchise from the previous movies, then of course I sat down to watch t his 2016 movie.
Turns out that the movie seemed to be lacking the same spirit and motivation that was driving the previous movies. And while they opted to go for something new here, then it just was lacking that special ingredient to make it unique, to make it feel like a proper "Death Note" movie.
Don't get me wrong, there were aspects of the movie that were nice, but the overall movie just didn't really work for me, and I found it to be a tedious and mundane ordeal to sit through. And my interest in the storyline faltered a couple of times throughout the course of the movie. But I endured and stuck with it to the end. And I can say that "Death Note: Light Up the New World" is not a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time around.
The characters in the movie were rather boring, to the point of being absolutely pointless and disinteresting actually. And the movie was lacking screen time for the Watchers. You know, those lovely CGI animated keepers of the Death Notes.
This felt like a weak attempt to cash in on the success of the franchise, and the storyline is a scrambled mess actually, which seems like it was written overnight because someone had to come up with something in a rush as they had acquired the funds for the movie prematurely.
While the movie has a good production quality and good special effects, it was lacking on a proper storyline, on adequate characters that you actually cared about, on the Watchers, and genuinely just lacked entertainment value in general.
"Death Note: Light Up the New World" scores a mere four out of ten stars from me.
Turns out that the movie seemed to be lacking the same spirit and motivation that was driving the previous movies. And while they opted to go for something new here, then it just was lacking that special ingredient to make it unique, to make it feel like a proper "Death Note" movie.
Don't get me wrong, there were aspects of the movie that were nice, but the overall movie just didn't really work for me, and I found it to be a tedious and mundane ordeal to sit through. And my interest in the storyline faltered a couple of times throughout the course of the movie. But I endured and stuck with it to the end. And I can say that "Death Note: Light Up the New World" is not a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time around.
The characters in the movie were rather boring, to the point of being absolutely pointless and disinteresting actually. And the movie was lacking screen time for the Watchers. You know, those lovely CGI animated keepers of the Death Notes.
This felt like a weak attempt to cash in on the success of the franchise, and the storyline is a scrambled mess actually, which seems like it was written overnight because someone had to come up with something in a rush as they had acquired the funds for the movie prematurely.
While the movie has a good production quality and good special effects, it was lacking on a proper storyline, on adequate characters that you actually cared about, on the Watchers, and genuinely just lacked entertainment value in general.
"Death Note: Light Up the New World" scores a mere four out of ten stars from me.
The movie is set 10 years after Kira and L's conflict ended, Six notes are released to the world. The movie follows three main characters even if it feels like two. A special task force member who pursues all 6 death notes, Ryuzaki the successor of L who helps special task force and Worshiper of kira who want all 6 death notes.
The acting is decent and story overall is not that bad either,they surely had some good ideas, but fail to deliver it.
Third act is full of plot twists and revelations that just complicates the story, it seems they wanted to apply same formula for the characters here like in the original. Even forcing similar relationship L and Kira had.The problem is that characters does not have enough building till that point for what they wanted to achieve.
Those who are unfamiliar with whole death note franchise may find the story hard to follow especially with all the rules and backstory it have.
There were few mistakes that bothered me like some scenes where names are written in the Death Note and people are immediately dying instead in 40 seconds. Which means its breaking the rules of Death note.
The thing that I like the most was new Shinigamis, Cgi was improved and their design are great as well, I find them more interesting than main characters. Also it can be seen how are they trying to recreate the complexity of the original story but the main problem is that the characters are lacking depths.
it can be exciting at moments, I say give it a try only if you are a fan of the series and movies, if you loved first two movies you may also enjoy this one.
The acting is decent and story overall is not that bad either,they surely had some good ideas, but fail to deliver it.
Third act is full of plot twists and revelations that just complicates the story, it seems they wanted to apply same formula for the characters here like in the original. Even forcing similar relationship L and Kira had.The problem is that characters does not have enough building till that point for what they wanted to achieve.
Those who are unfamiliar with whole death note franchise may find the story hard to follow especially with all the rules and backstory it have.
There were few mistakes that bothered me like some scenes where names are written in the Death Note and people are immediately dying instead in 40 seconds. Which means its breaking the rules of Death note.
The thing that I like the most was new Shinigamis, Cgi was improved and their design are great as well, I find them more interesting than main characters. Also it can be seen how are they trying to recreate the complexity of the original story but the main problem is that the characters are lacking depths.
it can be exciting at moments, I say give it a try only if you are a fan of the series and movies, if you loved first two movies you may also enjoy this one.
The original Death Note was brilliant; this film is a dull glow in comparison. While the overall theme comes across, many viewers will find the individual elements of the plot quite a bit more difficult to follow and less cohesive to the film overall. There seems to be a lot of needless filler. Neither the plot nor characters are as sharp and intelligent as the original KIRA or L. There is nowhere near the unique personalities of the two, nor much viewer compassion for any of the characters. In truth, it struck me that the main stars of this film were the Shinigami, which were far more interesting than the live characters.
There is a tendency of viewers to compare follow-up films with the original and that is perhaps unfair... but it is also inevitable. Imagine a Sherlock Holmes film in which the intelligence, attention to detail and twist-of-plot is missing; is it really Sherlock Holmes any longer? That considered, is a Death Note movie without extraordinary chess-like moves by the main characters really Death Note? In the end I was disappointed in the film and felt it could have been two hours better spent.
There is a tendency of viewers to compare follow-up films with the original and that is perhaps unfair... but it is also inevitable. Imagine a Sherlock Holmes film in which the intelligence, attention to detail and twist-of-plot is missing; is it really Sherlock Holmes any longer? That considered, is a Death Note movie without extraordinary chess-like moves by the main characters really Death Note? In the end I was disappointed in the film and felt it could have been two hours better spent.
The anime & the original movie was way better! Could've been better!
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- ConnectionsFollows Death Note, le film (2006)
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Death Note: Light Up the New World
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $19,117,022
- Runtime2 hours 15 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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