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Rating: 2 out of 5
Netflix, W.T.F., was this that you provided to the world. I had such high expectations, and yet this movie was blah. Not complete trash, but it comes pretty close in terms of storytelling, pace, and some of the characters. Actually, this movie is trash for true anime lovers. How do you screw up such a movie when there were others like it? Oh wait, make it nothing like the anime.
The anime version of Death Note is one of my favorites and an all-time classic in the anime world. It was one of the first anime where I honestly thought, “Damn! This is some next level anime right here.” The anime is thought-provoking and will make you question the way you handle punishing criminals.
For a quick recap of the anime, Death Note is the story of Light Yagami, who is handsome, a genius, and excellent at everything he does with minimal effort. He is bored with life and despises everything evil. One day at school, he discovers a notebook called the Death Note. If he writes the person’s name and sees their face, the person will die. Light decides that the best use of this new power is to rid the world of evil and kill criminals with it. After more deaths than anyone can count. Light goes H.A.M. on killing criminals. He gets the attention of the world-famous “L.” “L” is an equally genius detective that rivals Light in every way possible beside looks. The story revolves around what is right and what is wrong in terms of how to handle a situation like justice. Two different views of the same situation. While giving the best cat and mouse story.
This movie was the complete opposite of what I was expecting. Rather than getting an epic cat and mouse game, it was a movie that took the essence of the anime and threw it all out. Straight out the window. This movie fails on so many levels that I don’t know where to begin. Let’s start with the characters. Let’s start off with Light. In the anime, Light is cunning, a genius, and straight-up BOSS but a sociopath. The way he maneuvers people around like they are pieces on a chessboard to get what he wants is exceptional. He is always calculating the odds in his favor and very, very careful.
For example, when he gets the Death Note, he makes this elaborate trap in his desk so no one will find it, and if they do, it would burn. Or when he is being watched by L, and he writes names with one hand and does math with the other. Who does that? A freakin’ genius, that’s who. The Light in the movie is a complete and utter dumbass. A true dumbass! He gets the death note and tests it out to see if it’s real. The next thing he does is read the book in gym class. Really? You have a powerful book, and you just reading it like it’s a summer novel. Then on top of that, he shows it to his crush just to get some action. I mean, that some dumb ass stuff right there. What were you thinking? An all-time genius, reduced to an above-average high school student with hormones. They even left out the best part of the whole movie with him. WHERE IS THE POTATO CHIP SCENE?!?!?!
L, in the anime, is the complete opposite of Light in appearance. He looks tired, strangely does things, and loves to eat sweets but is just as equal in the mind to Light. He figures out where the Death Note is in the first three episodes while playing a trick on Light. An equal BOSS. In the movie, L is almost correct. He does things just like the L in the anime, the only thing is that he is way more emotional in this movie. He straight up flips out and loses his mind when Watari goes missing. He threatens people, runs around with a gun, and does other things that are not L related. The movie almost got this character right.
Now the story is what pisses me off the most. All anyone really needed to do was straight copy and paste. Nothing more but copy and paste, and yet that’s not what we got. First, the rules in the book. How the hell do we go from FIVE rules to over NINETY? Over ninety rules! How can you do anything, and they don’t even state more than live five. Why not keep it at five? Also, who is really the main villain in the film? In the anime, you somewhat rooted for either Light or L. In this one, Mia was the villain. Yes, Light and Mia killed criminals, but she lost her damn mind by wanting to kill almost everyone. How the hell you going to go to computer class and look at a website to kill people. Jealous guy or girl on the website, and that’s yo ass by Mia logic. Then the whole concept of how the book got to Light. Ryuk states that the previous owner died, and after seven days, it passed on to him. That like combining the Ring and adding it to death note, which makes no sense because Ryuk dropped it because he was bored.
The whole concept and essences about the film are thrown out the window. The idea of what is the right way to perform justice on someone. Is it Light’s way, or is it L’s way? In the anime, they both have strong arguments for their reasons. It is presented in a way where you can literally see both sides and almost accept each one. You wonder if Light is a bad person overall or ultimately corrupted by the death note. He does get a god complex in the anime, but with that kind of power, who wouldn’t. That is where the whole cat and mouse game comes from. Who can outwit the other and show the world who is the smartest? In the anime, they know who each other is. Everyone else might not know, but they do. When they played tennis against each other, just the mind games they played on each other was classic.
The extent L went to prove that Light was Kira was extraordinary. Still, the counter that Light did to outmaneuver everything that L threw at him is classic. Yet in the film, we get not a battle of wits but a lame version of a talk when Light and L finally meet. First off, how did L find Light? He just showed up. Back to their conversation, L is obviously smarter and has Light, but Light plays the cocky roll and tries to suggest the transferring of powers. What happened to the concept of the Shinigami eyes? Out of everything I watched, we get a climax of a chase scene. Where is my battle of wits?
There were several good things about this movie. Some of the performances were great, along with the cinematography. The performances by Willem Dafoe as Ryuk and Lakeith Stanfield as L are what drives this movie just a tad bit. In the anime, Ryuk is only around to have fun and watch. Dafoe’s version of Ryuk is a lot darker and eviler. He is almost what you expect from a death god, and he lets Light know that he doesn’t take shit from any human. With the first words spoken, “Shall we begin?” sends a tingle down your spine. Stanfield played L exceptionally well. Rather than the whole emotional aspect, he made you believe it is the closest thing to the character with his mannerisms, logic, and behavior. Someone read the source material.
The cinematography of the movie was pretty good. It gave that feel of command in the beginning, and then when shit hit the fan, it turned upside down. One example is the rise of Kira through the eyes and emotions of both Light and Mia. Shows it through the world of teenagers. As they kill. They walk down the halls with them moving slowly with nothing but smiles. Yet they come up with the concept of making a god. As the world takes notice to them, the movie turns to news channels showing the spread of their reign. Light and Mia take turns showing their destruction with crashing trains, and other devastation. The one scene that states it all is when Light is walking away from a church. On it, it says Kira saves while the scene slowly expands, showing more of the church symbolizing that Kira is the new god of the world. The next scene is whether Kira should be caught or not and how crime is down. Another great camera work is with the whole FBI death scene. How the camera turns upside down to make it seem like you fell with them.
Death Note could’ve been way better than it actually was. All they needed to do was copy and paste. That’s it. Disappointment is an understatement with this film. Just watch the anime. Don’t spend your time watching this film or you will get depressed. As Ryuk said in the movie, “Shall we begin?” Your answer, “Hell No!”
