Netflix's Death Note

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Just got done watching the Netflix adaptation of Death Note. It was pretty good.

Once you stop making comparisons to the anime and just watch it for what it is, it's really good. If you can get out of your head doing all the back and forth comparing, you accept it more. It's not THAT different though, it's essentially the same story.

Some of the changes you may find preferable to the original, and some things you might wish they didn't change. But such is the roll of the dice with adaptations. The first 15 minutes I was like "what is this high school drama bs" and then when you push past that and get into the meat of the story, introduced to L and all that, it becomes a great thriller.

Can't go wrong with a score by Atticus Ross. The soundtrack wasn't too bad, either.

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[Psychotic]

I just finished watching. I didn't think it was particularly great. Like, even if you take out the Death Note anime and pretend that never existed, it's still a 5/10 at best. But I will compare the two. I'll bust out something I said about FF and you can apply it to any remake or reboot ever

Why did Square call Final Fantasy XV that rather than, to borrow from Momiji, [INSERT NEW SQUARE ENIX IP HERE: BRO SKYRIM EDITION]? Brand recognition based on the success of previous entries in the series leading to greater commercial success. If you want to use that to drive sales of and interest in your game, you also have to accept the consequence of being held up against the previous games. Or rather, live by the sword, die by the sword.

If you don't want it to be compared then make a new IP. Or even use the Death Note lore but just have all new characters. And so to the point: Compared to the anime, it is bad and completely lacking in the nuance, drama, intrigue and powerful characters that made it so great.

My main problem with it is simply how rushed it is. You don't really get a feel for any of the characters and it doesn't feel like any of them went on any sort of journey. Certainly there was no time for back-and-forth mind games as per the anime, but even if you do pretend that doesn't exist, L miraculously figured out who Kira was in record time. There's no relationship between Light and L, and the Light - Mia romance seemed really rushed and unbelievable.

I don't want to be all negative. I do agree with LWL that the soundtrack was awesome, as were the general visuals. Willem Dafoe smurfing knocked it out of the park as Ryuk, and the rest of the actors weren't bad. The ending was also one of the better bits, pretty clever and definitely in keeping with the spirit of the original.

I should finish this off by saying if you're interested in the concept, do yourself a favour and watch the anime. I say this as someone who is not an anime fan, having only seen less than a handful of them in my life. I hope that explains just how good it is. As far as this movie goes, I've seen worse, but it's pretty forgettable. I sure as hell wanted it to be better than the anime and rooted for it precisely because I prefer live action to animation, but it was disappointing.

[charliepanayi]

I'm stunned to learn that a live-action adaptation of an anime has turned out poorly.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

One of the big criticisms I saw was that they tried to get too much done in too little time, which is fair, even if you account for the fact that they tried to get the scope of a 30+ episode series into a 2 hour movie. It is definitely the type of story they could have told over the span of 2 films, if they had decided to do so.

The introduction of Mia was one of the things I didn't like. (SPOILER)Somehow she was simultaneously a cheerleader as well as the "too cool for school" dark chick that smokes on school property. Didn't buy it. I also didn't like that Light was super gung ho about sharing his NOTEBOOK OF DEATH right away with a girl he had a crush on. But I think they did a good job of picking her up from there.

The ending was definitely a huge factor in winning me over.

ending spoilersI'm so glad it was up to interpretation. In a way, it lets you have the ending you want to have. Did L write Light's name down after being heartbroken by the loss of Watari? Did he deduce that Mia was the actual mastermind and figure the right person already had justice served? Did Light end up writing his dad's name down in the book, and they omitted that from the montage of the big reveal?

[Scotty_ffgamer]

About halfway through the movie, and I'll finish it later tonight. Fiancé fell asleep so I have to wait until she wakes up.

Anyways, I'm not enjoying it so far. I like Ryuk, but that's about it. I agree with Psychotic that even without comparisons to the original, it feels like a 5/10 movie. i don't really like the characters and I feel like the stuff happening isn't really developing in a natural way.

I feel like this type of story isn't well suited for 1 movie. I feel like a mini series might have been a better fit for it. I also feel like it should have been a completely new story of a note falling in America as a part of the same universe of the anime or the live action Japanese movies. That could get current fans interested without comparing to the original as much.

We'll see if my opinion changes any when I finish it.

[Jinx]

I mean, even as a manga, it's massive. Twelve novels is a longish series. smurf Sailor Moon was 12 and the anime went on for 5 seasons.

I didn't realize before this was going to be a movie, not a series.

Also Misa to Mia, okay.

[Shauna]

Compared to the anime, it is bad and completely lacking in the nuance, drama, intrigue and powerful characters that made it so great.

My main problem with it is simply how rushed it is.

Sounds like they learned nothing from the Japanese Live Action flick which suffered from the exact same problems imo.

I'll give it a watch at some point.

[Slothy]

So the positive stuff: Dafoe is obviously great, and I did feel like the guy playing L did the best he could with what he had. Soundtrack was cool too.

Can't say I enjoyed much else though.

[Spuuky]

Sorry, but this adaptation was wretched. It got every pair of character dynamics in the entire movie 100% the opposite of the original source material, and made them all much worse in the process. There was very little to like here; certainly none of the characters were likable, except maybe Light's dad.

Felt so rushed, forced, and just all-around awful. I was prepared to be disappointed in a bad movie (like the Japanese live-action version); instead I was offended by this affront to the source material. I could probably agree that it's a 5/10 as a standalone movie with no context; being aware of the context and with the base they had to work from, it's a 2/10 at best.

[Shauna]

Nope this was garbage

[Jinx]

Wow, no, I'm sorry, LWL. That was trash. And the open-ended ending was the worst part.

This whole DON'T TRUST RYUK? Why? He never really did anything, dude. And the open-ending was just terrible. All the "rules" in the Death Note and they never put in what is it...like, rule 2? That if you use the Death Note, you can enter neither Heaven or Hell, which means the DN has actual consequences in the manga. Here's it's just like DO WHATEVER YOU WANT.

And I agree with what someone wrote above: the dude who played L did a good job for what he was given, but his character was so off and so wrong. L isn't an overtly emotional freak; in fact, he's the exact opposite.

Also, wtf. Light is a total idiot in this adaptation. "Exceptionally bright" my ass. So the kid can do trig, big woop. The only time he shows any sort of forethought AT ALL is the ferris wheel aftermath.

All around the movie was just STUPID. Bad yes, but just DUMB. Maybe it could have been better as a mini-series. Maybe, but I'm not convinced, as Light was a dip and L was hair-trigger reactionary, which makes any sort of machinations between the two unbelievable. In fact, the ferris wheel aftermath is unbelievable simply because of the rest of the characterization we got of Light.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Most of the criticisms leveled at this movie were valid. They just weren't deal breakers for me.

I often enjoy horror movies on Netflix that get 1.5 stars.

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[Laddy]

Edge of Tomorrow is still the only genuinely good anime/manga adaptation I can think of. This is not Dragonball Evolution bad, but it's clearly just a case of liking the premise rather than wanting to adapt a series whilst maintaining any of the spirit of nuance.

[Jinx]

Most of the criticisms leveled at this movie were valid. They just weren't deal breakers for me.

I often enjoy horror movies on Netflix that get 1.5 stars.

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This is is a pretty reasonable response.

[Sephex]

I swear I am not pilling on you LWL, this is just my own opinion, but I watched the movie last weekend and I didn't like it. There were things that I did like about it. When L was played calmly I thought the actor did a great job portraying the character. Dafoe as Ryuk, of course, makes perfect sense and his CG model is cool looking. Though I don't think the build up to the moment was good, it was cool to see Light actually act like Light when explaining the Ferris Wheel deal.

I didn't care for the open ended ending. I honestly thought that they would have ripped off the ending of the live Japanese adaptation before seeing this. Or at least something similar. Honestly most people said what my problems were for the most part. Unlike most people, I wouldn't mind if someone took the premise and ran with their own rules/situation with it. Only I think that this really, REALLY needed to be a series. And that ending? Had the series been good leading up to it, that ending would be an awesome stopping point before a second season.