Trigger warnings: Various depictions of death by heart attack, also graphic depictions of death by decapitation and falling from high places, mind-control
Review: Yes, I have many regrets watching this movie. I was just in the mood to re-watch Death Note (anime) and I was curious. If you don't know what Death Note is, the story follows Light Yagami (or Turner for the Netflix adaptation). Light is a brilliant high schooler who happens upon a notebook that was dropped by a Shinigami (Death God). There are a lot of rules about the notebook, but anyone who has their name written in the notebook will die. Light uses this to punish criminals. Then the police get involved. It's a great cat and mouse story because Light and the lead investigator are both incredibly smart and they are always trying to outsmart each other.
I'm definitely in the camp of, "The last thing America needs is for a white boy to be depicted in media as a God character." Yet here we are. The one positive thing I have to say about the Netflix live-action show is that it shows how narrow-sighted the public school system can be. At one point, Light gets beat up and teachers find out he has been doing homework for other students. Admin is more bothered by him doing work for other kids, rather than the fact that he got punched. Everything else was bad. Before anyone gets mad at me for comparing anime to a live-action movie, I'm not really doing that. If anything, I'm comparing the Japanese live-action movie to the American one.
At the start of the original story, Light is an objective God character. He finds out about people who committed crimes (anything from petty theft to murder) and he kills them. Both live-action movies give Light a girlfriend to be a voice of reason for or against Kira, the name Light uses to commit these murders. It was interesting to see Light (in both movies) talk to his girlfriend about Kira and hear that dialogue.
Death Note is a horror manga. It isn't the most subtle story. Still, the Netflix live-action felt more like Final Destination with Americanized characters from the Death Note world. Again, comparing this to the Japanese live-action, you can see how better written the Japanese version is. They don't have to rely on shock factor and the Japanese version of Light just seems more capable of outsmarting the police.
The biggest disappointment for me was L. First off, I think the actor did a great job with what he was given. L is a private investigator who comes to Japan to help find Kira/Light. At the start of the Netflix movie, the actor did a great job of giving L his quirky mannerisms which was cool to see. Then they had to Americanize it again and make L chase Light through downtown Seattle. Maybe it's just me, but L never seemed like the kind of person who wants to chase anyone. It felt like the writers really wanted to throw a generic chase scene. I don't mind that they made L more emotional in the American version, but it felt forced.
Overall, this could have been an interesting take on a very popular series if it was written as a live-action TV show instead of a movie.
1 howl
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