A couple of years ago, my brother and I watched a particular anime on Netflix and it was none other than Death Note an anime about a person named Light Yagami who discovers a supernatural book from Ryuk, a Shinigami. The book grants the user's ability to kill any person whose name and face he knows. As for the anime, I realized that since it still has it's fans, it's a well-written show. It centered around not only good and evil, but also the themes about liberty and security. And the characters really grew on you with each having their own solid characterization.
So, when we heard that a live-action film based on the anime and manga was coming to Netflix, we were worried that it would end up like the other live-action films based on the cartoons (DBE, TLA, etc.). Turns out it did and when one of the writers that did the screenplay for the critically panned Fantastic Four reboot (Fan4stic) contributed to the writing for this movie, it was a sign that it was going to suck.
I'm not going to spoil the film because it's been four months since it came out on Netflix, but there are some problems that made the adaptation as unbearable as you realize if you're a fan of Death Note. The characters in this movie aren't exactly like their counterparts (save for two actors, which we'll get to in a moment). The writing is garbage and does a great disservice to the source material, the pacing is very uneven even for a live-action movie that's like... what? 100 minutes? But what bugged me the most was the changes made for this film. Light, Mia (or in this adaptation, Kia), and the other side characters including L, Light's opponent, aren't as interesting and they lacked the spark that made the anime and manga counterparts much better. Even the music song choices that were chosen for some of the scenes (which I'm not going to spoil) felt out of place.
Now, this film is not the worst because there are some highlights. The music score from Atticus Ross and Leopold Ross does excel at the atmosphere. Sure, it's not Oscar-worthy, but at least it's more tolerable than the film itself. The visual designs are really creative and kept up with the tone Death Note was going for and the directing, while not the best, is at least decent. And the last highlight is the acting. Despite the writing and changes being complete garbage, the actors did their best with what they got. Nat Wolff, Lakeith Stanfield, and Margaret Qualley did ok with their roles, but only Shea Whigham and Willem Dafoe did somewhat better jobs because they were at least accurate to their anime counterparts. Sure, Ryuk's character design was made in CGI, but I guess the producers paid attention to the details.
Unfortunately, those highlights weren't enough to save this film and given it's reputation, I understand why. And yet, there's a sequel in the works. *sigh*, I haven't seen the live-action Fullmetal Alchemist yet, but at least Japan is trying to do a much better adaptation than what we got here. Overall, if you're a fan of Death Note, both the anime and manga, I suggest you skip this.
