Hi, I'm Torstein from Cinema Terror and not only did I just recently review the new movie
It and the new Amityville movie, I'm also doing another new movie, this time the American
version of the popular Japanese manga Death Note.
Death Note tells the story of a young guy named Light Turner who receives a mystical
book called Death Note.
Later on, he gets a visit from a strange, creepy death god named Ryuk who explains to
Light that he now possesses the power to kill any human being he wants by simply writing
their name in this book.
Light starts to use the book, both to impress his love interest Mia and to bring justice
to the world by setting up the murders as if they were done by a godlike creature named
Kira.
But his youthful arrogance might just get the best of him after a global manhunt to
find who is behind this Kira god starts, spearheaded by a super detective that simply responds
by the name of L.
So, as mentioned, Death Note is a popular Japanese anime series.
I have never seen that one or the Japanese movies so my knowledge of this franchise before
seeing this movie was basically non-existent.
And after seeing the film, I do believe that it will make a huge difference if you have
previous experience with Death Note or not in how enjoyable this experience will be for
you.
Some of that has to do with the fact that the biggest entertainment factor of this movie
was the cool concept of the Death Note.
That aspect will not win over fans of the franchise since they are of course already
familiar with it and just want to see it be done with respect now that they are bringing
it over to the American market.
Well, I am sure there will be plenty of fans that will hate everyone involved with this
version of Death Note, but I would say that they did an ok job.
Some parts they succeeded with, but sadly there are other big parts that did not work.
The concept of Death Note is cool and makes me want to check out the Japanese versions
of it.
It tackles the idea of what would happen if an average person gets more power than what
any person should have, done in a fun and interesting way.
I also loved the Ryuk character, here done with a voiceover from the always awesome Willem
Dafoe.
Ryuk is a demon God creature and perhaps the best part of the film.
I wish he had gotten more to do in the film though as he is sadly, and strangely underused.
His way of getting shit done reminded me of the Trickster from Brainscan in the way that
he is an awesome character lurking and influencing from the background.
Most of the running time is spent on the main character Light Turner.
I don't know if Light is even a normal name to use in the States, but it sounded so silly
whenever someone else was calling him by his name.
Not only doesn't his name work for me, but the character as a whole did not work either.
He is supposed to be, from what i understood as the setup for the film goes by with lightning
speed, a high school student.
Yet he looks and acts more like a someone in the mid-20's.
Not that this film is the first to have done that, I have seen my share of slasher films
where the characters are supposed to be young but are played by older actors, by all means.
They also felt the need, of course, to add a love story to the film.
They could have cut that part right out of the film and rather focus more on exploring
the premise.
By adding such an uninspiring teenage love story, the film becomes a bit of a cliche
and it is a shame that they decided to go that way as they had a much more interesting
thing going on with the chase between Light and the mysterious and interesting character
of L, played pretty well by Lakeith Stanfield, sorry if
I butchered your name there.
One of the biggest reasons for why I was curious about this film was that the director behind
it was Adam Wingard.
He started out as an indie horror filmmaker and has been working himself up in the Hollywood
system with recently getting the chance to do the new Blair Witch movie and the upcoming
big monster battle of Godzilla vs Kong.
He is a competent director so I am not sure if all of the choices I am complaining about
comes from him or the studio.
One of the choices I haven't complained about yet is the addition of 80's music.
I am not a fan of the current trend of nostalgia jerking and in this one the 80's stuff is
very out of place.
On the positive side I would like to give him props for the visual look of this film,
as it certaintly looks to me like all of the budget was thrown on the screen.
Death Note is very uneven, but ultimately an interesting experience.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Japanese versions are better as the concept is the best part
of the film, while the execution isn't top notch.
If you can concentrate more on the awesome Ryuk creature and ignore the lower points
like the teenage romance, then it is a film worth watching.
Death Note gets a 3 out of 5.
What did you guys think of Death Note?
And how familiar were you with Death Note before watching this new American version
of it?
Let me know about it in the comment section below, like subscribe etc etc and thank you
very much for watching.
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