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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvxNaSIB_WI Released by Netflix on August 25th, Death Note is an american adaptation of a 2003 Manga of the same name written by Tsugum Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. It is more commonly known in the west for the 2006 anime adaptation, an adaptation that is famous for being absurdly over the top, including dramatic cuts and over the top orchestral music for a scene depicting murder and the eating of potato chips. The elevator pitch for the series is a young sociopath, Yagami Light, finds a notebook that allows him to murder anyone simply by writing their name upon its pages. The story that follows is a psychological game of cat and mouse as Light murders criminals in the name of     *** Now, I'm going to be honest, this movie got poo poo on for its reviews, currently sitting at 42% on rotten tomatoes and 27% overall approval. But you should still watch it. I'd say a solid 90% or more of the complaints with this movie can be summed up as: "But in the anime...". Ignore this. If you've read the manga or watched the anime, forget them, do not compare them expecting a beat by beat repetition. There are multiple movies in Japan if you are interested in Death Note, but live-action. Some of them are even good. If you know nothing about Death Note, watch this film, it is shlocky and you will enjoy it. For all the bitching about white washing that went on in the lead up to the release of this film, Death Note is exactly what an american adaptation should be. An american adaptation. While character motivations are similar in places, this is very much a movie that has its own identity separate from the source material. It isn't the story of a wunderkind sociopath, but of two fuckup teens given power far beyond their understanding. I like this film. Goons do too. You should watch it.
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Aug 28, 2017 20:24
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Caros posted:I'd say a solid 90% or more of the complaints with this movie can be summed up as: "But in the anime...". Ignore this. If you've read the manga or watched the anime, forget them, do not compare them expecting a beat by beat repetition. There are multiple movies in Japan if you are interested in Death Note, but live-action. Some of them are even good. If you know nothing about Death Note, watch this film, it is shlocky and you will enjoy it. This is my exact take on the reception the movie has gotten, people get too hung up on what the movie should be instead of what it is. Something that confuses me because I can't think of any work that can really benefit from 1:1 adaptations. Anyways, the movie is a treat whether you are a fan of the original manga or not. It simplifies the original premise to fit as a standalone film while adding some neat twists and changes to keep it fresh. And yeah, Dafoe as Ryuk is just perfect.
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Aug 28, 2017 20:34
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My favorite part is when there's a straight shot that then works itself into a dutch angle.
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Aug 28, 2017 20:40
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I'm glad Death Note exists, and am happy I watched it. I will 100% never watch it again but that's okay. It was Good.
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Aug 28, 2017 20:47
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I never watched the anime but I love Wingard sinister unconditionally, and I thought this was great. It felt more like a "taste" though, and I think would be so much better with a larger budget. The bigger set pieces never really felt big to me, and everything felt very tightly shot. Maybe that was a design choice, though.
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Aug 28, 2017 22:01
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It's fantastically directed, but poorly written and some pretty lovely acting jobs. It doesn't help that you never ever give a poo poo about Light, his dad is more interesting, in fact everyone else other than light is more interesting. Dafoe is excellent though. Also the end credits are fantastic. I feel it's saved by it' obvious high production values and directing.
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Aug 28, 2017 22:05
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Movie has some neat visuals but is poo poo and throws away anything that made the anime interesting in exchange for garbage.
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Aug 28, 2017 22:33
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Having not watched any of the cartoons, I really enjoyed this. Slick, stylish, fast, and entertainingly odd. Good demonstration of how easy it is to gently caress up the messaging when you're trying to be a god.
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Aug 28, 2017 22:36
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Disregarding how this movie pales in comparison to a loving anime series, it's still pretty boring in isolation. The main character is a sociopath but not even an interesting or capable one. I have to wonder if this was intentional due to that early scene where he tries to outsmart some bullies and immediately gets punched in the face like the douche he is. The capable sociopath side character is not given enough of a focus to be interesting either. Like other people said, only good parts are really William Dafoe as a trickster demon, and some neat visuals and music. I guess if you're not familiar with the setting it's worth a watch while hungover or something, I dunno.
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Aug 28, 2017 22:49
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JOHN SKELETON posted:The main character is a sociopath but not even an interesting or capable one. I have to wonder if this was intentional due to that early scene where he tries to outsmart himself out of a bad situation and immediately gets punched in the face like the douche he is. The capable sociopath side character is not given enough of a focus to be interesting either. She's not particularly capable either, just more ruthless. It's a dark comedy. Them being fuckups is part of the entertainment.
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Aug 28, 2017 22:52
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Sir Kodiak posted:She's not particularly capable either, just more ruthless. It's a dark comedy. Them being fuckups is part of the entertainment. 
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Aug 28, 2017 23:03
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Wasn't the best movie, but it was a ton of fun to watch. I'm happy they didn't make Light a complete mastermind genius early on like in the anime. He's a piece of poo poo and the movie wants you to know he is a piece of poo poo. Its a hard story to tell since the main character has good intention but does bad poo poo. I also liked that the girlfriend was the actual real villain, that would egg him on to do stuff.
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Aug 28, 2017 23:12
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It's a supervillain origin story. It just plays around with some of the conventions of the genre to disguise itself. The REAL Goobusters posted:Wasn't the best movie, but it was a ton of fun to watch. I'm happy they didn't make Light a complete mastermind genius early on like in the anime. He's a piece of poo poo and the movie wants you to know he is a piece of poo poo. Its a hard story to tell since the main character has good intention but does bad poo poo. I also liked that the girlfriend was the actual real villain, that would egg him on to do stuff. I don't think it's real clear at all that Mia is the real villain. She's a psychopath, but her moral code is at least framed in the context of trying to do what's best for the greater good. On the other hand, Light's use of the book is entirely self-serving and she tried to take the book from him on the ferris wheel , because he wrote that she did.
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Aug 28, 2017 23:34
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Extremely poorly acted and written. Everyone sans Ryuk was just irritating
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Aug 29, 2017 00:08
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It was entertaining writing and acting of irritating, obnoxious characters, who it was fun to see tear each other apart.
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Aug 29, 2017 00:10
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It's schlocky horror comedy and I liked it.
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Aug 29, 2017 00:29
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Yeah, I'm kinda surprised by the negative reaction to the acting. I don't remember seeing Nat Wolff in anything else but I really enjoyed his performance in this. Obviously Shea Whigham was great too, so their relationship being the centrepiece really paid off for me.
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Aug 29, 2017 00:31
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Most of the negativity appears to be from anime-watchers who take their adolescent power-fantasy wish-fulfillment programs very seriously.
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Aug 29, 2017 00:32
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I wasn't crazy about the movie, which sucks because I'm a pretty big Adam Wingard fan in general. I think my biggest complaint is that the pacing is wonky. There's a couple of good kills up front, but the actual "deaths" of the Death Note take a backseat in the middle of the movie, which slows it down considerably. I think a little more time focused on Light learning the curves of the book would have helped tremendously, and better up the stakes for the finale by showing a few more examples of the Death Note's power in detail. Dafoe as Ryuk was great, though. It's unfortunate that he occupies such little of the movie's run time.
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Aug 29, 2017 02:56
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I liked it. You can tell the people involved had a lot of fun making it. Maybe would have worked better as a Netflix Live Action Mini series. The biggest complaints seem to be it's too short, and that it's missing a lot of stuff.
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Aug 29, 2017 03:06
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Yeah this movie was bad for a LOT more reasons than not being faithful to the anime, which is one of the better decisions it made. The pacing was lovely, the tone was all over the place, a lot of the performances were terrible, and the dialogue is pretty awful. The movie is still really good and you should watch it. It's like Final Destination if you got to control the deaths and become an awkward and stupid teenage grim reaper. It's a fun ride all the way through.
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Aug 29, 2017 04:31
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Editing my post on the other thread: I'm someone who watched Death Note back when it came out, read the whole manga (don't make the same mistakes I did) and has watched nearly all adaptations. I was fully expecting a lot of changes and I never minded that. I just thought the movie was okay. As others have said, maybe it could have worked better as a miniseries because, the story feels very compressed even if you disregard the original's plot. (also, by adaptations I also mean the Japanese TV drama and the Japanese and Korean musicals, because those are real things that exist.) After a rewatch with my friends, even though I liked Lakeith's performance, I thought L felt weak in the movie perhaps because he seems to be closer to the original than others. His past at the orphanage felt kinda "off" for me. It almost felt like the subplot of a series or an awkward nod to the source material. Regardless, some of my friends who are fans of the original liked it as a fun schlocky movie and the one person who never watched the original hated the movie. Also, diehard fans whining about changes seems kinda weird when adaptations like the TV Drama had Light as an average student with dead mom and daddy issues, and Near not only often interacts with L, but also has a split personality represented with a puppet version of Mello, and I did not made up any of that. I know way too much about this series 
Siselmo fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Sep 14, 2017 |
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Aug 29, 2017 04:35
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I got really, really loving high before I watched this and it was a solid 10/10 for me. Demon Willem had me both wide eyed and laughing like a dick. Won't watch it again.
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Aug 29, 2017 05:17
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This adaptation was boring. Take away all the anime/manga comparisons and this could have been an okay companion story. Ryuk, tired with the Yagami nonsense drops Death Note in North America. New characters, similar themes and there you go!
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Aug 29, 2017 05:48
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The REAL Goobusters posted:Wasn't the best movie, but it was a ton of fun to watch. I'm happy they didn't make Light a complete mastermind genius early on like in the anime. He's a piece of poo poo and the movie wants you to know he is a piece of poo poo. Its a hard story to tell since the main character has good intention but does bad poo poo. I also liked that the girlfriend was the actual real villain, that would egg him on to do stuff. I liked this approach because made Turner a much more relatable character than Yagami. As entertaining as it was to see him pile contrived plan over contrived plan, Yagami couldn't work well on his own whereas Turner can. Same with Laiketh's L, highlighting his relationship with Watari and mirroring it with Light and James was a great approach to take and one that really humanized L. Simplex posted:I don't think it's real clear at all that Mia is the real villain. She's a psychopath, but her moral code is at least framed in the context of trying to do what's best for the greater good. On the other hand, Light's use of the book is entirely self-serving and she tried to take the book from him on the ferris wheel , because he wrote that she did. I don't know if I would call Light's actions completely self serving. Other than the first victim, he never took any direct advantage from the Death Note and he pretty much swore off its use once L entered the picture. Furthermore, he seemed genuine on his feelings for Mia and he looked conflicted over writing Mia's name on the Death Note. If nothing else, the film presents the situation with enough ambiguity to allow more than one interpretation. tweet my meat posted:Yeah this movie was bad for a LOT more reasons than not being faithful to the anime, which is one of the better decisions it made. The pacing was lovely, the tone was all over the place, a lot of the performances were terrible, and the dialogue is pretty awful. Other than Nat Wolff's reaction to meeting Ryuk for the first time, I enjoyed all the performances.
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Aug 29, 2017 05:59
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Inzombiac posted:
That's what I initially thought they were going with until I heard the name Light and started groaning. Then I started laughing again when Light showed the Death Note to the girl immediately after he found out it actually worked. That's one way to condense 20 episodes into 5 minutes I suppose.
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Aug 29, 2017 06:14
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Simplex posted:I don't think it's real clear at all that Mia is the real villain. She's a psychopath, but her moral code is at least framed in the context of trying to do what's best for the greater good. On the other hand, Light's use of the book is entirely self-serving and she tried to take the book from him on the ferris wheel , because he wrote that she did. TBH I should watch that part again because I was drunk while watching and I'm probably wrong. Martman fucked around with this message at 08:17 on Aug 29, 2017 |
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Aug 29, 2017 07:56
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DaFoe was inspired casting as Ryuk but that's about all the positives that I have for the film. I don't even really like the manga or anime because they're just melodramatic bullshit. At least the 2006 live action films are actually pretty good films that work as straight adaptions but also make pretty good entries into the franchise (they were how I first watched anything Death Note related)Inzombiac posted:This adaptation was boring. That would have been the best way to go about things. Testekill fucked around with this message at 11:08 on Aug 29, 2017 |
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Aug 29, 2017 11:02
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Lakeith Stanfield should blow the gently caress up now after this. Every time he was on screen, his character was so full of little details that made him so much fun to watch. Him showing up at the dinner table made me laugh so hard. The chase scene at the end owns too, we got L, running like the T-1000, determined to catch Light, and Light running, arms all sprayed out, stumbling like a goofy dork. Nat Wolff's run was amazing too. I love how IMDB has it at a 4 star rating. Anime fans lol.
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Aug 29, 2017 11:24
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Stanfield acted really well but L was seriously incompetent as gently caress.
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Aug 29, 2017 12:13
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How can you watch the part where two FBI agents get fooled by a top hat and claim this film is anything less than a masterwork
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Aug 29, 2017 13:48
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I normally don't care at all about fidelity to the source, but I feel that the core of the source material is unique/fun enough that losing said core kind of defeats the purpose. Core being two near perfect charming sociopaths trying to out-charming sociopath each other. Neither is particularly "good," everything is about ego, and the cat and mouse game of who will be more perfect than each other is entertaining. Its 4D chess, through and through, of someone with slight limits and someone with even slighter ones (only limit being not using the eyes). I mean, it's not entirely unique as it's obviously just Sherlock vs. Moriarty, only the latter is the protagonist, and with a supernatural advantage for him as well. But it's a bit different as modern portrayals of Sherlock generally have a heart and people they deeply care about and are actually just covering over it. And, also, the very end where every bit of charming sociopath falls away and Light is shown for the baby he is. The second half was a huge drop off, but the final scene was satisfying. This movie was "okay," but I felt that it should have kept that core element. Light ended up becoming a lot like his original manga version in the last 5 minutes, but was the opposite of "charming" throughout much of the film, and L cared a whole lot about a whole lot of things. I'm not on the "it sucks because it isn't the anime" bandwagon, but this is one of the few times where deviations from the source kept taking me out. I may need to watch it again.
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Aug 29, 2017 15:01
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People keep knocking this film because Light Turner is not like Light Yagami. I would posit that he is in fact the same smug, self-important douche from the anime, it is just more apparent cause we got what an hour and a half to get through this. The latter is the self-image, the former is the reality.
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Aug 29, 2017 15:19
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Like i said in the streaming thread, I enjoyed this enough to where i'd be willing to watch the anime, and I generally avoid anime. Also noticed the actor playing L is the same that plays a Marine that was questioning everything in War Machine.
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Aug 29, 2017 15:20
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Dean of Swing posted:People keep knocking this film because Light Turner is not like Light Yagami. I would posit that he is in fact the same smug, self-important douche from the anime, it is just more apparent cause we got what an hour and a half to get through this. The latter is the self-image, the former is the reality. I think the kicker is that he starts off more like last episode Yagami in the show, and only becomes smug almost charming sociopath Yagami that we saw until then in the last 5 minutes. You spend an entire movie watching a "different" Light before the final reveal that he is pretty much the same and not a sympathetic character at all. Which is fine if you are coming in blind, but it probably colors the reception a great deal when it comes to him.
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Aug 29, 2017 15:33
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Fargin Icehole posted:Like i said in the streaming thread, I enjoyed this enough to where i'd be willing to watch the anime, and I generally avoid anime. He was also the "Get Out!!" guy.
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Aug 29, 2017 15:42
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Simplex posted:It's a supervillain origin story. It just plays around with some of the conventions of the genre to disguise itself. Yeah I guess the "real" villain is a bad way to say it. Definitely gonna rewatch this movie a bunch I think its just a fun watch, its goofy as hell and they all know it.
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Aug 29, 2017 16:41
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Martman posted:I thought it showed him writing that she "accepts" the Death Note. I'm still not remembering that scene perfectly, but I thought it was implied that she actually hosed up his plan by trying to steal it early, and he was going to attempt to control what happened and make sure the page burned before she died. In his narration he tells us that he wrote that Mia tries to take the book, but falls to her death and a she's falling rips out the page with Lights name on it which falls into a burning barrel or whatever. He pretty clearly intentionally kills her. I think coupled with him not telling her that he loves her is pretty interesting I do agree that's it's pretty ambiguous about who is really the lesser of two evils, I just think there's a pretty strong argument that Light is the more evil character.
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Aug 29, 2017 20:24
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No, he wrote something like "After taking the Death Note, the Ferris Wheel colapses and both Mia and her boyfriend fall. I found ambiguous the situation. Was Light expecting that wording it like that would allow him to spare Mia? But then again, I didn't find Turner to be outright villainous, only misguided and completely out of his depth.
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Aug 29, 2017 20:45
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Simplex posted:In his narration he tells us that he wrote that Mia tries to take the book, but falls to her death and a she's falling rips out the page with Lights name on it which falls into a burning barrel or whatever. He pretty clearly intentionally kills her. I think coupled with him not telling her that he loves her is pretty interesting I do agree that's it's pretty ambiguous about who is really the lesser of two evils, I just think there's a pretty strong argument that Light is the more evil character. Honestly, he didn't get to that point until after it was pretty clear that she was going to either a) take the book from him and use it to slaughter a shitload of people or b) kill him with the book, take the book from him, and use it to slaughter a shitload of people. The impression I get from the third act is that Light is saying "gently caress this, I'm done with this poo poo."
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Aug 29, 2017 22:34
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