Review of Death Note (2017) by Jonny F — 07 Oct 2018

Death Note is an ambitious piece trying to bring a popular and well known manga series that already has movies in the Japanese market to the western audience. This certainly isn't something that US production companies have had a lot of success with. Manga adaptations for the greater part tend to be more flop than failure in my opinion.

The concept of the movie is great with a book controlled by killing god, Ryuk ( who is excellently played by Willem Dafoe and his precense brings a little class to the movie) is left with protagonist, Light who trys to use his newly acquired powers for just and good. But, not everyone sees it that way and this leads to super detective, L, to try and find the person responsible for the wide spread murders of the worst people in the world.

On paper this concept already sounds a little ludacrious and has the potential to end in a final destination type movie that emphasises amazing deaths. Instead the story is more focused on character development, which is rather minimal with characters more or less remaining true to their inital character other than one character who shows a more absorbed and ego-driven change.

Cinematically, this is shot beautifully and adhears to the stylised editing and effects found with the anime like movies. Think Scott Pilgram vs. The World. Heavy use of lilac in toning and colours and a bright anime saturation for even the darker colours. But for me Ryuk's character was by far the best as he was extremely accurate to the manga in how he looks. But, even more dark and ominous with a cool and captivating introduction to the character.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie quite a lot. There was a lack of depth to the story but this is forgivable as the movie was well executed for what it was, entertainment. It had a few laughs and was interesting, especially in the last 30 mins to see how they were going to bring a conclusion to this. Ending it on that cliffhanger sure indicates they have ideas for a second movie, which I hope gets made.