Review of Death Note (2017) by Bryan%20 O — 25 Aug 2017

It's hard to not go into this film without comparing it to the original source material. Death Note(2017) is an attempt at adapting the famous and well beloved Manga/Anime series, but fails due to large misunderstandings as to what the series was about, while also trying to define itself apart from other adaptations by trying to re-invent much of what many loved about the series.

The plot involves Light Turner finding the Death Note, a notebook that allows the user to kill anyone who writes their name in the book, and uses it to enact his own sense of Justice by ridding the world of criminals, while also evading the famous detective L and other police agencies from finding out that he is the one causing these unusual deaths. While this is the base of the plot taken from the Manga and Anime, it puts more emphasis on focusing on Light and his relationship with Mia Sutton, this film's version of the character Misa Misa, and how the book affects him. And while it is notable that the film tries to define itself away from other adaptations, and even the source material itself, the plot includes certain aspects from the original work, but minimizes what was considered key points in the story. This includes the game of cat and mouse that Light and L play against each other, which becomes more of a back-drop to the film rather than a focus. Even the Raye Pember story arc becomes a simple five second plot device that defines what the Death Note does to a character that isn't Light himself.

None of the characters, with the small exception of Ryuk, reflect who they were in the original work. Light is shown to have some amount of debatable intelligence, but it's never truly shown until towards the end of the film. However, Light is also shown to have more human emotions toward handling the book, showing large amounts of fear upon first seeing Ryuk and even loving Mia, something that Light had never reciprocated to Misa Misa in the Anime/Manga. Mia does not resemble trait that Misa Misa had, with the exception of loving Light. Interestingly enough, she resembles more of what Light was in the Anime/Manga, in which she becomes obsessed with the Death Note and enacting justice. Light even contemplates to not use the book anymore, while Mia would continue to use the book for what she believes would be good. Ryuk is the only character who resembles his Anime/Manga counterpart, but his role in the plot is much more involved than in the original work. Rather Ryuk is more of an instigator of events, tempting Light and feigning loyalty, rather than being a mere observer. The character who took the most in a change of character is L, in which he is much more emotion driven than his calm and calculative Anime/Manga counterpart.

While there are more that can be said about the differences about the characters, what is certain is that these changes do not make them more likable than they used to be. It's understandable that it is difficult to create a likable villainous character, but it is not entirely impossible. Examples of this can be found in House of Card's Frank Underwood, Breaking Bad's Walter White, and of course, Light Yagami himself. What made them likable wasn't being able to sympathize with their actions, but to enjoy how they executed their actions. Each move they made was equivalent to someone play a high-stakes game of chess. This aspect of the series, along with many of the quirks of some characters and the other minor characters who brought more humanity and color to the series, was missing. Again, this is understandable due to the difficulty of condensing a 37 episode show into less than 2 hours. Yet a possible path they could've taken was split the story into two films, much like what was done with the first live-action adaption of Death Note.

Final Thoughts:

It's easy to see that some effort was put into this film. Yet the effort was put into trying veer away from it's source material, instead of trying to embrace it. The film is not entirely terrible, with an interesting twist between the characters of Light and Mia. However, this film does not fulfill the standard of a Death Note live-action adaptation. In fact, that standard had already been met years ago in Japan. It would've been interesting to see the Death Note take effect in the west, even staging a new story after the original Death Note story had taken place. However, this film is not that, but just an attempt to westernize the original work. If you, the viewer, are look for a true adaption of Death Note, look to the the 2006 film and it's sequel, which does include some minor and major changes to the plot, but only do so to have a present a different ending to the series, rather than reinvent it altogether.