Review of Death Note (2017) by Klkevinkl — 25 Aug 2017

Death Note starts with a simple premise, what if you discovered a book that could kill anyone by writing their name in it as long as you know their face? Sadly, this is not a horror movie. I am actually not quite sure what it is trying to be. It mixes together action and horror with a touch of mystery. But, the worst offender is that no one bothered to watch the movie to check for inconsistencies in anything. The entire movie just feels like an inconsistent mess to me.

Right from the beginning, there is a huge inconsistency. The Light Turner we are presented with is not a killer. In the first moments of the film, he stands up for himself only to get beaten up and abandoned by the person he protected. Moments later, he and the girl he protected, Mia, are teaming up to kill people. This feels completely out of character since Mia completely ignores him after he saves her and walks away with I think the guy who punched him in the face only reinforce the fact that Light would probably refuse to listen to Mia at all. The fact that Light was scared **** by the use of the Death Note makes it seem like he would not be using it any further and would turn it over to his father or back to Ryuk just to get it away from him.

Other inconsistencies include not needing to know Watari's real name to control him. Apparently his business card that probably says Watari instead of an alias on it is enough. Everyone draws absurd conclusions super fast (example will come below).

On top of that, our ace investigator in L is someone who loses his cool very quickly and easily and feels more like a stereotypical black teen than a great detective. We also never really see him do much detective work. All he tried to do is draw out Kira by appearing on television and then assuming that Kira needed a name and a face to kill. I do not know how he reached that conclusion along with many others that he makes.

The unbelievable plot then makes matters worse. The Death Note can make the impossible possible, which takes out a lot of the suspense. On top of that, everyone seems to know what will happen next. Light, L, Mia, and James (Light's father) all draw absurd conclusions from random tiny things that makes you wonder how it happened. For example, James says he knew Light was the killer when the first victim was the person who killed Light's mom. The problem is we see Light use it before. We have evidence others have used the Death Note before. The climax and ending further cheapens it by showing that Light manipulated everything for like the last forty minutes. In the end, Ryuk's role makes this film seem like a cheap horror movie where people are tempted by the supernatural power of an object that he then takes back and gives it to another. Except in this case, the motivation for them to use it makes no sense. Mia and Ryuk both manipulate Light into using the Death Note, but for someone who is so scared of it, he seems to have no issues using it. He never really gives into the temptation of it. He just does it because someone else asked him to.

Next, the choice of actors baffles me. A lot of the lines seem poorly executed and falls flat. It lacks emotion. Light's lines feels almost tone deaf at times and it doesn't fit him considering how he should be emotionally involved in everything. Yet, it never feels this way. His delivery is just poorly done. Everyone feels like they are reading off a script and super monotone. Even Ryuk, who is often praised by others feels the same because all he has is one dreading voice and nothing more.