Review of Death Note (2017) by Elpolloloco82 — 24 Aug 2017

Bottom line, this movie needed to be a miniseries and not rushed into roughly an hour and a half movie. The pacing was too fast and it doesn't allow you to really connect with any of the characters in the movie.

Another problem I had with this adaptation, which is what most people will point out is that they fundamentally changed the core attributes of the characters that they adapted from the anime series. For instance, Light was smart, but he wasn't genius level smart like he was in the anime series.

He also wasn't very confident and the way they approached being "Kira" was completely different. Light, in the anime series, was all about creating and being the god of this new world order where crime will essentially be eliminated, and nothing and no one would stand in the way of that.

This Light, just didn't have the stomach for it. Not to mention, Light, in the series, was the epitome of what every man wish they were, and every woman wished they were with. Light. in this movie, was remarkably average; even down to the reason for why he continuing to use the Death Note and pursued this life as Kira, all to impress a girl (Mia).

What really made the anime series shine though, was the way Light and L danced a mental tango where Light was trying to either find a way to eliminate L or convince L that he wasn't Kira and L trying to get L to slip up so to confirm his suspicions that Light was Kira.

In this movie, not so much; L confronts Light at a gelato shop, where he breaks Light to into letting it slip that he was Kira. This movie would have been better served if they cast a better Light, and didn't write him as such an unconfident wussy.

Also, in the series, Ryuk and Lights relationship wasn't as adversarial as it was in this movie. In the series, Light and Ryuk was there for some side commentary and answer any questions that Light may have had in regards to the Death Note.

In the movie, they really didn't like each other. Ryuk was the true star of this movie and because they played the relationship the way they did, his screen time was pretty limited. All in all, it's going to upset fans of the original anime series.

To the point where they will flat out give this a "0" because of those differences. I think if you come in, never seeing the anime series, you'll find this movie to be remarkably average.

That's why it's getting the oh so average score of a "5".