Review of Death Note (2017) by Davidwashere — 27 Aug 2017

While the reputation is not as bad as critics and fans made it out to be, as someone that has not seen the anime, it's interesting but it has a ton of bad ideas! For one the pacing is rushed where it felt that the writers had to shove a ton of episodes in an hour and a half runtime, while also dragging and it feels like it is a lot longer than it should be. Not to mention that the main romance between Light and Mia feels forced and unnatural and all to conventional for the movie's own good. Hell having the romance being the central part of the movie instead of the titular book itself and the cat-and-mouse game between Light and L is honestly the worst decision they could have done. And with dialogue that is over-written and constantly on-the-nose it comes off as laughable as putting 80s soft-rock in integral scenes in the movie, especially towards the end with laughable uses of Chicago and Air Supply!

There are some good here. Willam Dafoe as Ryuk and Lakeith Stanfield as L are good here, there is a few stylish shots and lighting that is alright, the gory death scenes are fun, and the soundtrack by Atticus and Leopold Ross does add a bit to the movie's atmosphere, but the movie has some serious issues with the movie's foundation that really on it's own just does not work. I doubt that the anime is like this, in fact I feel that the romance is a movie only idea, and really this might have been the best Netflix could have hoped for when making a Death Note movie based on the anime's premise alone.

If there is one thing that the movie does right, it is getting my curiosity for the anime to peak and I do want to check it out.