Review of Death Note (2017) by Shadowstrike1 — 31 Aug 2017

The movie characters act irrational and childish, completely detracting from their original appeal. L is irrational and makes stupid decisions. It seems like the only quality they kept from the Manga/Anime was his love for candy. Light does nothing to divert attention from himself being suspected of being Kira (in fact, when asked if he is Kira, he pretty much just says "Yup."). Poor acting (that screaming scene...) also didn't do the movie any favors. It turned a story about physiological cat and mouse into a teen love story. On top of that, the romance is INCREDIBLY forced. Boy meets girl. Literally 20 seconds after introducing themselves, Light shows Mia the Deathnote. What?? Why!? That's right... Because this Light is an idiot kid. In fact, Mia is more like Light Yagami than Light Turner is.

Willem Dafoe was fantastic and the only redeeming quality of this movie. His voice acting is spot on, and the CGI of Ryuk is great. Perfect mix of spooky and familiar. However, we barely ever see him.

The soundtrack is a whole other issue. No one wants 80s rock in Death Note. The trailer made the music sound so promising. The trailer featured a new rendition of "Bittersweet Symphony" and it was wonderful. It fit the mood perfectly. However, IT WAS NEVER USED IN THE MOVIE! Overall, it was quite sad to see that a movie given all the chance in the world at being incredibly successful turned out so poorly. Poor writing decisions and a directory taking WAY too many "creative" liberties tanked what could have been a real gem of a movie.