Review of Death Note (2017) by Luke E — 17 Oct 2017

Whilst being a hardcore 'Death Note' fan since the age of 17, my expectations for this particular film adaptation of Tsugumi Oba and Takeshi Obata's best selling manga series were very low to say the very least.

Director Adam Wingard shows he has a clear vision for his film adaptation, though for the most part it feels incredibly underwhelming, especially at how complex and investing the original Death Note manga and anime were.

The film adaptation itself is reduced to being subjugated by plenty of petty little American tropes, campy cringe-worthy horror cliches and an annoying romantic subplot followed by plenty of over-dramatic moments and terrible soundtrack choices that doesn't compensate to the original source material.

Performances from the actors were sub-par to say the very least, nothing too special or even broadly appealing to fans and non-fans alike. Wilhelm Dafoe however, is excellent unsurprisingly as Ryuk the Shinigami; its another one of those rare cases where you have a small element in the film worth seeing even with what little he has.

Other than that, the film just wasn't that good at all, I'll give credit to the cinematography looking sleek and stylish, though it this film's Americanization it's losing the compelling and complex edge that made the source material amazing in the first place.

It's all too easy to say it's overall; an underwhelming adaptation as it's an underwhelming film, I wasn't too surprised given the odd approach and the questionable choices to the various changes this film made in terms to the source material, it's doesn't stack up at all except upon scratching the surface and not digging deep enough.