Review of Death Note (2017) by J Ronnie E — 05 Sep 2017

Alright, what to say, what to say. This movie was a welcome surprise after hearing nothing but negative reviews, and overall I thought it was funny and charming, not to mention the great cinematography throughout.

The actors managed to portray believable characters who underwent believable story-arcs even though the film was only a short 1h40m long. This project was always going to be facing an uphill battle. Nothing is harder than pleasing a pre-existing, enthusiastic fan-base, especially considering the huge differences in the creative landscapes of anime and western-style movies.

The anime had 25 x 22 min episodes to tell a similar story, so yes, the plot is significantly thinner in this movie, but I found that the aspects that the writers kept made for an intriguing and original twist on the source material.

Another criticism that I have seen being thrown around was the "whitewashing" of the original story, but the western based company, Netflix, made a western movie for a western audience, and I thought the changes that were made were respectful and ultimately insignificant to the plot and moral.

They even made a joke at the start addressing the need for changes as the american protagonist is unable to pronounce the Japanese name "Ryuk". Out of all of the stories that could be told from different countries point of view, Death Note has to be high on the list of most adaptable, as it shows the global impact of a single human, chosen at random, who is endowed abilities to create their own justice.

This film's downfall was being too watered down and simple for the anime fanbase and too rushed for the newcomers, but considering how many HUGE pitfalls it managed to gracefully avoid during what was always going to be a problematic adaptation, I definitely approve the work that was done.