User reviews

An unfortunate missed opportunity.

I didn't give this movie a 5 because it was different from the original, i thought it wasn't different enough. I have read the Death Note manga several times and i think that, for a Shonen Jump Manga, it is a Masterpiece.

Still, being a Manga made for a very specific demographic it is tied to several silly Japanese teen archetypes. For example: Light Yagami being a High School Student and Misa Amane being a Teen idol, both of them being Japanese, that kind of thing.

The Story of a NoteBook of Death that is used to "create a better world" however, has a potential that far exceeds the original manga.

I believe that, had this been done correctly, it could have been on par with Breaking Bad. It could have been a master piece. They didn't even have to use the names of the original characters, they could have forgotten about the silly high school plot line and the Japanese clichés.

It should have been a TV Series and the characters should have been Detectives. Its sad to see such missed potential.

I honestly believe that, had this been done by good writers and on the right format, it could have far surpassed the original.

I want to preface by saying that this movie was my introduction to Death Note, my friends were big fans of the original material so I knew what it was about but I never read the manga or watch the anime. I understand they are also not very interested in this film, anyway the movie just launched on Netflix so I watched it. I thought Adam Wingard overall did a good job, it's not a great movie by any means, but I thought it was well-directed and entertaining, even though it's also largely flawed.

The biggest problem with this film might be the tonal changes and the pacing, the movie had trouble finding its voice and is trying to move to fast. There was moments of horror, followed by a quick comic relief and then serious conversations. Tonally, I have to admit it was a little bit all over the place. The performance by Nat Wolff was uneven for me, part of it was great, for example, no spoilers, but there's a scene with his father at the beginning where I thought he was nailing it, but I'm not sure I was into all the screaming and over-the-top reactions, which goes back to the problem with the tone of the film. The script is also messy and might be the sole reason why this movie did not exactly land.

Regarding Ryuk, Willem Dafoe did a nice job voicing him, but I guess I was hoping to get more of his flavor into the character, the effects on Ryuk looked great in the shadows, but sometimes he's sitting on a bed clearly and you can notice some imperfections, but that might only be me because he was definitely a strong part of this adaptation. I'm curious what the fans of the original thought of Ryuk in this movie, because I get the feeling that overall most of them might be disappointed. Yes the script is problematic but, Wingard knows how to direct a movie, loved the visuals, the soundtrack, it was interesting and I slightly enjoyed it.

6/10

Disclaimer: it is pretty obvious that the anime is far better than this movie. It is arguably one of the best animes/mangas ever written. But this movie isn't actually as bad as many people make it out to be either. So just keep that in mind.

Once you realize that this movie was supposed to be a different take on the whole Death Note story it is actually quite enjoyable. Yes, many of the characters from the anime are missing in the movie. But that was to be expected. It would've been impossible to incorporate all of them into a movie of this length.

I think that all the die-hard Death Note fanatics need to suspend their disbelief and just accept that this movie wasn't intended for them. None of these live action movies are. I have seen dozens of them and every single time people complain that it wasn't canon or too simplified. As if it's actually possible to comprise an entire series into a movie. Give me a break.

About the cast; some of the performances were really solid. L's acting e.g.. I can see how some people complained about the "whitewashing" but I think that they just don't get it. There is already a Japanese live action movie about this anime with an all- Asian cast. This is supposed to be a more Western approach to the story hence the white cast. I think people need to respect the vision of the director on this one.

As a fan of the original Death Note anime I am very disappointed in this film. It was poorly acted, horribly paced, and the drama felt more edgy than composed. The characters personalities were completely changed to the point where I didn't see why they even bothered maintaining the original names and The events of the story were changed so drastically I forgot that I was watching Death Note. In the original anime both L and Light were very calm and rational in how they made each decision, creating a suspenseful psychological drama, but in the film both of them do things that were very out of character and essentially made no sense. Overall this felt very rushed and poorly directed, I wouldn't be surprised if the director had never even heard of the original anime before doing this film.

I have never felt compelled to write any reviews but I felt that I needed to say something for this movie.

I normally like Netflix TV shows but movies lately have been really sub- par with this one being the worst I've seen from them.

This is a total waste of time and this movie should have never been made, it's an insult to the original Death Note (Desu Nōto). The plot was totally ruined since it was changed from the original, yeah they kept the premise but they decided it was a good idea to mix it up with stupid teen drama/relationship and a bunch of other nonsensical BS.

Go watch Desu Nōto instead if you haven't or if you have then watch it again!

First time ever writing a review here. Had to do it now because I don't want people like me who enjoyed the original anime/manga to waste their time on this movie.

Firstly i didn't know this was a movie until it was released on Netflix. I'm not going into detail, but there is a reason its a long manga/anime and not a movie.

Anyway, the protagonist isn't interesting, L is not interesting and the plot is garbage. They took all the good thing from the original and butchered it and made another bad American adaptation.

Everyone involved in this movie should be ashamed.

Save yourself the misery and never watch this.

I really enjoyed this movie, having never seen nor heard about the Japanese manga it's based on, I can't compare this movie to it, therefore as a supernatural thriller, it's not a horror movie to me, it was very entertaining, something very different and it kept my interest throughout. The ending was unfinished to me, therefore leaving a window open for a sequel. I'm hoping there will be a part two, I'm intrigued. However seeing the number of negative reviews that might not happen, most negative reviews are from people who have seen the Japanese manga. I say give it a try, check it out, you should be entertained.

I don't even know where to begin with this, it is rare that an anime adaptation ever turns out to be good, so I didn't go into this movie with high expectations. Having seen the anime twice now I was completely underwhelmed and disappointed throughout the whole movie. The characters in this movie had little to no similarities to their originals. There's honestly way too many things for me to say about this that I simply just don't have the time to do so. I tried to watch this movie as it's own thing and not compare it to the original but that was basically impossible for me. If you're a fan of the anime and manga, honestly don't even watch this, it's not worth your time.

I had no idea this was based on anything. Sure, I know Akira, Ghost In The Shell, Hellsing, Battle Royale and maybe a few others, but that's about the extent of my manga/anime knowledge. And as popular as manga/anime has become in the West, it is still a niche genre. Them's the facts.

If those superfans are able to step back out of their extreme partisanship, they would find a slick, competently produced, directed, shot and acted piece of cinema. Production values are quite high overall and the acting, while far from Shawshank, is also not abysmal by any means.

Trust me, I have seen a lot of abysmal acting in films.

Willem DaFoe's voiceover was terrific and I personally found the character of "L" pretty interesting.

All the 1 ratings are completely out of place for this film if one solely judges it as a standalone piece of cinema. And of course with a healthy does of suspension of disbelief, which given the actual source material is a complete must anyway. It can be argued that the MCU (and the DCU for that matter) has done much the same thing with their adaptations so what's the huge problem here?

Rather, a 5-7 star rating for this film as a standalone film would be far more appropriate. Honestly.

The original Death Note was a masterpiece, some of the legitimately smartest most well written television of all time so all these years later hearing it was getting the American treatment I was understandably concerned.

Sadly my fears were confirmed, all of them. It's as if the creators were given a 30 second explanation of Death Note and based a movie on what they were told.

The characters are simply nothing like the originals, the plot is a compacted mess, this simply isn't Death Note.

Light has gone from an arrogant, smart, cool calm and collected person to a weak screaming baby.

L has gone from a savant secretive quirky quiet child to an out in the open gun wielding threat spewing idiot.

Misa has become Mia and no longer a ditsy blonde bimbo but now a devious manipulative brunette.

The original plot? Forget about it, straight out the window and something that misses the point of the story altogether in to replace it.

I could rant about what an embarrassment this is for ages, I think I could quite frankly write a book on how much of a slap in the face to the fans this is but I'll resist.

But make no mistake, that's exactly what this is.

The Good:

Willem Defoe as Ryuk

The Bad:

An offensive cluster crap to fans of the original

Light Turner........really!?

Terrible representation of Light

Terrible representation of L

Terrible representation of Mia/Misa

Misa becomes Mia.....really!?

So........many..........changes to the rules of the Death Note!

So........many..........changes to the plot

The soundtrack during the big wheel scene.......really!?

First off, I have not read the original source material manga for this. Right off the bat, I realize this will infuriate people, as the vast majority of comments on here destroy this movie because of the heavy deviation from the manga. I get that, I typically enjoy a book far more than the film adaptation. However, this review is strictly about the merits of the movie, not how it stands up against the original. Knowing nothing of the manga, I really enjoyed this movie. The concept was unfamiliar to me, and I found the characters and plot interesting. I realize if I ever read the source material (which I may, as I enjoyed this so much), I might join the chorus of angry voices who think the movie should have followed the source more closely. Today, having just watched the movie, I liked it a lot.

Again, I get why people who are fans of the original are hating on this so much. Those of us who actually grew up reading "Iron Man" hated the slaughter that was Iron Man 3 (seriously, that is what you are going to do with The Mandarin, arguably Iron Man's most ruthless and deadly enemy?), but the rest of the world, who had no clue about the original comics loved it. So, maybe this is my "Iron Man 3." But ignorance is bliss, so I enjoyed Death Note a lot.

First of all, it's not like the original. At all, really. I felt like with a rewrite, it'd have made more sense to just make it an original story with new characters and names that was set in the Death Note universe. That being said, it is not a legitimate criticism to say it's not like the original. Changing things is fine. Making the story completely different is fine. The question is if it thematically suits the original, and if what was changed works.

Well, I think it does. Mostly. It has a lot of the same themes of the original, even if the characters were mostly completely different. It questions the morality of murdering bad people without trial, and demonstrates the fanaticism that can arise with power. The film overall seems to be presented stylistically, moodily, with some nice musical interludes in a Donnie Darko sort of vein. It has a few twists and a pretty nice ending that makes it relatively satisfying, and it doesn't follow a predictable Hollywood format, which makes it at least a bit refreshing. And if you don't believe me that it's thematically similar to the original, the original author and artist of Death Note both praised the film believing it was a good adaption thematically.

There were things wrong with it. The pacing wasn't great. It starts off well and then it just shoots off like a rocket, making it hard to follow the second act. It made a pretty big directing faux pas by introducing new characters and concepts right inside a montage. A lot of the dialogue isn't written so well, making characters occasionally sound banal. The Final Destination-esque Rube Goldberg deaths were often overly done and comically gratuitous. I don't think it fits the themes very well to literally laugh when someone gratuitously explodes. You don't need to make huge stretches to be hardcore just because you're on Netflix, guys.

Overall I think this is not a film for the fanboys. They're going to hate it because it's different. I feel like I like it mostly because to be honest with you. However, honestly? I found the original to be flawed too. I think it will be an interesting but flawed film for pretty much anyone who doesn't worship the original. It is aesthetically (except for the utterly gratuitous deaths) and thematically pleasing, but has some pacing and writing issues. Hope this review will be helpful.

This movie was a mess. From a directional standpoint, to acting, to script writing, everything. The VFX is horrible in this movie. It's so low budget, you'd imagine it be a cheap TV show. Ryuk's forehead is too big and feels nonexistent within the mise-en-scene. Light Yagami is everything wrong, changed to a bullied kid to feel politically relevant and correct. He's just eccentric, over the top, and a creepy looking mofo. Mia is supposed to be Misa? She is changed to a typical short girl cheerleader who follows Light around. Also, why would anyone name their kid Light in America is beyond me. This movie was rushed. From the start, we already see the book falling down. There is no build up to this or tension, it just falls and it's one of the cheapest looking movie production props I have ever seen. The design is something you'd see from a fanmade film. Then, the title sequence. They got the colors right at first, but then they went with complete blue, when it should be red and a bit of purple. All of the dialogue is awkward and choppy. Terrible line deliveries from each actor, just overcooked and several mumbling moments. The deaths were immoral, stupid, and just goes to Final Destination B-movie horror territory. The writers they hired wrote Immortal, a terrible movie with Henry Cavill. So, it was doomed to suck to begin with. They hired Adam Wingard too who directed the overrated The Guest. He's just bad, they should stop hiring him. His camera tricks are cheap, choppy, and horrible to look at. Blair Witch was unwatchable, this one is almost too. Ugliest looking cinematography of the year, muddy, unsmooth, bad shot composition, and student film level. The music choice is pop/techno like music and it is all wrong. Death Note was Gothic, operatic, and heavy metal. The only thing they got right was Ryuk's voice.

2/10.

I'm often on the defending party for films. I notice that many reviewers seem to complain much about any movie is released. That was the case with Alien: covenant, for example. That movie was far superior to this one.

Prior to the film, I watched in about three days the entire Death Note series. Because I really just got into it and don't plan on watching the anime again soon, I don't consider myself a fan (never watched animes before, by the way), but I reckon it was a very clever series. At times it had its cheesiness, but still worked pretty well.

When the source material is well written, I don't think that departing from it is the right choice. The Martian proved that, for instance. Changching the plot should be always for the benefit of it, and not to overly simplify the story and to take out some of it core aspects.

Death Note's film adaptation chose this second route. I have the feeling that they didn't understand at all what was the series about. The anime mostly focused on L and Light's intellectual fight, battles of tricks and making one and another be unsure about what his intentions are. Ryuk (who I thought would be a practical effect and not CGI, as instead it sadly proved to be) had more importance. Truth is, this movie had also a very low runtime in order to cover up the plot well, it might have needed an extra 40 minutes (so a 2h 30m film), but it would have needed an entirely different plot.

Instead, when the movie finished, it turned out to be just a rushed sequence of events, most of which seemed incoherent if seen next to the anime, which was a very clever story. Ultimately, the film settles for a needless and overly bloody gore feast. The speed of this film is so fast paced that, by when I arrived to the 1 hour mark, I could not believe that we had forty minutes left. And I came to realise that nothing that happened felt relevant to the whole storyline. Death note should have been adapted in a slightly slower paced film, and had minimal gore (most of people died by heart attack). That wouldn't mean that it had to be necessarily a boring film, or a non-R rated one. The themes of moral ambiguity and killing powers make it anyways a very dark story to tell.

The only positive note I could find in all of this is that sometimes both L and Light's actor delivered scenes which made me suggest that they where up to the roles, if the original anime was to be followed. L sometimes used the anime character's same line delivery, Light seemed capable of behaving as a bloodthirsty, dark and evil character. Sadly, the movie didn't allow the actors to perform their characters rightfully. Williem Dafoe's voice sounded exactly like the original Ryuk's. That said, Ryuk appeared for about 4 minutes, so there wasn't much there.

Ultimately, this is the perfect example on how an adaptation of a good source material can simply suck. I recall only Eragon being such an unfaithful, unrightful and almost offensive adaptation to a very clever and deep story.

I don't suggest you watch the movie if you are a huge fan of Death Note, because it will ruin the whole thing. The actors and actresses were terrible and just everything was a big disappointment. The movie had almost nothing to do with the anime. If you have never heard of Death Note before, watch the anime first and if you are curious to watch the movie, go ahead..But as I said before, you will be disappointed.

If you liked the Death Note anime or live action series, you will not like this.

If you didn't like the Death Note anime or live action series, then there's a good chance you may like this.

Death Note is not meant to be turned into a movie, as the Japanese movies prove.

I've been around a fair few dacades and watched a lot of movies - among them horror, dark fantasy, and so on. Not sure why this one has so many negative reviews - possibly based on the original anime (which I admittedly have never watched).

Even so, I went in with an open mind and zero expectations and I really enjoyed it. The acting was sound, as was the the story, effects, continuity and so on. Yes there were a few times when I spotted a minor error but so what? It was entertaining and enjoyable, without too much gratuitous gore.

If you have nothing else to watch and need something to do with an hour and a bit, I'd recommend Death Note.

DEATHNOTE, the popular manga series gets its obligatory Hollywood remake. While taking liberties with the source material, it works less like a faithful adaptation and more like a alternate universe scenario of "what if a book that is able to exert supernatural control over anyone whose name is written in it, leading up to their deaths, ends up with a typical American teenager?".

Light Turner is that teenager. He is the bullied loner from a broken family, the under appreciated smart kid sitting by himself in the corner. The law has failed to bring his mother's killer to justice, the education system has failed to punish those that pick on him daily, all around him Light is faced with a world of injustice. Enter the death god Ryuk (an immaculately rendered CGI creation with performance by William Defoe) and the titular Deathnote. Ryuk is the devil on Light's shoulder tempting him to use the power of the Deathnote for selfish means.

It sets up a familiar tragedy of a young person pushed to the edge by unfairness, given the power to change things, and who ultimately abuses said power to take his anger out on the world. This is the familiar stereotype of school shooting perpetrators as sensationalized by the media and Light is set up specifically as such a character. The performances by Nat Wolff (Paper Towns) as Light and Shea Whigham (Boardwalk Empire) as his father help sell Light's plight and set up his expected eventual fall.

However, director Adam Wingard tastefully plays with and eventually subverts this expectation. Though Light does test out the deathnote's power against the aforementioned bully, and uses it again to send his mother's murderer to a nasty gruesome end, he ultimately tries to reject Ryuk's temptation of absolute power over others' fates. It isn't the idealistic "with great power comes great responsibility" shtick of superhero comic books but neither is it the nihilistic trope of absolute power's corrupting influence. This middle ground makes Light more relatable and is a much appreciated deviation from the source material. Where Light Yagami of the manga and the Japanese Deathnote movie was this cold, haughty sociopath with a god complex, Turner, in all his social awkwardness, genuinely regrets his decisions to use the Deathnote, with much of the movie being about him trying to avoid being found out, making the wrong choices as any teen in a panic would, and ultimately escalating the situation by mistake.

But things aren't so straightforward. Into Light's life comes manipulative girlfriend Mia Sutton who's ambitions for the Deathnote extend beyond just simple payback. Under Mia's influence, Light starts killing any suspected criminal based on the news. They create the persona of "Kira", Japanese mispronunciation of "killer", to divert police suspicion. Kira's supernatural killing of criminals splits the world; while unlawful many support what they see as justice in an unjust world. Complicating the matter further is when Light's policeman father gets involved in the investigations into the killings, and a mysterious super genius detective named L takes on the case.

Now this second half when L comes along is where things get shaky. I get the sense that on one hand we have this deeply personal look at the birth of a sociopath and subsequent subversion of said villain's journey by focusing on Light himself, yet on the other hand we are tied down to the plot beats of the original manga. That means a Kira cult, a convoluted cat and mouse game between L and Light, new rules for the Deathnote, memory loss as a means to be absolved from all suspicions, etc. The generally over the top nature of the original manga just does not match the more grounded "Everyman" tale in the movie.

While Light's dilemma of trying to shake off Mia's manipulations, evade capture, and plan an outrageous series of events to get away scot free is thrilling and tightly plotted, the movie takes a weird tangent to explore L's origin. L, played by Lakeith Stanfield (Get Out), is amazing. His demeanor, body language, everything is right out of the original manga. How he slowly loses it after being outsmarted time and again by Light is also well done. But the whole tangent storyline to explore his origin may have been better left to a spinoff.

One thing that got lost in the translation was that the original source material brings up philosophical and moral dilemmas, questioning the rights and wrongs of its characters' actions. This movie focuses squarely on Light and his own struggles with the escalating situation he finds himself in. This makes the movie less deep than its Japanese counterparts.

Despite its ups and downs, I enjoyed DEATH NOTE. Like a combination of Donnie Darko and Final Destination, DEATH NOTE is suitably suspenseful, well cast, and boasts great shots courtesy of Adam Wingard making this low budget movie look much better than it ought to. Combined with the music and the cinematography, this is a loving tribute to 80s and early 90s teen horror movies with both the pros and the cons of what that entails.

This is probably the worst TV to Movie adaptation out there, and I watched the Last Airbender. Tried too hard to be edgy and just turned into a Final Destination rip off with bad effects, choppy editing and a death god who looked more like a burn victim. The Charatizarion and motives were all awful and completely wrong and the stupid twists were cheap and predictable. Just do not waste your time.

I've came into this film having never read the source material and it has made me want to read it. I agree that bad adaptions of things we love can make us hate films/series, so I'm kind glad I didn't read the source material before watching this as I really enjoyed the story and the idea of it. I thought the actors were all decent and loved Ryuk! I am gutted the film flopped so there won't be any chance of a sequel, but I am glad to have been introduced to it and will definitely purchase the graphic novels, once I've done so I might even come back here and change this review to a 1 and agree with all the hatred that it has been given.

I understand that movies can have different plots and endings than the original anime/book but this one stripped the entire essence of what was so great about Death Note.

The characters are not at all how they are in the series. Light was a stud, smart a sociopath genius who could manipulate and outsmart anyone with and unwaiverable goal to be God. L is almost autistic and incredibly smart, not emotional. He was logical and to the point. Mia is a groupie fan girl with Light, a celebrity on her own but never would try to kill unless ordered by Kira to carry out his true goal of being God for as long as possible and destroying everything in his way.

The scene were Ryuk appears makes me want to puke it is so bad, his relationship with Light is far from what we see in the series, the plot is plain stupid. IT is mostly about him and his gf fighting whether they took it too far him and him being dumb enough to know his gf didn't take the book and kill some cops.

I hate this movie so much and so mad I spent whatever time I spent watching it because it is not worth even 5 minutes. Whoever made this should be ashamed and never produce a movie again.