Death Note (2017)

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.

Fmovies: 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 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.

Death Note fmovies. 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 even know where to start. First of all, i've never seen the anime or the original Japanese live action movie. That's something I regret. The truth is I love manga and the reason why I yet need to see "Death Note" is because I simply watch to much, and have to little time. But it's one of those titles that is on my to do list. I guess this gives me some sort of advantage over those people reviewing this title with the worst reviews ever. Claiming this is the biggest garbage they have ever seen, and does not honor the original.

I cannot agree more with them. This is the view of someone who hasn't seen the original. But let me tell you this: it doesn't get worse than this. I don't even know where to start. Everything was just so off. The casting was ridiculous. Every character except Ryuk was just completely off. Acting was terrible, dialogues even worse. I can't even figure out how fake the character L. was. It just made me feel like crying, seeing how he took this role. It was so bad that I was asking myself at one point if I wasn't just watching some amateur high school movie made by students. My god... I could go on for ages about how terrible it was, and how much I am traumatized by this.

The only reason I rate this movie a 2/10 is because I really liked how they made Ryuk. He actually looked really good, and was the only thing that kept me watching this movie.

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.