Poll: So how'd you like Netflix's Death Note movie?

[Queen Michael]

The Netflix Death Note movie has been out for three days now, and in Internet time that's like a couple of months. So have you seen it? If so, how'd you like it? What was the good points? What was the bad points?

PLEASE NOTE: I won't get on your case if you don't spoiler tag the movie itself, because people will expect those spoilers, but do spoiler-tag any spoilers about the manga and anime, please.)

(Also: Please don't quote this OP; you can just post your answer and people assume you're replying to the OP unless otherwise indicated. That's how this stuff works. Sorry, but it's a pet peeve I've got.)

 

[Marter]

I didn't like it.

It's too simplified and too rushed and there's very little to the characters. It's unintentionally hilarious at times, but that's not really a good thing. Willem Dafoe was kinda fun, though.

I'd link my full review, but advertising rules, yo.

 

[Zontar]

I honestly think the people who made this where given a very poor description of the general idea of the source material, because it seems it was pitched as an intentionally not scary horror movie gore fest instead of anything relating to what the actual source material had to offer.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

I'm not familiar with the manga, the anime or the japanese live action movies but I thought it kinda sucked.

It crammed too much plot into too little time, making the story feel rushed and poorly paced, it was full of awkward plot contrivances (when it started with the Death Note literally falling from the sky right in front of light I realized just what level of storytelling is I can expect from this) and that kid playing Light gave the most unijtentionally hilarious performance I've ever seen. Also, what the hell was up with the music? Why did it have this weird corny softrock soundtrack? What was that meant to communicate? I mean, the movie looked nice, I guess...

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

(when it started with the Death Note literally falling from the sky right in front of light I realized just what level of storytelling is I can expect from this)

Never mind I am an idiot:

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Anyway I haven't seen it yet, but how did the movie handle this part?

Spoiler

In the anime we get the montage sequence of Light using the Death Note for the first time to Mass Murder a dozen extremely "evil" criminals in the prisons of the country by giving them all heart attacks, how did the authorities end up thinking that someone was responsible for this and their eyes ended up being fixed on Light as the prime suspect? I ask because I don't see L in this movie?

I honestly think the people who made this where given a very poor description of the general idea of the source material, because it seems it was pitched as an intentionally not scary horror movie gore fest instead of anything relating to what the actual source material had to offer.

So they made it as a Scary Horror Gorefest Movie?

 

[lionsprey]

Anyway I haven't seen it yet, but how did the movie handle this part?

Spoiler

In the anime we get the montage sequence of Light using the Death Note for the first time to Mass Murder a dozen extremely "evil" criminals in the prisons of the country by giving them all heart attacks, how did the authorities end up thinking that someone was responsible for this and their eyes ended up being fixed on Light as the prime suspect? I ask because I don't see L in this movie?

I honestly think the people who made this where given a very poor description of the general idea of the source material, because it seems it was pitched as an intentionally not scary horror movie gore fest instead of anything relating to what the actual source material had to offer.

So they made it as a Scary Horror Gorefest Movie?

L is in this movie. he's the black guy from the trailers.

 

[Guffe]

I did honestly not even know this existed...

 

[laggyteabag]

The part where Light's girlfriend tried to kill his dad in front of him, but he still loved her like it never happened was my favourite part of the film. /s

I liked L, though.

At least im not one of those guys that hates it because it deviates from the source material in some key ways. Thats just the nature of on-screen adaptions. I just dont like it because the writing was trash.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Not seen anime, though loved the live action Japenese version. This netflix movie just squeesed so much into the 90 minute run time that it got stupid. They couldnt flesh anything out, just constantly moving forward to hit all the story bits as quick as possible. Light was meh and L was ok - actually prefer the Japenses actors versions. But then the american actors had no real scenes to flesh out their characters so i cant blame them. I dont even know why they added the girl in? Should have kept it a cat and mouse between Light and L and add the girl in the second one. Like the Japenses movies did. But then, not having watched the anime, i dont know how different the anime and japanese movies are.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Willem Dafoe Dafoe'ing it up as Ryuk is fun and easily the best thing in the movie.

Everything else is meh.

 

[Rednog]

The part where Light's girlfriend tried to kill his dad in front of him, but he still loved her like it never happened was my favourite part of the film. /s

I liked L, though.

L was the worst part for me. The whole heel turn was a bit too much.

Spoiler

And the implication that L kills Light at the end just pushed it over the edge from unlikable to hated for me.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Anyway I haven't seen it yet, but how did the movie handle this part?

Spoiler

In the anime we get the montage sequence of Light using the Death Note for the first time to Mass Murder a dozen extremely "evil" criminals in the prisons of the country by giving them all heart attacks, how did the authorities end up thinking that someone was responsible for this and their eyes ended up being fixed on Light as the prime suspect? I ask because I don't see L in this movie?

I honestly think the people who made this where given a very poor description of the general idea of the source material, because it seems it was pitched as an intentionally not scary horror movie gore fest instead of anything relating to what the actual source material had to offer.

So they made it as a Scary Horror Gorefest Movie?

L is in this movie. he's the black guy from the trailers.

Ok than how did they end up pointing the finger at Light being the suspect?

 

[Scarytown_v1legacy]

Yeah.....this movie had a lot of problems. I'll try to be good on spoilers, but really they aren't anything that you couldn't see coming a mile away. I'm generally a fan of Adam Wingard, but I think this was a huge miss for him. With that being said I'll start off with the good: The soundtrack and atmosphere was decent. I'm a big fan of 80's neon and synth so this was a welcomed addition. Willem Dafoe's Ryuk was by far the most entertaining character and closest to his manga counterpart, albeit a bit more menacing. Lakeith Stanfield's L was also pretty good. I felt he got L's eccentric nature correct.

Now for the bad: Nat Wolff was a total miscast. Part of it has to do with the movie making him a loner/outcast vs. a charismatic genius. This ends up changing everything about his motivation and the God complex he develops. I'm guessing this was done to get the audience to try and have some sympathy for Light, but it feels entirely too forced. This might have been doable if Nat Wolff didn't have the charisma of a tree stump, but I simply never gave a damn about his rendition of Light. Mia/Misa ended up being a dumping ground for any of Light's sociopath traits from the manga. This came off as an incredibly cheap way for the movie to have it's cake and eat it too. Part of the appeal of series is it ends up like Scarface or Breaking Bad where you almost root for the bad guy because of your investment in them. I can see maybe why the producers avoided going completely dark (young white male that mass murders people) but it ends up making the movie very lukewarm in it's execution.

However, the biggest issue with the movie is how inconsistent the script is. As I said before, I liked Lakeith Stanfield's acting, but L's story descends into complete stupidity in the movie. While they touch base with L's detective prowess, they pretty much throw that out the window by the final act. Also Light and L's cat and mouse interactions are boiled down to 1 or 2 scenes. The movie cuts corners on the rules when it needs to move the plot forward (Apparently Watari was born with a first name only) and finally none of the final act made any sense for me. How was putting Light's name in the Death Note any sort of threat if Light's the one that still has the book? I could have missed something, but I was pretty sure that the page wasn't torn out (only Watari's was). Maybe someone can shed some light (hoho) on that whole part for me.

Overall I'd put the movie 5/10.

 

[Queen Michael]

Anyway I haven't seen it yet, but how did the movie handle this part?

Spoiler

In the anime we get the montage sequence of Light using the Death Note for the first time to Mass Murder a dozen extremely "evil" criminals in the prisons of the country by giving them all heart attacks, how did the authorities end up thinking that someone was responsible for this and their eyes ended up being fixed on Light as the prime suspect? I ask because I don't see L in this movie?

I honestly think the people who made this where given a very poor description of the general idea of the source material, because it seems it was pitched as an intentionally not scary horror movie gore fest instead of anything relating to what the actual source material had to offer.

So they made it as a Scary Horror Gorefest Movie?

L is in this movie. he's the black guy from the trailers.

Ok than how did they end up pointing the finger at Light being the suspect?

You're asking two questions here.

First, you ask how the government figures out that the deaths aren't natural. The answer, as far as I remember (my memory is shite) is partly that so many criminals die in such a very short span of time, and partly that the deaths are very strange and unnatural. See, in this version people don't die from heart attacks by default. You always have to pick a type of death that you want. And the first sign of foul play is when an armed criminal, who's taken his ex-wife hostage, lets her go, does a military salute and shoots himself, all for no apparent reason.

Then, you're asking how they know that it's Light who did it. Well, Light's dad goes on TV and says he'll stop Kira, but doesn't get killed. So all L has to do is ask himself who'd want to spare this particular law enforcement official despite killing FBI agents before. The answer is obviously "His only family member, his son Light.)

 

[Elvis Starburst]

It was a complete dumpster fire if you ask me. Even when not compared to the source material it's rushed, has poor acting, the characters are all over the place, the soundtrack mixes real artist songs and it doesn't fit in the least, and the plot is kinda crap. How they handled a lot of the movie was pretty terrible. When compared to the source material... Holy shit, it's like someone showed the director some images from Death Note, showed some of the rules, and mentioned a few of the characters and he said "THAT'LL DO" and trotted off to make a movie about it. Their personalities are almost 100% wrong, nobody acted how I expected them to, and the uprising to popularity for Kira was waaaayyyyyy too fast. Not to mention they made L completely not like L, save for the candy and the idea he's a detective of sorts. That's it. They made him get angry, yell, and make rampant accusations. So that's no fun.

Also, Light screams like a pansy ***** and looks like a derp while doing it. Crappy actor choice there especially. Ryuk is good as always, though I think he doesn't do enough and looks too much like a burn victim if you ask me. I wanna see him doing this more often:

Spoiler

As mentioned in a previous comment, apparently Watari only has a first name, unless someone managed to figure it out. Also, massive nit-pick here, but Ryuk in the Netflix movie leaves so much apple untouched. He eats maybe half the apple before tossing it aside. If it was that damn tasty he'd eat it and the core itself like he did in the anime. I don't get why Ryuk of all people would waste so much of it

 

[balladbird]

It's... one of the best american film adaption of an anime series we've gotten yet. That's not a good thing.

I rated it two stars, it wasn't a dumpster fire like DB: evolution or the fist of the north star movie, but changed too much of the core to really feel like a death note movie. L had promise, and the cinematography was actually pretty good for a budget movie, but I just can't accept Light Turner as the lead... he's too much of a generic protagonist.

 

[maninahat]

I thought it was actually good. The best thing it could have done is be unfaithful to the series, which is way too complicated to be turned into a two hour movie, and fortunately that is the case. It goes for something more personal, small scale and emotionally wrought, and that works with the run length. It manages to have some neat twists and it really picks up when L turns up (who is easily the best thing in it). Even Mia, the Misa stand in, comes off as a better character than the sexist bimbo thing from the original. It isn't perfect; the OTT gore really undermines the drama, the music choices are on the nose, and Ryuk doesn't have much of a purpose by the end, which comes all too abruptly. 3 stars.

 

[maninahat]

Anyway I haven't seen it yet, but how did the movie handle this part?

Spoiler

In the anime we get the montage sequence of Light using the Death Note for the first time to Mass Murder a dozen extremely "evil" criminals in the prisons of the country by giving them all heart attacks, how did the authorities end up thinking that someone was responsible for this and their eyes ended up being fixed on Light as the prime suspect? I ask because I don't see L in this movie?

I honestly think the people who made this where given a very poor description of the general idea of the source material, because it seems it was pitched as an intentionally not scary horror movie gore fest instead of anything relating to what the actual source material had to offer.

So they made it as a Scary Horror Gorefest Movie?

L is in this movie. he's the black guy from the trailers.

Ok than how did they end up pointing the finger at Light being the suspect?

L narrows it down to Seattle when he realises that some of these mysterious deaths (none are simple heart attacks, Light gives them elaborate, flashy ones) originated in the Seattle area, relating to crimes reported on the local news there. L went so far as to feed people to kill, putting the bait in regions where he suspected Light was based, to narrow it down further. He realises only someone with access to police records could have made some of the kills, and when all the FBI agents on the case are killed except Light's dad, it becomes obvious.

 

[Zontar]

It's... the best film adaption of an anime series we've gotten yet.

No, it's not, it's not even in the top 5.

Some better ones:

Guyver, Speed Racer, and Fist of the North Star.