The Netflix Deathnote movie could have been good if...

[Lufia Erim]

It was a spinoff of the deathnote anime ( i haven't read the manga).

So i just finished watching the netflix live action deathnote movie. It was bad, real bad. But it could have been good had it been a spinoff rather than a ( very) loose adaptation.

From what i remember from the anime, the deathnote has been in the human world several times prior to Megami Light acquiring it. According to Ryuk, everyone who has used the deathnote has fallen to ruin. That is who we should have been following. A previous Death note user.

Therefore there would have been no Light, Kira or L in this scenerio. I liked the idea of a guy and his girlfriend using the note together, and falling into ruin because of it. The story would have to be rewritten slightly, but the idea is there. I did enjoy the ending though.

The movie outside of the story was terrible. The voices weren't synced properly, the pacing was all over the place, the editing was bad and the acting wasn't believable at all. But i did like the final destination-esq scenes.

Thoughts? Would you like a spin off from someone rlse using the book prior to the Kira arc?

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

I don't know. At least half of the fun in Death Note comes from watching the cat-and-mouse game between Light and L play out and having these two characters interact. I suppose they could put in something similar, but then you'd run the risk of it perhaps being good, but still get negatively compared to the Light/L dynamic, aka the second half of the manga with Mello/Near.

 

[Bobular]

I like the idea of them doing it as a spin off in theory, but in practice it would have to have the same sort of Light-L dynamic to actually capture the feeling of the original and if you do that too much then you run the risk of it just being the same thing in a different location/time which kind of takes away from Light's accomplishments if other Death Note users were simmer to him.

What I do think would be interesting to see would be what the world is like immediately after Kira is no more. The world has been used to a new god punishing criminals and it actually worked, there was less crime. I wonder what would happen when the police reveal that some kid who panicked and died was their god and that the god that had criminals too scared to be criminals has now gone.

I can imagine religious cults still worshipping Light, preying for his return. I can imagine people who liked the new world protesting violently. I can imagine terrorist retaliation at the people who brought Kira down. I can imagine new criminal organisations filling the gap left by the old ones taken out by Kira. Even today in real life we have arguments over if people thought Light was the good guy or not, I'd like to see that played out in their world.

 

[Th3Ch33s3Cak3_v1legacy]

Will I tell you what REALLY would have made the film good? Better actors. They really should have cast the likes of Samuel L. Jackson or Dolph Lundgren for Light - an experienced A-lister at the peak of his powers would have attacted audiences to the film in droves, let alone mentioning the greater nuance that such an actor could bring to the performance.

The actor for Mia could have used a recast too. Someone along the lines of Bruce Willis or Sylvester Stallone. An actor of that calibre would have introduced a greater raw, if somewhat unhinged pace that would have suited the film's version of the character.

L was probably one of the stronger memebers of the cast, but was unable to skillfully convey the eccentricities(?) that the manga version of L displayed (in which was adated straight into the film without any tact). A skilled up and comer, along the lines of Michael Fassbender or Cillian Murphy (or any Irish actor for that matter) could have managed to work with these scripted difficulties much better.

Since I've progressed this far in this metaphorical recast, I think I might as well extend to the crew. While the writers did what they could with the matierial (although it seems that they did a very unsatisfactory job according to the internet), I think Hollywood's most sought writer could do a better job. Aaron Sorkin would have brought a snappy, lively injection to the dialogue.

And of course there's the top man: the director. While I love slow-mo with 80's music as much as the next shitposter, I feel as though a more direct, no-nonsence director is what this film would need. I therefore prepose none other than Terrance Malick as the director for the job; his confrontasionist method of directing will be able to allow Sorkin's script to shine.

 

[Asita]

Eh...I'd say no to the premise

What made Light exceptional - as far as Ryuk was concerned - was that he had done more with the Death Note than anyone else had and the way he was using it was interesting. He wasn't using it for petty vengeance, he was using it to instill people with the idea that a wrathful interventionist god was passing down righteous judgement on the wicked. That some force was displeased with how 'rotten' the world had become and was systemically removing that rot. Through that, Light hoped to push humanity down a better path. Regardless of how it worked out, that intent and method made Light interesting both to Ryuk in-universe and to the audience out-of-universe. It's not that every other Death Note user was met with tragedy, it's that Light had far greater aspirations and fewer compunctions about actually using the Note.

On a more general note, the trick to making a good Death Note adaptation is that you have to understand two scenes. First, you have to understand what defines and motivates Light. This is best laid out here:


The guy's methodical, understands how perception affects reality and human reactions, has a very pessimistic view on the world (arguably summed up as an extreme version of Hobbes's theory on the social contract), and sees himself as the model that humans should strive to match.

The second scene is the one where L and Kira declare war on each other.


It starts by showing how people are reacting to Light's actions, showcasing - in Freudian terms - the conflict of the Superego ("killing is always wrong" and "these are a series of unexplained deaths"), the Ego ("have you heard about Kira?" "It's a little scary but at the same time it's kinda cool") and the Id ("Kira, kill them all!"). That, however, is just a little something extra, only relevant to the extent that the last is gravitating towards Kira's control. The crux of the scene, the part that is essential to understand comes a few minutes later, starting once Lind L. Taylor appears on screen. In addition to showing a tantrum essential to understanding the character of Light, the events that follow codify the nature of the central conflict: Two very clever and very careful people engaging in a deadly game of wits where - and I quote "each of them has to hunt down the other without knowing the other's name or face, and the first one whose identity is revealed will die".

The essential aspect of this scene is perhaps best seen in what you'd compare it to. This is not a story of parkour, police chases, guns, gore, or deathtraps. This is a story of dueling snipers. The tension comes from them figuring out the other's position and lining up their shots. It's a battle of information. Will L be able to prove Light is a killer before Light gets enough information to kill him? The tension rising always has to be due to the question of whether a given event gives them the information they need. It is psychological thriller and drama, not action. If you don't understand that, you aren't going to make a good adaptation.

 

[DoPo]

It's not that every other Death Note user was met with tragedy

As a side note here: I can't remember how exactly it was phrased, but considering this information is coming from Ryuk, it might be the case that he is purposefully misleading. After all, wasn't one of the things that the users of the Death Note go into nothingness after they die, yet that was actually the case for everybody else? While the sentiment was true, it is only in technical terms. The "everybody else was met with a tragedy" could also be similar - he could simply been referring to the previous users dying... In a similar fashion you can say that everybody who drank water has died.

 

[TilMorrow]

It's not that every other Death Note user was met with tragedy

As a side note here: I can't remember how exactly it was phrased, but considering this information is coming from Ryuk, it might be the case that he is purposefully misleading. After all, wasn't one of the things that the users of the Death Note go into nothingness after they die, yet that was actually the case for everybody else? While the sentiment was true, it is only in technical terms. The "everybody else was met with a tragedy" could also be similar - he could simply been referring to the previous users dying... In a similar fashion you can say that everybody who drank water has died.

Whilst I don't know how it is in the manga or light novel, the same studio who made the Death Note Anime did one called Death Parade which basically covers the stories of how if two people who died at the same time or in a similar fashion are judged via regaining their memories through games that take place in a bar and then decided to be sent for reincarnation or to nothingness. Essentially what happens in Death Parade is that they show Light in one of the episodes stuck in this place and make a passing remark about him having been stuck there for a long time whilst mentioning that either he doesn't have a partner to challenge or is incapable of being judged (something which happens to other characters in this anime as well). So what I think the studio was going for is that their interpretation is that using the Death Note brands you as someone to be stuck in purgatory either by literally erasing all your memories (because you gave up the Death Note on death) so you're incapable of being judged or you're unable to partner with anyone.

 

[Asita]

It's not that every other Death Note user was met with tragedy

As a side note here: I can't remember how exactly it was phrased, but considering this information is coming from Ryuk, it might be the case that he is purposefully misleading. After all, wasn't one of the things that the users of the Death Note go into nothingness after they die, yet that was actually the case for everybody else? While the sentiment was true, it is only in technical terms. The "everybody else was met with a tragedy" could also be similar - he could simply been referring to the previous users dying... In a similar fashion you can say that everybody who drank water has died.

Correct. I can't speak to the original phrasing, as I have never studied Japanese, but the translation tends to be something along the lines of "don't think that a human who uses the Death Note can go to heaven or hell", which, in the final chapter, is revealed to only be true in the sense that neither heaven nor hell exist. That in death, everyone is equal. Anyone and everyone who dies simply ceases to exist.

 

[maninahat]

It was a spinoff of the deathnote anime ( i haven't read the manga).

So i just finished watching the netflix live action deathnote movie. It was bad, real bad. But it could have been good had it been a spinoff rather than a ( very) loose adaptation.

From what i remember from the anime, the deathnote has been in the human world several times prior to Megami Light acquiring it. According to Ryuk, everyone who has used the deathnote has fallen to ruin. That is who we should have been following. A previous Death note user.

Therefore there would have been no Light, Kira or L in this scenerio. I liked the idea of a guy and his girlfriend using the note together, and falling into ruin because of it. The story would have to be rewritten slightly, but the idea is there. I did enjoy the ending though.

The movie outside of the story was terrible. The voices weren't synced properly, the pacing was all over the place, the editing was bad and the acting wasn't believable at all. But i did like the final destination-esq scenes.

Thoughts? Would you like a spin off from someone rlse using the book prior to the Kira arc?

I think people would simply hate that version instead, complaining that they might as well have kept some of the original if it was simply going to have the same setting/props/tone. I think the movie did the right thing in basically remaking a highly condensed, stripped down version of the original; its problems are more down to execution.

 

[Ravenbom]

I don't want defend the original Death Note because I didn't really care for it.

BUT, I do like the idea of OP where it's a Death Note side story of previous Death Note holders and how they fell to ruin. I liked the actor that played L, and I thought that Ryuk's love for apples was lame without explaining why a death god on earth would be drawn to a simple thing on earth (apples) that he can't find where he's from.
Also, Ryuk should have seemed a little more patient and less insistent. His existence isn't measured the same way ours is so in our world he should seem to have incredible patience, despite the fact that he's a trouble maker by nature.

I didn't like the anime, but they had a lot of little details that made the world of Death Note more consistent and believable.