The Twilight Mexican
Ex-SeeD-ingly good
- AKA
- TresDias
That may be the fairest indictment against this adaptation I've heard. It is pretty hard to imagine what the point will be if it's not to explore, well, this:
Death Note: Netflix Film
- Thread starter ChipNoir
- Start date
Lulcielid
Eyes of the Lord
- AKA
- Lulcy
First (spoiler free) review of Death Note by Blair Marnell of IGN.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/07/21/death-note-review
Remember, this is just the opinion and observations of a single person and should taken as such and not as cold hard fact.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/07/21/death-note-review
Remember, this is just the opinion and observations of a single person and should taken as such and not as cold hard fact.
Blair Marnell said:
After a lot of internal debate, I do think that the casting isn't quite white washing anymore. No longer set in Japan, it does kinda mean that there's no 'obligation' to make Light Japanese. I do take issue that the default leading material has to be a blonde pretty boy, and I do NOT like that they're basically going for a Peter Park rather than making Light the pathological anti-hero he's supposed to be. The whole under-dog element just doesn't jive with the original.
So I still don't sit well with this. It's changing too much of a story that should be able to sell itself (And does as one of the best selling manga imports out there) on it's own premise, even with a different cultural setting. But its pretty clearly a bait-and-switch like Dragon Ball Evolution, or even Japanese made films like Black Butler, where only the most basic of concepts are adapted.
So I still don't sit well with this. It's changing too much of a story that should be able to sell itself (And does as one of the best selling manga imports out there) on it's own premise, even with a different cultural setting. But its pretty clearly a bait-and-switch like Dragon Ball Evolution, or even Japanese made films like Black Butler, where only the most basic of concepts are adapted.
Lulcielid
Eyes of the Lord
- AKA
- Lulcy
Another spoiler free review by Michael Rougeau from GameSpot.
This time a scoreless review:
This time a scoreless review:
Michael Rougeau said:
Lulcielid
Eyes of the Lord
- AKA
- Lulcy
How exactly?
Never really trusted Gamespot's reviews on....anything really.
And I reaaaaaally don't see any fans of the manga feeling this is gonna be in the 'spirit' when the motivations are already completely different.
Lulcielid
Eyes of the Lord
- AKA
- Lulcy
Well the reviewer saw the full movie, if the reviewer says this adaptation retains the "spirit" (whatever that means) of Death Note them I trust their judgement more than what the 3 minute clips from a few posts above might lead some of us here to believe.
Clement Rage
Pro Adventurer
I don't feel like I'm in a position to give this a fair hearing, so I probably won't watch it. But hope it goes okay.
Geostigma
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- gabe
I've just finished watching it and didn't think it was horrible.
This is definitely not anime Light, and L is definitely a pale shadow of the real character.
Lights father and Watari were pretty good I think, and not much to say about Willem Dafoe other then he is Willem Dafoe and is always effortlessly watchable on the big screen and he was pretty much perfectly cast here.
But over all it's not like it's a boring or bad film and some moments are well done (I think a chase scene towards the end was shot pretty well from a technical view point).
Mia can fuck right off though lol.
I should note that I could be biased in the sense that I absolutely don't mind most movies that others find to be terrible and so my my skew for finding something to be terribly bad when it comes to movies could be way lower than most people.
This is definitely not anime Light, and L is definitely a pale shadow of the real character.
Lights father and Watari were pretty good I think, and not much to say about Willem Dafoe other then he is Willem Dafoe and is always effortlessly watchable on the big screen and he was pretty much perfectly cast here.
But over all it's not like it's a boring or bad film and some moments are well done (I think a chase scene towards the end was shot pretty well from a technical view point).
Mia can fuck right off though lol.
I should note that I could be biased in the sense that I absolutely don't mind most movies that others find to be terrible and so my my skew for finding something to be terribly bad when it comes to movies could be way lower than most people.
Interslicery
.....
I agree with you. With the added note that not too keen on how Ryuk is more of a Satan type character than a bored god who just wants to see what'll happen. Makes sense though considering it's made for a North American audience and they only have an hour and a half.
See, I kinda find that insulting. It downplays what the average american is capable of understanding.
Same reason why our food trends suck to high hell too, on a related buy not related note.
We are a bland, bland, blaaaaand country. Least when it comes to the coveted middle-class white market.
Channy
Bad Habit
- AKA
- Ruby Rose, Lucy
I actually really liked it. I get why they had to cut a lot of the plot lines out (Mia having her own book, giving up the books and being imprisoned for 30+ days, the whole M/N second arc fuckface mess). I'm sure if they'd condensed it into 3 movies or so, they could have captured it more faithfully. That said, I still didn't hate the changes.
Mia was closed to Misa but in a different way - she wanted the book, she wanted to keep punishing people, but not to impress Light, because she felt she believed in it more than him.
Light wasn't as aggressive in his justice dealings as J!Light. He wanted to do good but kept getting swept away in everything, wanted to stop but was too deep in. He knew what lines to draw and in the end that's what got him caught. J!Light had no lines. He always knew what needed to be done and got it done somehow. He had no conscious.
Ryuk was definitely interesting though I was annoyed that some of the only lines he kept saying were "give it up" "I'll find it a new home". Original Ryuk was far more nuanced than that. Defoe definitely did him justice, and some of the first words spoken in that classroom, sounded like Original Ryuk to a T.
L was more of less the same except he was far more anxious - J!L was calm, cool, under any circumstances. Nothing got to him and he never let his emotions show. I felt this made new L feel more human and relateable, but it goes against his original character design.
That said, even though the characters were different in their own ways, I thought the plot followed more cohesively in this new way. I enjoyed the fallout of the ferris wheel FAR more than that stupid chase/show down ending with Light and N in the original. And then that little twist with Ryuk finally saying his original catch phrase about humans... Yeah, I dug it.
Mia was closed to Misa but in a different way - she wanted the book, she wanted to keep punishing people, but not to impress Light, because she felt she believed in it more than him.
Light wasn't as aggressive in his justice dealings as J!Light. He wanted to do good but kept getting swept away in everything, wanted to stop but was too deep in. He knew what lines to draw and in the end that's what got him caught. J!Light had no lines. He always knew what needed to be done and got it done somehow. He had no conscious.
Ryuk was definitely interesting though I was annoyed that some of the only lines he kept saying were "give it up" "I'll find it a new home". Original Ryuk was far more nuanced than that. Defoe definitely did him justice, and some of the first words spoken in that classroom, sounded like Original Ryuk to a T.
L was more of less the same except he was far more anxious - J!L was calm, cool, under any circumstances. Nothing got to him and he never let his emotions show. I felt this made new L feel more human and relateable, but it goes against his original character design.
That said, even though the characters were different in their own ways, I thought the plot followed more cohesively in this new way. I enjoyed the fallout of the ferris wheel FAR more than that stupid chase/show down ending with Light and N in the original. And then that little twist with Ryuk finally saying his original catch phrase about humans... Yeah, I dug it.
Lulcielid
Eyes of the Lord
- AKA
- Lulcy
It was good. I liked the actors of Light, Mia (Misa), L, their characters were IMO a bit more interesting than their anime/manga counterpart. I'd have liked they had a bit more battle of wits but I like what we got regardless. Bonus point for coming up with creative ways of using the death note itself. Only thing I disliked was the romance subplot.
7.75/10
7.75/10
X-SOLDIER
Harbinger O Great Justice
- AKA
- X
I figure a bunch of you'll find this interesting: http://io9.gizmodo.com/why-netflixs-death-note-is-really-an-origin-story-and-w-1798435941
I haven't gotten to check this out yet, but am planning on doing so sometime this week.
X
I haven't gotten to check this out yet, but am planning on doing so sometime this week.
X
Obsidian Fire
Ahk Morn!
- AKA
- The Engineer
From everything I've read about it, my gut feeling is that this should have been titled something different. At best it looks like a spiritual successor of the original Death Note manga, but I feel like it would do better if it played the differences up and distanced itself from the manga/anime as much as possible.
Given how everyone with the same character names (except the death god) has different backgrounds then they do in the original, to the point that they're completely different characters, I fell like this is pretty much an officalised version of a fan-fiction masquerading under the same title of the original work. Like, we've got a name for this kind of fan-fiction in fan-fiction circles because it's so common; the High School AU. And I'd totally expect something like this to show up on FF.net or AO3.
I feel like I'd be more interested in watching this if they'd have titled it something different with an "Inspired by Death Note" tagline. That way I'd be more prepared when major differences cropped up and be encouraged to not compared it to the original as much. But when it's got the same title as the original... well, what else did the creators think it was supposed to be compared with?
Given how everyone with the same character names (except the death god) has different backgrounds then they do in the original, to the point that they're completely different characters, I fell like this is pretty much an officalised version of a fan-fiction masquerading under the same title of the original work. Like, we've got a name for this kind of fan-fiction in fan-fiction circles because it's so common; the High School AU. And I'd totally expect something like this to show up on FF.net or AO3.
I feel like I'd be more interested in watching this if they'd have titled it something different with an "Inspired by Death Note" tagline. That way I'd be more prepared when major differences cropped up and be encouraged to not compared it to the original as much. But when it's got the same title as the original... well, what else did the creators think it was supposed to be compared with?
Channy
Bad Habit
- AKA
- Ruby Rose, Lucy
Well... L was still L though. His backstory was still the same, no? From what I gather during the second arc with N/M, they did train kids very young to be super investigator/policemen types. In the movie they made it look like the extreme, but wasn't that more or less the same place that N/M left to go find Kira? As successors to L?
Lulcielid
Eyes of the Lord
- AKA
- Lulcy
This probably the best review of Death Note:
TL;DW:
1. Great westernization of Death Note story.
2. The spirit and main theme of the original is intact (albeit simplefied)
3. A bit inconsistent with some of its internal logics.
4. The story needed larger running time.
5. While not the same characters as the original, they are stil not bad characters and have interesting character arcs.
6. Makes more sense on second viewing.
7. Excellent film making from a director that had passion and ambition on the project (seriously, how many reviews talks about this criminally underrated aspect of the movie).
8. While filled with flaws, the movie has a soul and is not a cash grab.
TL;DW:
1. Great westernization of Death Note story.
2. The spirit and main theme of the original is intact (albeit simplefied)
3. A bit inconsistent with some of its internal logics.
4. The story needed larger running time.
5. While not the same characters as the original, they are stil not bad characters and have interesting character arcs.
6. Makes more sense on second viewing.
7. Excellent film making from a director that had passion and ambition on the project (seriously, how many reviews talks about this criminally underrated aspect of the movie).
8. While filled with flaws, the movie has a soul and is not a cash grab.
Kai Schulen
... ... ...▼
- AKA
- Trainer Red
I'll be honest. I really tried to give Death Note a chance and I still found it to be lacking.
Light Turner is an idiot, and it's not because I'm comparing him to Light Yagami. He did plenty of stupid shit that had me wanting to bash my head against the wall like reading the Death Note in public, showing off the powers of the Death Note to Mia right away, not denying that he's Kira to L, generally being a tool for Mia, and both of them having loud arguments about the Death Note at school, in public. (I don't mean the prom dance scene, I'm talking about the scene after the FBI agents die and he's yelling at Mia about Ryuk or whatever.)
I guess I liked L in the beginning, but... his character was so inconsistent and that drove me up the wall. You can't tell me that he has a backstory where he was part of some child super genius soldier program where he was in solitary confinement for 7 months (AS A KID) and is the best of the best of the best, and then have him lose his shit like a rookie cop on his first day when he realizes that Watari goes missing.
I have mixed feelings about Misa. Mia. Whatever. I’m not gonna get into a longwinded post about Misa in the original series because I cba (and my feelings on Misa are a whole lotta YMMV) but ultimately I feel that you can’t compare Misa and Mia. Not just because their characters are radically different, but because their motivations and role in the story are very different: Misa is motivated by her love and devotion to Light, the goal of cleansing the world of evil and criminals is a distant 2nd to her worship, but will still do anything and everything for Light because she loves him.
Mia does not love Light and just uses sex and affection as a way to control Light into doing what she wants, which is cleansing the world of evil and and criminals. (which makes her more like Light than Light is hahaha.)
So to that end, I guess we can call Mia her own character, instead of an American counterpart of Misa??
And speaking of romance….lololol. Twilight had a better love story than Death Note, and I’ll leave it at that.
Unless you take into consideration that both didn’t really love each other and were just using each other as part of a ultimate zero sum xanatos batman speed chess gambit but given how sloppy the writing is…not likely.
And speaking of Xanatos Batman Speed Chess Gambit and sloppy writing…I suppose the ending, (where Light sets up everything so that Mia dies and he lives, clears his name of ‘suspicion’ and still has ownership over the Death Note) could either be seen as “fukken brilliant” or terribly lazy writing, and given how stupid Light Turner is, I’m going to say it’s terribly lazy writing. They had a whole hour and a half to show us that Light is an intelligent young man with extremely twisted ideals about justice and evil, but instead they gave us Light who…is supposedly intelligent (by having the one scene where he's doing hw for other people) but is a fucking dumbass with a morals of a wet paper bag.
I mean, I could be less harsh and more forgiving and try to think of Death Note as not Death Note, and more of an original work, but even when I think of Death Note as an original work, the only character who would actually stand out is fucking Mia. Light is weak protagonist, L is not the professional he claims to be, and Ryuk is…just a really awesome prop that contributed nothing to the movie, aside from special effects.
Yeah, I went there. Ryuk did nothing for Death Note, even though I’ve been hearing praises of his acting. Dude just gives Light the notebook, and then proceeds to spend the rest of the movie just standing around and cackling incessantly. Honestly, you could just remove Ryuk from the movie and nothing would be changed. In fact, if you took Ryuk out of the movie, it would actually make Death Note slightly more…interesting, in that Light would kill all criminals and cleanse the world of evil because of his own volition and motivations and not because Ryuk was all like “lololol kid u should try dis out heheheheeee its the best hohonhonhon baguette for the evulz’.
It would have been interesting if at the end, Ryuk shows up for the first time after all Light had done, much like in the original manga/anime where Light had already used the note to kill a bunch of people, and it would have been effective as a sequel hook.
....I might actually write a post on how I could write a better 'merican adaptation of Death Note, if I cba, cause I have a lot of ideas.
Light Turner is an idiot, and it's not because I'm comparing him to Light Yagami. He did plenty of stupid shit that had me wanting to bash my head against the wall like reading the Death Note in public, showing off the powers of the Death Note to Mia right away, not denying that he's Kira to L, generally being a tool for Mia, and both of them having loud arguments about the Death Note at school, in public. (I don't mean the prom dance scene, I'm talking about the scene after the FBI agents die and he's yelling at Mia about Ryuk or whatever.)
I guess I liked L in the beginning, but... his character was so inconsistent and that drove me up the wall. You can't tell me that he has a backstory where he was part of some child super genius soldier program where he was in solitary confinement for 7 months (AS A KID) and is the best of the best of the best, and then have him lose his shit like a rookie cop on his first day when he realizes that Watari goes missing.
I have mixed feelings about Misa. Mia. Whatever. I’m not gonna get into a longwinded post about Misa in the original series because I cba (and my feelings on Misa are a whole lotta YMMV) but ultimately I feel that you can’t compare Misa and Mia. Not just because their characters are radically different, but because their motivations and role in the story are very different: Misa is motivated by her love and devotion to Light, the goal of cleansing the world of evil and criminals is a distant 2nd to her worship, but will still do anything and everything for Light because she loves him.
Mia does not love Light and just uses sex and affection as a way to control Light into doing what she wants, which is cleansing the world of evil and and criminals. (which makes her more like Light than Light is hahaha.)
So to that end, I guess we can call Mia her own character, instead of an American counterpart of Misa??
And speaking of romance….lololol. Twilight had a better love story than Death Note, and I’ll leave it at that.
Unless you take into consideration that both didn’t really love each other and were just using each other as part of a ultimate zero sum xanatos batman speed chess gambit but given how sloppy the writing is…not likely.
And speaking of Xanatos Batman Speed Chess Gambit and sloppy writing…I suppose the ending, (where Light sets up everything so that Mia dies and he lives, clears his name of ‘suspicion’ and still has ownership over the Death Note) could either be seen as “fukken brilliant” or terribly lazy writing, and given how stupid Light Turner is, I’m going to say it’s terribly lazy writing. They had a whole hour and a half to show us that Light is an intelligent young man with extremely twisted ideals about justice and evil, but instead they gave us Light who…is supposedly intelligent (by having the one scene where he's doing hw for other people) but is a fucking dumbass with a morals of a wet paper bag.
I mean, I could be less harsh and more forgiving and try to think of Death Note as not Death Note, and more of an original work, but even when I think of Death Note as an original work, the only character who would actually stand out is fucking Mia. Light is weak protagonist, L is not the professional he claims to be, and Ryuk is…just a really awesome prop that contributed nothing to the movie, aside from special effects.
Yeah, I went there. Ryuk did nothing for Death Note, even though I’ve been hearing praises of his acting. Dude just gives Light the notebook, and then proceeds to spend the rest of the movie just standing around and cackling incessantly. Honestly, you could just remove Ryuk from the movie and nothing would be changed. In fact, if you took Ryuk out of the movie, it would actually make Death Note slightly more…interesting, in that Light would kill all criminals and cleanse the world of evil because of his own volition and motivations and not because Ryuk was all like “lololol kid u should try dis out heheheheeee its the best hohonhonhon baguette for the evulz’.
It would have been interesting if at the end, Ryuk shows up for the first time after all Light had done, much like in the original manga/anime where Light had already used the note to kill a bunch of people, and it would have been effective as a sequel hook.
....I might actually write a post on how I could write a better 'merican adaptation of Death Note, if I cba, cause I have a lot of ideas.
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