Death Note is officially out on Netflix and last night I watched it. Let's talk about it!
DEATH NOTE 2017
It's like you said, sometimes you gotta choose the lesser of the two evils.
Directed by Adam Wingard (You're Next, The Guest, Blair Witch) Death Note is a Netflix original film and is based on the manga series by the same name. The series was written by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. I've read the manga series and it's INCREDIBLE but for this review I'm going to just review this as a stand alone story and not compare it. It's an adaptation and I'm over just nit picking adaptations for missing every little detail. So I'm going to look at this film as a separate entity.
Death Note is a simple premise with a lot of complex rules - set in Seattle, high school student Light finds a notebook with the words "Death Note" engraved on the front. As he picks it up a Death God named Ryuk appears and explains to Light that if he writes the name of someone in the book and a way of death, that person will die. He encourages Light to put in a school bully's name and Light watches horrified as that kid is suddenly decapitated.
At first, Light is terrified by the book and Ryuk, but when he puts the name of the man who killed his Mom in it and realizes the true power this book could wield, he quickly changes his tone. Soon he teams up with a classmate named Mia and the two of them start killing off bad guys left and right, leaving the name Kira in their wake. Soon the world comes to idolize Kira and sees him as an all powerful god of justice. But not everyone likes what this Kira guy is doing, and soon the police and a mysterious detective who goes by L are on Light's trail.
This is a solid cast - Nat Wolff plays Light and does a pretty decent job of handling the high powered emotions that this character goes through. Margaret Qualley stole my heart with her portrayal of Mia. Mia is a very complex and psychotic character and Margaret made it incredibly believable. Lakeith Stanfield (Get Out) played L and OH MY GOD WAS HE AMAZING?!?! L is such a cool character - he has no family, has been trained since he was a child to be the best detective in the world, and lives off of candy. He really stole the show.
What did I like about it?
- I loved Ryuk, voiced by Willem Dafoe. I loved that they kept him to the shadows and never ruined your perception of him by CG-ing the hell out of him in the daylight. He's always just off to the side, or with his back facing and he's so incredibly evil and well done.
- The final showdown was really great and super confusing but in the best way. At the very end when it all unravels you're just like holy shit and your mind is blown.
- The movie looks SO cool - the scenery, the coloring, the death note, the characters, the shots, the music!!!!!!!! Solid all the way around.
- It moves quickly - there's no fucking around. Within the first half hour you know the entire story and quickly find yourself in a cat and mouse chase. In some parts I do wish it could've been extended, get a little more story, but I'm not going to complain that a movie isn't three hours long. This is a solid running time and you don't feel cheated.
- Wingard's black humor is prominent in this film and I like that. Some moments felt very Final Destination like which made me SO happy!
- It's surprisingly very gory - again giving me Final Destination vibes.
- I only wish we got to see more of Montauk because that was an incredible couple of scenes.
Overall
Death Note may not be perfect, but it's a hell of a ride and I'll definitely watch it again and again!
9/10
Stay Spooky!
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