Death Note was directed by Adam Wingard and is the American adaptation of the famous anime Death Note. This adaptation stars Nat Wolff as Light Turner, a teenage boy who is gifted the Death Note, a mysterious journal that has the power to kill anyone Light wishes by picturing their face and writing their name. Light decides to use the notebook to rid the world of criminals, and begins to kill most wanted criminals under the alias "Kira."
Death Note has not received overly positive reviews since it's premiere and to be honest.. I can see why! While I didn't think it was as horrible as some are saying, I can definitely see where they are coming from. I thought Death Note had a lot going for it, especially with Willem Dafoe as the death God, Ryuk. Unfortunately, this movie fell pretty flat for me, leading to what I think is an extremely disappointing adaptation.
But first let's see what worked:
1. Willem Dafoe- By far the best moments in Death Note were William Dafoe as Ryuk. He really gave this performance this all took what to be an already intense and interesting character and made it his own. He gave a different look to an established character, and that is something that is very hard for an actor to do. I really think Willem Dafoe hit this role out of the park.
2. Ambition- Death Note was a movie that I thought was truly ambitious in what they tried to do. They tried to revitalize an existing property and give it a different feel. While I don't think it worked, I have to acknowledge that they did try. I could tell that everyone working on this property tried hard. The acting wasn't bad and the directing wasn't bad, it was just flat.
This movie did have some problems.
1. Style- The first and most notable problem with Death Note was it's style and it's tone. It was a Japanese anime property that was turned into an American live action property, and it showed. They tried to stay true to the anime as much as possible, it just lost a lot of the subtle anime tropes in translation. Anime looks different, and it plays different from a normal live action film. Japanese Cinema and American Cinema are also very different. Death Note truly suffered here and sadly it was something I don't see them being able to do differently. Turning an animation into live action will automatically lose some of the magic and feel that the original had. When they added the adaptation from culture to culture, it hurt it even more.
To be honest, I didn't see that much negative other than it just didn't feel right. Death Note lost the heart of what it was when they attempted to move from one medium to the other. Everything about this movie was perfectly fine, except the just inability to be an adaptation that was true to the original. I am going to give Death Note a C.
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