Tag: death note

DEATH NOTE – Review

 

Review by Stephen Tronicek

There’s one disclaimer that needs to be laid out before this review of Adam Wingard’s zestless, boring and very bad Death Note: There is no reason for Death Note to be adapted with a whitewashed cast. There will be writings on the one strength of the movie coming from said cast and the involvement of this cast in the film. That does not mean in anyway that it’s a smart decision to have done this or that it is right, just that the fact that this happened does offer one interesting thing.

 The simple premise of Death Note is as follows. Light, a young student, comes into possession of a notebook that can cause the death of anybody whose name is written in it. Light gains a friend in Ryuk, a demon who carries out the rules of the Death Note (the notebook). As authorities start to pinpoint the multiple killings Light has performed as a serial act, an investigator named L starts to slowly uncover the identity of Light.

 The difference between the Japanese anime that this film is based on and the film itself is that  out of necessity, the film has kneecapped it’s ability to tell a compelling story.  That necessity is formed by two conditions: 1. The length of the film being under one-hundred minutes and 2. The transferring of the story into an American setting. The first condition’s effect is obvious. At one-hundred minutes the film has to tell a more contained, but still compelling, story while still covering the basic beats forming the premise of Death Note, leaving the film without the breathing room that an episodic show provides. The second condition is less defined, in fact the one thing that the filmmakers succeed at is created by that condition, but as an element of tone and artistic influence, Death Note is decidedly Japanese and transferring the story into an American setting doesn’t allow the influences of pop culture and the stylistic flourishes, that inform quite a bit of the greatness of the original anime, to be present.

 That being said, the one thing that the filmmakers did succeed at is making the film feel quite different within its setting. Most remakes or adaptations as of recent don’t bother adapting the story to the prospective culture, something that ultimately making the remake,  the same movie without the soul that the original might have had. There’s inconsistency because what may be common in one culture is not in another. Death Note doesn’t make that mistake. It feels decidedly American, with much of the new plot hinging on Light engaging in a John Hughes inspired romance that feels pretty alien from the original’s tone. Not that this makes the movie any better. In fact, this change just about ruins the identity of the main character by turning him into a boring white guy that lack almost any of the agency that the original character did. That agency instead falls to the demon Ryuk, which is a problem because Ryuk is in this movie for like two minutes. Ryuk is voiced by Willem Dafoe and any noticeable lack of Willem Dafoe is just awful, but the character basically drives Light’s original choice to use the Death Note in this version, and then the other characters just do it for him too. Seriously, there’s only a few choices that Light gets to make that define his character and most of them don’t land very well or are invalidated by the film itself. This just isn’t a good character piece or horror action film.

The direction of the film is especially flat, and that’s quite disappointing for director Adam Wingard. Wingard has always had a little too much concern for style, but his efforts like You’re Next and The Guest tend to work (Seriously, go watch The Guest). Death Note, however, makes one think some of the choices that were motivated in those films were just stylistic flourish, reflexively ruining what may be some of the best moments of Wingard’s career. It’s like the motivated style is just put up on screen for no reason. A plastering up of a lifeless mimic of genre filmmaking.

Netflix’s Death Note is a disappointment both filmically and to fans of the series. It is at once not creative enough and too creative for its own good. The original show was great as it was and this is not the original show. Unfortunately, it’s not any better.

1 of 5 Stars

DEATH NOTE is currently streaming on Netflix

Warner Bros acquires rights to ‘Death Note’ Manga

deathnotemanga

There’s no doubt that the Anime and Manga trend has hit the United States hard, spawning cosplay fever nationwide. With so many potential sources of new material out there for Hollywood to jump on, the Manga universe can be a little daunting. So, it seems to make sense that they ease into it with a project that’s relatively straight forward, at least in terms of conveying the story on film. [Especially considering the “real” first attempt, being that of ‘Dragonball Evolution’, failed miserably.]

Warner Brothers has picked up the rights to the hugely popular Japanese Manga property known as ‘Death Note’ and plans to adapt this into a live-action feature film. The original Manga has already been translated into a Japanese Anime series as well as three Japanese-language films.

The original best-selling 13-volume Manga was written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. Charley and Vlas Parlapanides have been brought onto the project to write the screenplay. ‘Death Note’ follows a college law student with reservations about the state of his legal system’s effectiveness who coincidentally stumbles upon a mysterious notebook called ‘Death Note’ which gives it’s possessor the power to kill a person simply by writing their name in the book. Possessing the book also allows that person to see and interact with it’s shinigami (death god).

I haven’t read the manga or seen the anime series, but have seen all three movies and find the story fascinating. I have been told that the series and the books are even better, which tells me that Warner Brothers has a potential gold mine in their grasp if they handle it properly. Given their recent track record of being one of the few major studios consistently releasing quality, watchable films, the cards could very likely be stacked in favor of a huge ‘Death Note’ burst in popularity, of which could easily rival that of the dwindling ‘Dragonball’ culture here in America.

[source: Variety]

Review: ‘L – Change the World’

l-changetheworldmovie

My friend Chad and I attended the first of a two-night only Fathom event last night, screening the third film in the ‘Death Note’ franchise. The problem is, it’s only vaguely related to the first two ‘Death Note’ movies. Well, it’s not so much a problem really, so much as it was just surprising and a bit disorienting at first.

‘L: Change the World’ is actually a sort of spin-off/prequel that explores what L was up to after the first film, leading up to the second film, focusing on a major case unrelated to the Death Note that has the fate of mankind hanging in the balance. Sound convoluted, well… it is sort of, but not really. The movie starts out kind of slow, which is bad news because the film’s total running time is 2 hours and 40 minutes.

This movie begins with L and Watari discussing how they plan to outsmart Kira, leading to L’s decision to write his own name in the Death Note. The idea is to beat Kira by pre-determining his own fate, orchestrating his own death 23 days into the future. It is L’s belief that Kira will attempt to kill him using the Death Note, but L plans to switch Kira’s Death Note with a fake. But, enough of that. I recommend going back and watching ‘Death Note: The Last Name’ to experience the whole story. It is the best of the three films, in my opinion.

‘L: Change the World’ takes the character of L and transplants him into the very American bio-terrorism/outbreak genre, naturally combining these thriller elements with the detective elements that help to make L such a fascinating character. We witness L pulled into a global crisis, involving a double agent called K and a deadly genetically-modified virus that is a cross between a highly infectious influenza and ebola.

Once you get through the initial slow-moving hour of plot development, the story does begin to take on an interesting element of mystery and suspense. L is unexpectedly charged with protecting a scientist’s daughter and a small Thai boy after both of their father’s are murdered, later discovering they both hold very crucial secrets within their biology.

As I mentioned before, ‘L: Change the World’ is a long movie that starts out slow and doesn’t really grab you until it’s half over, but the one element that manages to keep it interesting is L, despite his late entrance into the overall plot. He’s fun and quircky while still convincing us that he’s likely the most brilliant detective in the world. His interactions with the two children he is protecting is rich and full of humor and even some touching moments of bonding between the three characters.

Overall, ‘L: Change the World’ is not a great movie, but it’s not terrible either. Really, if the film was cut down from 2:40 to maybe about an even 2 hours, it would have been a far more successful production. While we attended last night (for the subtitled showing) the film will screen again tonight in the English-dubbed version. At over $12 per ticket, I wouldn’t recommend seeing this in the theatre. You’re better off waiting for it to hit DVD, which shouldn’t take long considering how popular this franchise has become.

[Overall: 3.25 stars out of 5]

Review: ‘Death Note’

Before I get started, let me first say that Death Note (Desu noto) originally released in Japan in 2006, with a U.S. festival release in 2007. I knew nothing of this movie until recently when I was browsing NCM Fathom’s website and read about the two-night only screening [nation-wide] of this live-action movie, which is based on an extremely popular mange series. I am far from being an expert on anime and manga, but I chose to see this movie because the story sounded really cool.

The story initially centers on Light Yagami, a college student studying law. Light is a brilliant young man, but his true interest lies in becoming a detective, like his father. His girlfriend, Naomi, is the one who desires a legal career. Light finds himself disillusioned with the state of the legal system and feels justice isn’t truly being served. One rainy night, Light happens upon a strange notebook lying in the street, but is somehow not getting wet as the rain drenches everything around him. He takes the notebook and returns home, where he reads inside and finds instructions on how to use the plain black notebook with the words “Death Note” embossed on the cover.

Laughing it off at first as some silly joke, he places the name of a criminal he saw that night on TV in the notebook. Shortly after, he is shocked to find that person mysteriously had died of a heart attack. Light begins to experiment with the notebook and gradually becomes obsessed with its power, believing it has given him the duty of issuing justice to those he feels have escaped their deserved punishments.

After a while, Light meets Ryuuk, the Shinigami (Death God) who placed the Death Note for Light to discover. Only Light, or anyone who touches the Death Note, can see Ryuuk and the two converse frequently throughout the film. Taken in mind that this movie appears to have been produced for Japanese TV, the Ryuuk special FX are relatively lame and poorly rendered. While the character is really a fascinating concept that isn’t done justice by the special FX, they do the job getting the idea across. Ryuuk, who sees himself as a neutral observer of the humans, often serves as comic relief in this otherwise dark story. At certain points, Ryuuk is perhaps too silly, but much of this comes from the comically bad special FX.

As Light becomes more obsessed with his power, he also becomes more knowledgeable of the Death Note’s capabilities. As a result of the authority’s search for Kira (Light’s alias), Light begins to abuse his power in order to elude the authorities. Where Light sees Kira as a righteous source of justice, the authorities see him as a mass murderer. Desperate for help, the authorities enlist the help of a mysterious detective named “L” to track down Kira. This is where the story really begins to get interesting. “L” is about the same age as Light and, while he eats nothing but sweets and junk food, he also has an incredible mind for problem solving.

Death Note slowly evolves into a dark, twisted detective story pitting the brilliantly warped mind of Light against the brilliant mind of his arch-rival “L” who sees this as a game on a grand scale. Unsure of what I was in for seeing this movie, I left the theatre surprisingly impressed and wanting more. Without giving away the film’s ending, I will only say that it doesn’t end here. Death Note ends just as the story really has you gripped tightly within its claws, leaving room for an entire film to pickup where this one left off. After doing a little research, there is apparently a sequel that does just that. I will definitely be looking for that.

[rating:3.5/5]

2 Nights Only: ‘Death Note’ movie screening …

The hit Japanese manga has been adapted into a live-action film. Death Note will be playing in select threaters in St. Louis on two nights only. Screenings will also occur simultaneously in other major cities. For locations or to buy tickets, go to the website.

Plot summary, courtesy of IMDB: [Light Yagami finds the “Death Note,” a notebook with the power to kill, and decides to create a Utopia by killing the world’s criminals, and soon the world’s greatest detective, “L,” is hired to find the perpetrator. An all out battle between the greatest minds on earth begins, the winner controlling the world.]