EVERYTHING WRONG WITH THE DEATH NOTE MOVIE(REVIEW)

I was going to write a review but my friend 'Uty' told me to read his,and honestly it's better because he's absolutely frank so here it is;
Warning: Major spoilers up ahead for this movie as well as its anime/manga counterpart
You have been warned

 Any true anime fan ought to be familiar with names like Naruto,Bleach,One-Piece,Attack on Titan and the like.What do all these great animes all have in common?Action. Death Note, however,happens to fall into the same weight class as all these great animes and even makes the very top of my own personal list of favorites,despite having zero action.Some people might wonder how that can be.Well,the answer is very simple–Complexity.

Most people who hear that at the age of 18,I still watch cartoons(animes,but can’t really blame them for their ignorance)seem to feel that it’s a sign of immaturity.Little do they know that what makes animes standout from most other animations is that they more often than not are filled with a lot of complex and well thought out story lines and characters whose IQs are well above average.In fact,watching any anime fight scene play out always leaves me in awe of the quick-wittiness of their characters.Death Note is one anime that capitalizes on this attribute and totally owns it.The jaw-dropping cat- and- mouse game between the villain who thinks he’s a hero and the detective sworn to stop him is just so captivating and mind blowing that I just couldn’t help but fall in love with the anime.

The movie however,has taken away most of that and turned it to crap.Allow me to elaborate on what I mean.Now,I won’t go into the little details like how they changed so many basic and important rules and the issue of L’s race(I mean,it’s an American setting.Of course the characters are bound to be typical Americans.There’s definitely bound to be some diversity.I’m just relieved that they didn’t change a character’s sex or include an LGBTQ character). No,I’m going to be focusing on everything that significantly contributed to turning this movie into a total letdown,and I’m going to be starting with the change in the characters’ characters (I know Barney already did this yesterday,but this is my version. I hope you like it better) .

 ∙ Ryuk - I’m sure you were all expecting me to start with Light.I don’t think so in this case because basically,Ryuk is the originator of all the events in the series,be it manga, anime or movie.After all,none of it would have happened if the bored Shinigami hadn’t dropped a Death Note into the human world in the first place

 In the source material,Ryuk’s reason for doing this isn’t because he wants to“separate the wheat from the chaff”.He didn’t care what sort of people were killed off with the Death Note.He didn’t give Light because he felt he wast he right guy for the job.In c h o o s e fact,there no job.Ryuk’s sole reason for dropping the Death Note was simply because  b o r e d . Light just h a p p e n e d to find it. In the source material,Ryuk  merely observes Light’s activities with the Death Note as though he was engrossed in the middle of an awesome reality show,never aiding Light unless there was something in it for him.

 The movie version,however seems to be for some unexplained reason interested in the affairs of humans,going so far as to goad Light in to using the Death Note and planting the idea to be an honorary vigilante death god. Poorly played Netflix,poorly played.

∙ Light- To differentiate between the two very contrasting versions of this character,I will be referring to them by their last names .

The source material version of Light,Yagami, is the heart and soul of the series.This handsome,popular,athletically and academically gifted young man is the perfect package.He is in one word,a genius.Unlike Turner who is a merely book-smart kidwho is unpopular in school and seems to lack any athletic gifts whatsoever, Yagami possesses both the intelligence as well as the willingness to act.He is a very twisted villain and we all know it yet there’s just something about him that makes us all want to root for him.One of his greatest assets is his charm which has been able to help him win his way into the hearts of almost every one he knows.He also will not hesitate to use anyone,and I mean any one to get what he wants(he’s contemplated killing his own sister simply because she’d been captured by the enemy and might be a possible liability to him.He also did not hesitate to use his own father to achieve his own goals, resulting in his father’s death.Through it all,he shows no remorse.Onc eagain– Twisted).

Turner is a kid who merely knows the books but when it comes to playing the game,he seemed to get  by mostly on pure luck.He lacks the willingness to act and mostly seems to be used by Ryuk and Mia(his 'love interest',yuck) most of the time.He’s too soft- hearted and just not Kira enough to ever hope to compare to Yagami.


∙ L-I don’t have much problem with this guy.Well,not as much as the others.Like I stated earlier,I don’t see anything wrong in him being black.What I do have against him is that he doesn’t act in a manner that is becoming of someone who isn’t just the best detective in the world,but is also the second and third best as well.Netflix’s version of L seems far inferior to the source material’s version in intellect and deductive skills but where I have my biggest problem is with him letting his emotions get the better of him. The source L would NEVER be so sloppy

∙ Misa/Mia-In the source material,Misa is grateful to Kira for getting justice for her parents and when she is gifted with a Death Note,she uses it to find and serve Kira,only for her to find out he’s a hot guy and before she can say“Shinigami”,she’s falling head over heels in love with him.He,on the other hand,viewed her as a liability and would have killed her almost immediately after he was done using her to find out L’s real name were it not for a threat on his life imposed by her Shinigami,Rem.Misa’s devotion to Light is so strong that she acknowledges that he is using her and is fully willing to let him do so,viewing it as a great honor.

 Mia, on the other hand just shows up out of no where and whisper’s in Turner’s ear to use the Death Note to“kill a lot of bad guys”and the dumb ass follows daftly.In fact,the only thing,they seemed to get accurate with Mia is the fact that she is more ready to kill than Light,but unfortunately,that’s only because she slightly unstable emotionally due to her obsession with him and not simply because she has more balls than he does.


                                             THE FLAWS AND THE PLOT HOLES

 1. In the scene where Light threatens to write Ryuk’s name in the Death Note(like that’ll work),Ryuk states that the furthest anyone’s ever gotten to achieving that is writing the first 2 letters ,yet clearly,earlier on we see that a previous owner has written down the statement“do not trust .He is not your pet.He is not Ryuk your friend

 2. What sort of person who claims he’s the good guy names himself intentionally “killer”?Realistically,he ought to have thought of a cooler name,or better yet,not bother with one anyway.The public always handles that part

 3. The evidence L has when he taunts Kira is clearly not enough for him to be so confident that he wouldn’t be killed,so why was he so confident? 

 4. Again on the taunting.L knew what he was getting into by taunting Kira,yet he still found reason to get pissed that Kira went after his friend Watari.It’s like a toddler who breaks her brother’s action figure and expects that her brother won’t think to retaliate by trashing her beloved Barbie dream house

5. How could Light affect Watari with the Death Note?Watari is an alias.And even if this L was daft enough to allow his friend to walk around with an exposed identity  knowing fully well that that makes him an easy target for Kira,there is still the issue of Watari being just one name.Your require at least the first and last name in order to kill a person using the Death Note.

 6. L letting his emotions get the better of him is very unprofessional for a detective, especially one who’s supposed to be the best in the world

 7. Turner writes Mia’s name in the Death Note and is like,“if…”.There ain’t no“ifs” with the Death Note.Once your name is in it,you’re screwed

 8. I have to frown upon L using the Death Note to TRY and KILLTurner.As ballsy of a plot twist as it was,I simply can’t condone it.-10points  

 9. Light’s evasion of capture was based more on dumb luck than on genius and cunning and that really lowered the excitement of Death Note because the quality of the game is what makes it such a great series

 10.I just found a supernatural note book that kills people and I just used it to commit murder,why don’t I tell that secret to some hot girl who I don’t know.Maybe she’ ll find it cool and fall for me.I mean,there’s no way she could possibly rat me out to the cops. 

 11.Too much unnecessarily bloody.It’s meant to be a thriller not a horror movie-reject. What happened to the simple heart attack?

  I should probably leave it at this because I would really hate to have to rewatch that abomination just for the purpose of finding more flaws.Anyways,all I have to say is that this movie was a really big let down and a disgrace to the source material,but let’s be honest,most of us already figured that out the moment we saw the trailer