After months of “controversy” and hype, Adam Wingard’s adaptation of Death Note, one of the most popular manga / animes ever, finally hit Netflix.
Before it came out, people were getting MAD ONLINE™ about it being set in America with a “white-washed” cast … and I don’t know why. Japan has already made multiple live action Death Note movies. And, what really had me intrigued was Adam Wingard being at the helm, after he had put out some of my favorite indie horror movies in recent years (You’re Next and The Guest). So to see him take on Death Note sounded pretty awesome … I thought.
The film revolves around Light Yagami finding a notebook where, well, if you write someone’s name in it they die. It’s a very literal title. In the film version, Light is kind of a loser, a big difference from the source material where Light is popular, very smart and can fight. Other characters scattered throughout the runtime do show different qualities but, holistically, none of them really bothered me.
There is a lot I liked about the movie. It’s filmed well and you can’t go wrong with Willem Dafoe as a god of death. Keith Stanfield as L was also a lot of fun to watch.
But here is where it falls short: I wanted more story. It all moves very fast, making it hard to care about anyone. They have condensed a 37 episode anime into an hour-and-forty-minute movie, gutting almost everything I liked about the original anime. Ryuk was dark and fun in the anime and had a much larger role, seeming like a waste in this short movie. And what they did with the eccentric L was pretty similar to the source material but his backstory was just thrown to the side. I’m glad I have seen the original because it filled in a lot of missing character development, which is a huge downside for anyone trying to use this movie as an introduction to the source material.
Maybe there will be a director’s cut down the line, with 20 extra minutes to flesh out the movie because, really, there is a lot I liked. But when you are condensing that much source material into a such a truncated script, stuff has to get cut and unfortunately a lot of good world building goes missing. But the movie does end with a small cliffhanger, so the franchise may still continue (as it does in Japan). Maybe we’ll just have to wait for the sequel to get to know Ryuk and L a little better.
Its an easy watch and will hopefully encourage people to watch the original anime. And I really do hope Netflix makes a follow-up because, even though it a very rushed movie, it is very watchable, filmed well (Wingard showing off his talent) and who doesn’t want more of Willem Dafoe going crazy over apples?
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