Death Note (2006)

Actually I watched the film after I had seen the anime. I can't say I really liked it tho.

I really enjoyed the story and the plot twists ! This story is like a roller coaster. You think they're going to find him out and then ... BOOM ! something happens and everyone has to focus on something else.

However, I didn't like the cast and those 3D Shinigamis were really creepy. For me it's better when the story has includes supernatural to stick to anime or manga. I mean it's like trying to adapt a Disney movie into real life. Something is going to feel off and fake.

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I don't think I'll ever not give this 10 stars. No matter the amount of times I have watched this, I think it will continue to be a favorite of mine. How can it not though? As someone who grew up watching the anime it was always mind-blowing seeing my favorite characters actually come to life on screen.

I know a lot of people always complain about anime/manga to live action, haters always have something to say. But shoot, you try forcing YEARS of story into a 1-2 hour movie and see how you do. Lol The year this came out, it wasn't popular worldwide. The term "weeb" wasn't even widely known yet even though it started a year before. Back then you were still just a "freak" for liking anything different. So tell me how they could get proper funding for a extreme movie like this? Don't hate what you don't understand lol. Anyway, I digress.

I'm so glad they got all the actors they did to play the parts. I don't think anyone else could have portrayed the characters so well. I loved all of the acting and how everything was so on point. Other than NANA, Death Note is another live action movie that always leaves me like "holy crap, they ARE the characters!" then I start questioning my sanity because then I wonder if the characters were based off the people. Hahah. I know I know, they aren't but it's trippy.

I'll never say no to Death Note and I'll never say this is a bad live action. Am I curious if a remake will ever be done (again) and wondering if it will be "better". Times isa changing! Lol I would rush to watch it, that's for sure. Or maybe I'm just biased. Lol

I freaking love Ryuk and L, I'll die loving them the most. Lol I feel like everyone loves L but I don't think any of us could tell you why. Lol As for Ryuk, come on man... It's the apples. Lol It's always the apples.

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A review for those of us who didn't do the manga/anime/90s 00s frenzy

Listen, I don't really go here. I love Japanese cinema. I have read one or two mangas and I would consider watching an anime at some point. I never read Death Note. Never saw the anime. Never even knew what it was about until like 2019. I didn't just have no expectations going into the film, I also had no prior knowledge. (I always wondered why pictures of the notebook always had an apple...)

My guess is, the manga/anime is better in certain key ways. The film had one huge glaring problem: Light's character development occurred in so many huge jolts that it repeatedly defied logic and believability. I've watched the first episode of the drama series and that one seems to be taking a smoother route. Basically, I can see how he could potentially get to where he got at the end, but the path was not A, B, C... It wasn't even A,C, E... It was like A,V,Z... And we lose so much skipping those essential parts of his arc.

The other issue I had with this film was the character L. Again, my guess is that if Death Note was a part of my cultural consciousness then I would already, like, KNOW. But it isn't. So I don't. As such, his unnecessarily aggressive antagonism made no sense because no time was ever spent addressing the nuances of his character beyond an obsession with sweets.

Anyway. I really like Fujiwara Tatsuya. He was excellent in Memoirs of a Murderer. He made a convincing Light. I would have enjoyed watching him really dig his teeth into the many layers of that character. And I prefer the subtler acting of the guy who plays L in this film to the almost silly behavior of the guy in the live action drama series. But I guess we can't have our cake and eat it too.

Probably better to skip this one. As an adaptation of the source material, my guess is it's not very satisfactory. As a stand alone film, it's not very good, unfortunately.

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I hate to give this such a low score, but I can't help it. I'm a huge fan of the manga and anime, so I went into this with high hopes. With such an awesome plot, how could it disappoint? The answer: in more ways that I can count. The only actor I enjoyed watching was L. I actually fell asleep during the movie because it was so slow in parts.

I was expecting the movie to be different from the manga & anime. It's a different medium, so it has to be. However, they added and subtracted so much from the basic plot that it was significantly less interesting and the characters became 2-dimensional. The anime's characters were more 3-dimensional than the live-action version's. How's that for irony.

Even if you take the movie as a stand-alone piece, it just doesn't measure up. It's mediocre at best. So sad.

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