Death Note

[2StepSteve]

Posted this in the movie's you watched thread and just saw there's a thread here for it.

Started out well and promising, some slight old skool feel, especially with the music. William Defoe's character is awesome and he plays it really well. The story takes some strange turns though and it loses a lot of its appeal about half way through, in such a frustrating way. One of my colleagues mentioned it's based on anime, does the anime follow the same story?

I have the below major issues with this film

Spoiler

• The black guy's character (L) is who is chasing Kira is just plain off and awful, and it ruined the film for me. His background story makes zero sense. So he came from an orphanage, was placed through torturous training and selected to become this highly skilled investigator. At first I thought he may have a connection to the book somehow, but no. He is just some odd one out character, which doesn't fit the film. Would have been far better to focus on the kid with the book for longer and work with a story that shows him getting deeper in to the demon's grip, perhaps a play on the rules in the book.

• How come anyone can write a name in the book and the killings still occurs? Surely, this defeats the idea of having a keeper of the book.

• At the end of the film, he writes in the book a long drawn out plan which starts with his girlfriends death, which is fair enough (or possibly not, as it has an 'if' clause regarding her death). What gets me is that he also writes that he falls, but survives. This is a total plot hole, we were told that the book can only bring death and influence those that have been chosen for death. It's not some kind of wishlist. It felt like a real easy and weak exit to finish to the film.

 

[DrToffnar]

Tried the Anime over the weekend. Really didn't get on with it.

It's the same with every Anime I've every tried watching. Regardless of how cool I think the premise is, the execution feels completely off to me.

 

[x-st]

Tried the Anime over the weekend. Really didn't get on with it.

It's the same with every Anime I've every tried watching. Regardless of how cool I think the premise is, the execution feels completely off to me.

Anything specific you didn't like? How many episodes did you try? I find that quite a few anime series take a while to get going, especially longer series like Death Note.

 

[MooMoo444]

I have the below major issues with this film

Spoiler

• At the end of the film, he writes in the book a long drawn out plan which starts with his girlfriends death, which is fair enough (or possibly not, as it has an 'if' clause regarding her death). What gets me is that he also writes that he falls, but survives. This is a total plot hole, we were told that the book can only bring death and influence those that have been chosen for death. It's not some kind of wishlist. It felt like a real easy and weak exit to finish to the film.

It was a little convoluted but Light was named for death by the girl, as such he was eligible to be influenced. He lands in the water and survives, then the page falls in the fire.

 

[DrToffnar]

Anything specific you didn't like? How many episodes did you try? I find that quite a few anime series take a while to get going, especially longer series like Death Note.

It's the lack of subtlety when it comes to it's storytelling and character interactions I think. Everything's sort of laid bare instantly.

I realise it's most likely a translation/cultural thing more then anything and not necessarily a fault of the shows.

 

[krooton]

It's the lack of subtlety when it comes to it's storytelling and character interactions I think. Everything's sort of laid bare instantly.

I realise it's most likely a translation/cultural thing more then anything and not necessarily a fault of the shows.

Weirdly, Death Note is one of the best and most gripping animes I have watched (though it loses it's way after episode 25).

 

[Kainz]

Watched the film on Netflix last night knowing nothing about it's origins. I thought it started off great...until the typical romance subplot arrived on the scene. Every element of the film progressed too fast, from L being almost supernatural in his deductive abilities, to the poxy romance that appeared to have blossomed in moments. I really wanted to learn more about Ryuk and the Death Note but the film didn't go down that path.