![]() I don't normally talk a ton about anime much anymore. Which is sad, because anime was such an immensely defining thing for me in my early teens and really shaped a lot of who I am and the things I enjoy media-wise - back in the day anime was about rich-storytelling, beautiful scenery and animation, and characters you could fall in love with. I love anime, I adore it, I'm stoked for Outlaw Star to come back and I about died when I finally got my hands on a Cowboy Bebop box set with original Japanese audio. But that's the thing, I'm more of an old-school anime girl - the long gone days of Toonami - Yu Yu Hakusho, Kenshin, Ronin Warriors, Gundam Wing, and Outlaw Star is where my heart will always lie. I feel like most anime made after 2007 started feeling like copy + paste money machines and straight up fan-service, lacking heart and character development, the things that made OG anime iconic (I can't stand all this Attack on Titan, Dragon-maid, Boruto stuff, it's so boring and typical - the only newer anime I've enjoyed is Assassination Classroom). But even still, all that to say, my love for OG anime is so strong and so interwoven into the make-up of who I am I can't help but get a tad bit excited when I see stuff like *shudders* Netflix releasing the Death Note movie. Anime is why I began to draw and paint, why I took four years of Japanese in high-school and it's what started my love affair with Asian culture. So, naturally, the thought of a live-action Death Note movie was an appealing thing, even if it were going to be a massive, inevitable flop. So, against my better judgement and strong distaste for Netflix as a company and, against what the haters and easily offended fandom was saying I sat down to watch it, if only for Willem Dafoe as Ryuk cause that's awesome. I wanted to give it a fair chance, from the perspective of someone with a ton of respect and admiration for anime, just to see what happened when a big name company, a powerhouse cast, and an American mentality took hold of a legend. ![]() Let me start off by saying this - it's not terrible, for what it is I had fun watching it. I also am adult enough to give things a chance, to not be so easily offended in an area I have no place getting flustered about (I am a basic white girl, I am not Japanese, I have no place voicing my opinions on how they as a culture should or will see this film, that is for them to voice and I say have at it). I can put things aside to assess a piece of media for what it is and even with its faults I kind of enjoyed it. So, uh, yeah Willem Dafoe's adaptation of Ryuk is terrifying and he deserved much more screen-time than he got. If nothing else I have to hand it to the director and crew for doing such an incredible job with the lighting, stylizing, and effects when it comes to Ryuk - and the movie as a whole, it looks nice. He was the defining part of the film, hands-down, and if you can suffer through the weirdness of it I think fans of the anime would really enjoy him. They really do a wonderful job of keeping him creepy, keeping him hidden, and letting Dafoe do his thing. It's a strong portrayal of a very iconic character in the extensive universe of known anime and I can appreciate Dafoe stepping out of his normal roles and giving this odd piece of film and downright dark character a shot. It's kind of a weird movie and it doesn't hold a candle to the original but it really tries, which I can applaud and appreciate. It tries to stay as true to the source material as it can while trying to make it appealing to a broader audience as a whole, which is where I think they screwed up. It didn't shy away from taking liberties (which can be seen as a negative by many) to make it go from a stylized anime to something anyone browsing Netlifx could pick up and watch with no introduction. And there is the problem with American media and Netflix as a whole. It became about making it a standard, easy to turn on film for broad audiences to make income from streaming dollars, and it skewed what made Death Note so iconic. Keeping this in mind though and switching your perspective away from the white-washed, Americanized version to a perspective that says 'how is it as a film and can I enjoy this' it's not that bad of a film, you just have to look at it like this - this is an American remake (which Americans do with everything) which pales in comparison but does not intentionally mean to offend. Now that that's out of the way I had two issues with the film as a whole - it was rushed and Mia was legitimately worse than Bella from the Twilight series and she somehow became the antagonist of the film which is annoying. I think my biggest issue with the film is that it tends to rush into things, speeding through the slow burn of the original to create a fast-paced and forced high-school romance between power-hungry Mia (Misa for the anime fans) and a version of Light that wants to do good in a dark world. This weird romance becomes the focus instead of the relationship/rivalry of Light and L. It tends to overshadow the darkness of the source material in the most negative of any part of the film. By the forty minute mark Light (who is actually played quite well for how he was written, but Nat Wolfe is also a very talented young kid so that's not a surprise) has already made the name Kira a world-wide phenomenon, he's having sex with Mia (who is insanely irritating on many fronts) and by an hour in he's regretful, guilt-ridden, and terrified. It instantly humanizes Light in a way that isn't as appealing as his brooding, manipulative, and selfish anime counterpart but it also makes him more believable which I think is a necessity for a live-action piece, especially one set in America. Any teenager as sociopathic as Light Yagami was would be institutionalized in an instant in the insane old US of A, but Light Turner is conflicted, he's human, and it keeps the realism in check in a believable manner. It is immensely rushed plot-wise, but that makes sense as irritating as it is. Taking a twenty some odd episode series and compressing it down to a less than two hour film can be complicated, as with any adaptation, picking and choosing story components is a tricky thing and you work with what you can to try and capture the spirit but hit time restrictions. It's more of a dark teen-romance peppered with some supernatural elements instead of a dark portrayal of humanity and malice, but it is a beautifully shot and edited piece of film that pairs graphic, disturbing imagery with chilling music and aesthetically pleasing camera shots. So basically, it's a really really pretty piece of film (which is about all I can say for anything released by Netflix). ![]() It is almost entirely white-washed compared to the source, which of course was everyone's biggest beef and the reason many people gave it negative reviews and press before it even hit the stream-waves. They do try to cover up it up with exposition (albeit cheesy exposition) like the name 'Kira' being used to throw off the authorities by switching focus to Japanese suspects, Light spending time studying Japanese folk-lore, and L's introductory scene starting in a Japanese night-club - they do try to pay homage to the source material and the place of its conception, which is respectful and something I think should be taken into account nonetheless even if it's culturally incorrect. Light and Mia are basic white teens in Seattle, so it's a plausible way to manipulate the story to what the studio's needs were but it does take too many liberties to make it more broadly appealing. All this to say, however, the most polar opposite casting happens to be the most believable. Lakeith Stanfield does and incredible job portraying L - you can feel the fidgety oddness, the quirks, the candy obsession, the emotional charge and what the investigation does to his mental state as it progresses. You can feel it through the screen. It is a strong and powerful performance that has a lot of emotional depth and you can really see Stanfield giving it his all. I can commend the effort and that does warrant a round of applause. L is not an easy character in any form to take on, even in simple cosplay fashion. Nat Wolfe, who I have actually liked since my teens, did a great job in his role, even with the cheesy writing, and you can tell he really put a lot into portraying such a complex character. Mia sucks, she's more of a psychopath than Light, she's horrible and I have never hated a character more. She's awful, that's literally all there is to it, I wanted her dead more than Joffrey in Game of Thrones and that's saying something. I would take Joffrey back if it meant I wouldn't have to deal with her. They tried and it's no fault of the cast for the issues with the film, they worked with what they were given and gave believable performances. All-in-all there are some neat sequences, some intense moments that try and instill panic into the viewer and I love that Ryuk just kind of slides into the background at the right moments, cackling, which is awesome (he really does steal the film). The L VS Light focus comes into play heavily toward the end which was cool. Over-all it was just a fairly standard but very pretty 'reboot'. As an 'Otaku' and someone who very much appreciates aesthetically complex film, I can at least commend it for taking a well loved series and trying. Failing on a ton of fronts but trying. And I had fun, so it wasn't a complete waste of two hours. They made a really cinematically strong film with some gorgeous style that was lacking in story and took a few too many liberties, but was *almost* saved by strong performances from Stanfield, Wolfe, and Dafoe. Almost. If you walked into it not knowing the source material it would be an interesting way to spend a Friday evening, which I think is what Netflix's intentions where, but as a fan of the original material it was easy to get frustrated, so I had to constantly remind myself to focus on it for what it is not for what it was trying to be. It's a so-so film that I didn't entirely mind, but wouldn't watch a second time and it leaves me sitting here begging the corporate film-makers of America to just let Japan do their thing, they're better at it than you'll ever be so please don't try. ![]() Written by Alycia D. (MaybeMockingbird ) All pictures are copyright Netflix, characters copyright Shonen Jump and Tsugumi Ohba. Death Note: A Netflix Original Movie is now streaming on Netflix services
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AuthorJust your average geek chic gamer chick into all things ghostly and geeky (and vice versa) Archives
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