Movie Review: Death Note

Rule Number One: The human whose name is written in this book shall die.

When anime is adapted into a live-action movie, anime lovers around the world let out a depressed groan. From Dragonball Evolution to Ghost in the Shell, we have been disappointed time and time again and shudder at the thought of any respectable anime being made into a live action movie. In fact the only good anime-to-film adaptation that I can think of is the Rurouni Kenshin trilogy. But I digress. This time a new anime has been adapted into a live-action film, Tsugumi Ohba’s cult classic/masterpiece Death Note. Will it do what nearly no other anime adaptation has done before and actually be a good adaptation of the beloved series?

For those unfamiliar with the series Death Note follows the story of a young man named Light, whom upon discovering a notebook called the Death Note decides to take justice into his own hands and kill the people who he believes should die the most. Criminals. He is “mentored” by the Shinigami, or death god, known as Ryuk. To make things more complicated, the police start investigating the killings, lead by Light’s father and the brilliant detective simply known as “L”.

Now part of the reason that anime adaptations usually fail is that the original work spans many episodes and book chapters. For Death Note, there are 37 episodes of the anime and 108 chapters of the manga that have been condensed into about 100 minutes of the film. So how does the film manage to hold up to the original works?

The answer is: surprisingly well, though far from perfect. While there are major differences between the live action movie and the source material, the execution of Death Note is pulled off rather well. Sure, we don’t get to see Light as the super genius and athlete as he is in the anime/manga but we do know that he is smart – something that I wished that the movie had touched upon just a tad bit more. L’s character is also portrayed rather well, which is no small feat considering L is considered to be the world’s greatest detective. In the anime, L is extremely quirky, and I could tell Lakeith Stanfield put a great amount of time into studying L’s character to deliver his performance. Ryuk was also true to his character, allowing Light to make his own decisions while watching over his shoulder while making the occasional comment regarding Light’s actions. Speaking of Ryuk I extremely pleased with Willem Dafoe’s portrayal of the Shinigami.

I won’t lie, I had low expectations for this movie. I thought that this was going to be another botched attempt to capitalize on the popularity of anime when I first started watching Death Note on Netflix. Yet, when the credits started rolling I found that there really aren’t too many negative things I can comment about. All in all, I walked away remembering how much I enjoyed Death Note when I first watched it many years ago and feeling inspired to go back and watch the anime again. As I said earlier, this isn’t a perfect live action adaptation of the anime or manga, but then again I got the feeling that it’s not meant to be. I feel that this version of Death Notes’ purpose is to serve as a gateway. You know how you dip your toe into the pool to see if the water is a good temperature? That exactly what this movie is, a slight dip in a much larger pool. There is just enough material here to whet your palette, giving you a taste of what’s to come should you choose to indulge in the main course. If you enjoy this movie then you should waste NO time in picking up the manga or watching the anime, which goes much further in depth in every aspect. Yes, the movie is kind of short – clocking at just over 100 minutes, but I’m also fairly certain that even long-time fans of the series can enjoy this rendition. Within that 100 minutes my low expectations were erased and I actually really enjoyed the movie. Even my viewing company – entirely new to the idea of Death Note – found this movie to be interesting and entertaining.

I said it before and I will say it again. This is not a perfect adaptation of Death Note. But this IS a great introduction or even reminder of how great this series is. For the long-time fans, I encourage you to give this live action version a chance, if for nothing more than to be reminded of how great this series is. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised, as I was, by this movie. For newcomers, if you enjoy this movie please do yourself a favor and check out the original anime or manga. This movie is good, but the original gets waaaaaaaaay deeper with the plot and is much better. At the same time, this live-action version does NOT bring shame to the entire series, like Dragonball Evolution did for Dragonball, and I can honestly say that this is one of the better live action anime adaptations.

By the way… did you know that the God of Death enjoys eating apples?

SCORE
7.5/10