Directed by Adam Wingard

Starring: Nat Wolff, Margaret Qualley, Keith Stanfield, Willem Dafoe

I've never seen the anime series in which this is based on. Let's just get that out there. So on one hand, I won't be biased in the way that I could compare the anime and the film, but on the other, I don't have a lot of knowledge to help support some of the things I'll say. But really, if we're going to look at Death Note as an actual film, on it's own, then I have to say that it's not a great movie. It does exceed this year's Ghost in the Shell, which is another anime adaptation, but like that, it is a whitewashed and rushed film. Death Note highlights many existing problems with Western adaptations and ends up becoming a problem rather than anything slightly not bad.

Light (Wolff) is a troubled high school kid who stumbles upon a book named 'Death Note' in which, after being visited by the demon Ryuk, (Dafoe) he is told that by writing down the name of someone, and thinking of their face, he can have them killed in whatever way he wants. Light begins a descent into darkness as he joins forces with his girlfriend Mia (Qualley) to bring justice by killing criminals and terrorists, naming himself as a god like figure, Kira. Things take a turn when a super intelligent detective named L (Stansfield) teams up with Light's father to find the truth behind the killings, putting Light and Mia in danger for their 'crimes.'

The concept, upon hearing it, is great. I'm sure the anime executed this very well, due to it's insane popularity, but here, it's a big issue. I don't think I've seen a film this year that has cut so many corners and left so many plot holes all over it. With the anime being a series, there's a lot of potential to really explore the story, and the rules that the Death Note has, but the film is rushed to no end. The pacing, especially in the first half hour, feels very unnatural and we don't get to explore Light and who he is before this power is placed upon him. This is the same with Mia aswell, the first half hour is dedicated to setting up the story and not it's main leads, which makes things very messy and gives us nobody to root for but the 'antagonist' of L.

With that, the motivations in this film are horrible. Mia, a girl who wouldn't otherwise have anything to do with Light, has seemingly non-existent motivations for as to why she supports Light and his killings. She's a horrible character, who is written and acted very poorly. I would have liked to have liked Light a bit more, but as I say again, there's nothing to him other than the fact he's a psychopath for the sake of it. His descent isn't impactful or interesting, it's just plain and boring. Whilst Wolff tries to do his best, the writing really is the drawback for him. I should mention that Dafoe is great Ryuk, but we don't get enough of this character, who really is what drove the excitement for this film, and of course made me the anime iconic aswell. 

Stylistically, the film isn't awful. Wingard really drives the style and a lot of the tone and colours he uses are likeable, some scenes such as the one in the top picture of the review, are shot excellently and helps to put you in that world the characters are in right there. And then you hear the soundtrack, and all of that is forgotten. Wingard places strangely out of place 80's songs (which I'm all for, except here) in very odd scenes where they either don't work or make you laugh, because it just turns the scene into a joke. Really. It's hard to tell what way he wanted to take it in that respect, perhaps it was only something he saw, because me and my girlfriend felt like we were taken out of the film, and it took us too long to be put back in.

I did go into this film with not a lot really in mind. I had a hunch it wouldn't be anything great, and it seems I was right. I enjoyed it more than I expected I'll admit, but this isn't something I'd recommend. I respect Wingard for trying, and for a pretty bad film for this year it does do better than the rest. Ultimately however, it fails to be anything more than another botched Western adaptation of something that is better in Japanese. 

4/10