Overview-
A troubled boy named Light Turner stumbles upon an ancient notebook that bestows him with the ability to kill anyone he writes in the book.
★★ ☆☆☆
In a sentence….
Deathnote US appeals to anyone that has never seen the original anime and manages to ignore plot holes it reveals in…
Good points
- With its use of colour, imagery and the occasional throwback to the original anime, the film itself is well shot and dynamic in it’s framing
- Lakeith Stanfield is a fantastic co-lead as enigmatic detective L, he has the mannerism and cadence down that felt familiar almost instantly. His energy was a welcome addition.
- Ryuk was fantastically portrayed by William Defoe, creepy and subtly played in a film that tried heavily to stay in the real world
Bad points
- The tragic misunderstanding of Light Turner was the downfall of this movie. The dichotomy between Kira the serial killer and Light the pretty boy/academic student was more of a shock than the pink-eyed Nat Wolf serial killer style that happened in this movie.
- This was a looong move, even at 1:40, it dragged unbearably for the first half an hour. Things weren’t explained or stated explicitly, the rules of the Death Note felt annoying
- Fridging of Mrs Turner and sister Turner said a lot about the attitude of this story
- And/all backstory felt weird and clunky, an add-on that felt rushed after the fact
- Mia Sutton was a dividing figure, interestingly played with her persona being more on the edge than in the anime, her initial introduction and lack of backstory
Overview-
Sexist and one dimensional, there could have been an interesting interpretation of Light’s justice in modern-day America but still felt like the fantasy of a certain demographic