Death Note (Desu Nōto)

[Skaila]

For those not familiar with Death Note, it is based of a manga which also got a follow-up with an anime.

Raito (or Light) is an ordinary college student, top of the class. Until one day he finds a notebook (Death Note) with some very peculiar rules written into it. If you write someone's name into the Death Note, they will die within 40 seconds. As he watches the news, he see something is going on, writes down the name of the criminal and dies within 40 seconds of a heart attack.

This encourages Raito to experiment further with the notebook, and he also meets the owner of the notebook: Ryuk. Ryuuk is a Shinigami (Death God) and is now bound to Raito until he dies or relinquishes ownership. Considering criminals are dying all over the world, this attracts attention from the police. The police force in Japan calls in the help of L. L is a super detective and with the help of the police they're trying to catch this killer, or Kira. Did I also mention that the Chief of the police task force is Raito's father?

I've read the manga and seen part of the anime. The manga and anime differ from each other and so does the live action movie. There is a lot of background you'll miss from the movie, but it's not needed. There was a second movie, which I'll review in a minute

Now the movie basically describes the first quarter of the manga. You see how Raito gets the book, how he experiments with it and his philosophy. He basically wants to create an eden, where there is no crime and he will be a god. The more you watch, the more you think he's right. Crime does die down, people are scared of Kira, because he can judge them.

On the opposite spectrum, you've got L. He's a quirky young man, and when I say quirky, I DO mean quirky. But he is highly intelligent and tries to find out who this Kira is. There is a constant dynamic between Kira and Raito.

Do not expect a big action movie, expect a battle of wits. There will be deaths, a lot of them, but not in the hack-and-slash variety. You'll be rooting for Kira/Raito, but as well for L.

Overall, i give this a 5/6. Mainly because i'm a fan of the manga and follows it closely and yet brings something new and unexpected to it as well.

[storm]

I liked a lot Death Note, the manga and the anime. I know the guy playing Raito (he played in a few dramas as well) and he's not that bad at all.

They followed the story, and that is why they got a 2 instead of 0. But for me, the major problem is the actor playing L. L is gloomy and very intelligent in the books and the anime, but in the movie he's just a laughable wannabe.

the whole story being the battle between Raito and L, the movie loses its credibility just because of their L...

a shame, I thought Ryuk was quite nicely done

[Skaila]

Truth to be told, the L bothered me a bit as well the first time I saw the movie. I had someone completely different in mind. On second viewing I didn't 'like' him, but I still found him okay enough to be L.

Hence I had no problem with Kira trying to kill him

[Magical bum]

It was wholly unnecessary. The film is good but it's a reproduction of a reproduction of a reproduction. The Manga was amazing. The Anime was all that was necessary as a follow up to those who find leafing through pages of books either boring or mundane. However a pretty much shot by shot remake of the anime was just a step to far in my books. It gets 3/6 simply on the acting prowess of Tatsuya Fujiwara who i hadn't seen since Battle Royale so it was nice for him to pop up in a film i had interest in and the fact that it is still a good concept.