DEATH NOTE (2017) - REVIEW [SPOILER-FREE]

WHAT A BUMPY RIDE.

By Mitch Cooper

I have been excited for this Death Note movie. Never read the manga. Never watched the anime. Have no preconceptions of the product besides the director. Now Adam Wingard has done a couple of films I’ve really liked, You’re Next and Blair Witch especially, and I wanted to see him step up and succeed in Hollywood with his unique kind of quirky horror-esque directorial style. I ignored all the hate and backlash this film received from fans of the manga and I wanted to just view this film with fresh eyes.

It has an interesting premise about a Death Note that when you write someone’s name in it it kills them. There’s a lot of potential for this premise. A lot of potential that would probably be really good in a series…..like the anime. Now I’ve heard that Adam Wingard pitched this film to Netflix as a series and Netflix was weary on the out-there premise, track record of anime to live action adaptations (anyone remember Dragonball Evolution?) and the special effects budget so they thought it would be more beneficial financially to make it a film. You really do get that feeling with this film, its very fast paced and events occur in quick succession that you often don’t feel the real gravity of the situations. It however is very fun and intriguing watching two high school kids take dealing with terrorism and injustice into their own hands and watching the downwards spiral of ramifications escalate.

The characters are very interesting. Nat Wolff for the most part is good as Light Turner but sometimes he REALLY overcooked his performance and it kind of pulls you out of the movie. Whenever he’s delivering some of the quick-witted dialogue, he really shines, he just needs to tone down the screaming holy shit. The love story, if you can call it that, between Light and Mia is extremely underdeveloped and you don’t really get a proper sense of a connection besides one scene of decent dialogue. This however is balanced out by the very grounded and realistic relationship Light has with his dad. This film feels like the dialogue was written by 3 different people, sometimes it’s actually quite well written and has some smart things to say and then other times it really brings on the CHEESE. (I just googled who wrote Death Note, turns out it DOES have 3 credited writers).

The entire film as a matter of fact is a really up and down roller coaster in quality. Some times its REALLY good, makes intelligent moral statements, is darkly funny, thrilling, shocking, well directed, acted and has some fantastic scenes involving the Death God, Ryuk, and then other times it’s really quite cringeworthy. I don’t know who decided on the film’s soundtrack but whoever it was they need to be fired from Hollywood taking effect immediately. The music choices at climactic moments in this film are some of the worst I’ve seen, really disappointing. Thanks to director, Adam Wingard, the film is, however, visually striking and makes great use of colours, quick editing and camera work.

For the most part I found I really enjoyed Death Note, I enjoyed the premise, I enjoyed Willem Dafoe’s freakish turn as Ryuk and the entire middle 80 minutes or so of the film that deals a lot with vigilantism and the character of L tracking down Light under the pseudonym “Kira” was really interesting and thrilling but just certain scenes, certain dialogue delivery even the awkwardly long length of chase scene brought it down a few notches. The film did get me thinking about what I would do in the situation and whether using the Death Note would even be philosophically right and kept me engaged 90% of it’s run time so that’s a win for me. A very rocky win albeit.

6.5 DEATHS OUT OF 10 NOTES