Writer Tsugumi Ohba and illustrator Takeshi Obata created a highly entertaining, good looking, dark, witty and mysterious thriller in Death Note, the manga. Adam Wingard’s live action take on the same is none of those things. When the first trailer of the Netflix original was released, we were pretty excited to watch the manga characters come to life, but sadly there was no attention to developing these iconic characters on-screen and more relevance was given to the use of the Death Note, rather than its psychological impact on the characters. The film is highly confused and binds aspects of the manga with a Final Destination-type treatment.
The story of Death Note revolves around a teenager named Light Turner (played by Nat Wolff) who finds a book that belongs to a Shinigami or a god of death. The book called the ‘Death Note’ gives anyone who possesses it the power to kill anyone in the world. After practicing on a bunch of school bullies, Light and his girlfriend Mia Sutton (played by Margaret Qualley) decide to punish criminals and terrorists using the power of the Death Note under the guise of a vigilante named Kira (meaning Killer in Japanese).
Credits: Netflix
The Shinigami or death god called Ryuk is played by Willem Dafoe and is the most underutilised character in the entire movie. In the original manga, Ryuk and Light exchange some witty banter and one can feel his dark influence affecting Light in a series of events. In the movie, Ryuk is almost a tertiary character who is forgotten in the mix as Light and Mia plan and execute their vigilante acts.
Credits: Netflix
L (played by Lakeith Stanfield), is an esoteric detective who makes it his goal to catch Kira. L is convinced that Light is indeed Kira and tries to prove it to the world, including Light’s police officer father James Turner (Shea Whigham). In the original storyline, L is an insomniac with a shabby appearance, big dark circles and extremely advanced analytical abilities. While the movie does borrow a few of L’s character traits, like his aversion to wearing footwear, it lacks the much needed fleshing out of the character.
Credits: Netflix
I would say the film has it’s good moments as well, but apart from a few incidences in the film that take viewers and fans of the manga back to the original story, there is not much to appreciate. The treatment of the film itself is flawed and the impact of what follows after Light and Mia start using the Death Note is minimized by a montage of deaths that only helps to further continuity, instead of meaningfully adding to the plot.
Without revealing more about the story of the film, all I would like to conclude with is that Death Note did not manage to strike the right note as Netflix would have liked it to. It is, at best, a B grade film and not something that would make it to my list Netflix originals to revisit. If the entertainment value is what would attract you to this title, save your breath and time, because the film offers next to no amusement and is just another hollywood flick that will be lost in the fray.
Death Note will start streaming on Netflix starting August 25 and will be available in Ultra HD 4K and HDR.