Death Note film review.

Death Note (the movie) is based off a Japanese manga of the same name. Directed by Adam Wingard and written by Charles, Vlas Parlapanides and Jeremy Slater; Death Note is an American supernatural crime thriller of an American high school student names Light Turner. This film was produced by Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Masi Oka, Jason Hoffs and Ted Sarandos. Death Note follows Light Turner as he installs fear upon the masses and picks and chooses who to kill to make the world his idea of a “Better place” as well as killing all in his way. My personal belief is that this movie does not do its origins justice and is not worth the 38% it was granted on rotten tomatoes.

The film begins as Light turner witnesses a book drop from the sky. As Light opens the book rules are displayed such as “The human whose name is written in this note shall die”. In the movie if the cause of death isn’t specified then simply, the individual will die of a heart attack. Whilst Light debates abiding the rules and giving a name to the Death note a Shinigami, a Japanese god of death named Ryuk, appears to Light and encourages him to give in to the power before him and seek justice for the world.

Once Light’s first victim is claimed he understands what he must do and begins slaughtering criminals and people who make the world unsafe. Light begins his murder spree by allowing criminals to die of heart attacks before slowly making his plans more creative and elaborate. Shortly after the story begins a girl named Mia is drawn towards this morally convoluted mess of a plan for the power of this book. After a bit of mass murder, the pair get introduced to a detective known as “L”. The film focuses on how L can track down Light and Mia and during that time, what Light enforces onto the masses.

This film has incredibly impressive CGI and exceptionally enjoyable gore scenes. However, the story of this film was tortuous; there was no cat and mouse between L and Light, there was no build up to the ending and the acting was inadequate at best. This film was boring and had nothing going for it except the gore and CGI. The film feels rushed and poorly executed. I understand that the film must be a compressed version of the manga however if you haven't read the manga, or even heard of Death Note beforehand, you will understand that this film is boring and difficult to watch.