First off I should point out that I've never read or seen the original source materials for "Death Note;" the manga, the anime series, and the Japanese live-action movies. I'm going into this American interpretation without much "baggage" in how it handled the adaptation. Just based on this movie however, I've got to say that the concept and premise of this story is genuinely interesting. The story progression and the characters involved are actually fascinating. The ideas presented here are good, and there are some cool moments. With that said, the movie is all over the place, and the script is not that good.
It seems that one of the major problems this movie has is that it feels like it's rushing through things. It seems like it's just going from plot point to plot point, without letting things grow and breath in a natural way. If you weren't paying attention to the plot, it's likely that you might find this convoluted and confusing. Even if you were paying attention to the plot, you might still find it convoluted and confusing. The characters themselves have some poor dialogue, that's mostly just used for exposition. You will probably still understand why the characters act and do certain things in the movie just based on it's familiar plot tropes, but the movie itself doesn't earn it's own rationality for it's own characters developments.
I want to just write-off this movie as a poorly written misguided mess, and how the Direction by Adam Wingard is just putting finding ways to put insanity and madness on screen. Oddly enough though, it's the insanity and madness of it all that might be the saving grace of this production. Once you accept the craziness, it becomes easier to swallow the chaos thrown at you on screen. You just have to ignore the illogical flaws, plot problems, and an overdose of over the top ridiculousness though. Despite the fact that it's so unbelievably unhinged, oft-kilter, and derivative, you might still end up having fun with the whole thing anyway. I did say "might."
At least the movie deserves some credit for having Willem Dafoe be the voice of the Ryuk character, as he is good in it; for what there is for him to do. Margaret Qualley and Lakeith Stanfield also seems to be having fun with their characters at least, and I feel like it does carry through on screen in a madcap way. Nat Wolff unfortunately doesn't seem to know what he wants Light Turner to be as a character, and he's the main protagonist.
Needless to say, this movie is not going to please everybody. There are already premeditated reasons why certain groups of people are going to hate this adaptation, and the movie doesn't give them too many valid reasons to change their minds. For everybody else, this film is just another one of those that had potential to be much better than what it actually ended up becoming.
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