Death Note

Though the message of the film is to imply that absolute power corrupts, 'Deathnote', is a film that failed to impress me. Yes, I have seen the sequel too and I understand why it appeals to the young generation (the reasons are obvious). We see that the 'hero', Light, initially intended to use the deathnote in order to rid the world of criminals … but one thing leads to another and he becomes obsessed with power. A good premise indeed. However, there are some silly twists and several plot holes and the pace is extremely slow. Situations just become a little too unbelievable. It almost becomes another clichéd Japanese Teen-Horror film. The special effects make the Death god look fake and even some of their actions are unexplained (as are so many things in the film). I'd also like to warn that the film's ending is inconclusive (as it's continued in the second film), so if you still want to know what happens, there's the sequel.

Just returned from debut of Death Note, and surprisingly I enjoyed it. Manga to big screen adaptations don't always do so well, so I wasn't getting my hopes up over this. All the main characters are portrayed very well by the cast. Yes, even Tatsuya Fujiwara did a great job as the stories protagonist, Yagami Light. However, his rival, played by Ken'ichi Matsuyama was amazing. Completely captured the world's greatest detective's every mannerism with ease. But the true star of this 2 part story is definitely Light's shinigami, Ryuuk. Outstanding job by the CGI crew, and Ryuuk's voice was just as would be imagined in the manga. Can't really give too much away because I'd hate to spoil it for anybody who hasn't read the manga (that being said, definitely read the manga to see what was changed, in my opinion, the changes were overall good, not great, but it won't make you angry) . I guess the main question on everybody's mind would be is the movie better than the manga? No, but in a (about) 2 hour film you couldn't do much better with story. Well worth checking out.

I dunno why some people think that the CGI of Ryuuk was bad... I thought it was excellent - realistic but not too out of place. It doesn't have physical fights and thrill (and if you've read the manga, you would know). The actor choices were pretty good - Tatsuya Fujiwara was, and still, well-known for his on-stage productions, and Kenichi Matsuyama's (from Nana fame - he was Shinichi, the bass player of the band 'Black Stones')L / Ryuuzaki was awesome! His every 'weird and strange' movements were exactly how I imagined the actual L would be ^-^ If I have to choose one thing negative about this film, it would be the character - Shiori. I have nothing against her, but then again, she was just some additional romance line that the director thought was a good idea. So in the end... if you're a fan of the DN manga, and you don't mind the directors changing the scenes abit, you should definitely give it a try!!

Despite what some may say, this is as great as adaptation of the manga as one could ask for. The actors portray their characters perfectly. The calm menace of Light is portrayed perfectly, with a clear distinction between Light and "Kira" Light, which is impressive considering anime would allow stronger visual cues. L is an honest to god incarnation of his manga and anime counter part down to the smallest detail. Ryuk is also impressive, the CGI effects do him justice and his voice is much better then the one for the subbed anime which was horrendous.

Now obviously the plot needed to be condensed and changed but they did very well. All the important parts are there and the ending, which strays far from the manga, is actually even better then what actually happened in that instance in the story. It wasn't conveyed the complex story involving a genius highschool student who's use of a notebook that kills people that get's him involved in a proverbial chess match with the detective L, but they did a fine job. Misa, despite her short screen time, acted the part of Misa perfectly, down to the voice.

Fans of the manga should enjoy as long as they don't expect an exact replica of the manga, and fans of thrillers should enjoy this as well.

9.5/10

Well, I am new to death note, I decided to watch it in cinema and it was great. There was a twist in the plot. It made me want to know what was going to happen soon. It did not waste my two hours, but although it was a bit slow but still it was a great movie. I did not read the comics but guessing from the poster, it look great. Although, the characters from the comics did not really fit the actors, the acting was okay. The story was simple, Light received the death note and killed bad guys....L was tracking him down. Dead simple but there were twists in the plot, the ending was a big twist. I would decide what would happen. I hope Death note 2 is better than this when watching Death note 2 trailer.