Death Note: Light Up the New World

The original Death Note was brilliant; this film is a dull glow in comparison. While the overall theme comes across, many viewers will find the individual elements of the plot quite a bit more difficult to follow and less cohesive to the film overall. There seems to be a lot of needless filler. Neither the plot nor characters are as sharp and intelligent as the original KIRA or L. There is nowhere near the unique personalities of the two, nor much viewer compassion for any of the characters. In truth, it struck me that the main stars of this film were the Shinigami, which were far more interesting than the live characters.

There is a tendency of viewers to compare follow-up films with the original and that is perhaps unfair... but it is also inevitable. Imagine a Sherlock Holmes film in which the intelligence, attention to detail and twist-of-plot is missing; is it really Sherlock Holmes any longer? That considered, is a Death Note movie without extraordinary chess-like moves by the main characters really Death Note? In the end I was disappointed in the film and felt it could have been two hours better spent.

I enjoyed the previous "Death Note" movies, well at least the Japanese ones for sure. But I had no idea about the existence of "Death Note: Light Up the New World" from 2016 before late in 2019 when I was given the chance to sit down and watch it. Given my interest in the franchise from the previous movies, then of course I sat down to watch t his 2016 movie.

Turns out that the movie seemed to be lacking the same spirit and motivation that was driving the previous movies. And while they opted to go for something new here, then it just was lacking that special ingredient to make it unique, to make it feel like a proper "Death Note" movie.

Don't get me wrong, there were aspects of the movie that were nice, but the overall movie just didn't really work for me, and I found it to be a tedious and mundane ordeal to sit through. And my interest in the storyline faltered a couple of times throughout the course of the movie. But I endured and stuck with it to the end. And I can say that "Death Note: Light Up the New World" is not a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time around.

The characters in the movie were rather boring, to the point of being absolutely pointless and disinteresting actually. And the movie was lacking screen time for the Watchers. You know, those lovely CGI animated keepers of the Death Notes.

This felt like a weak attempt to cash in on the success of the franchise, and the storyline is a scrambled mess actually, which seems like it was written overnight because someone had to come up with something in a rush as they had acquired the funds for the movie prematurely.

While the movie has a good production quality and good special effects, it was lacking on a proper storyline, on adequate characters that you actually cared about, on the Watchers, and genuinely just lacked entertainment value in general.

"Death Note: Light Up the New World" scores a mere four out of ten stars from me.

The anime & the original movie was way better! Could've been better!

A belated sequel to the original DEATH NOTE trilogy, made some time later after those films. The original cast only feature in the smallest roles and at least one of them is a picture on a screen alone. Sad to say, this one's a far cry from the original films; generally it feels very much like a weak sauce imitator that plods over the same old ground without doing anything new with the premise. As before, the police are hunting owners of the Death Note diaries, and there are new villains and new heroes thrown into the mix. Sadly, the new L character is one of the most arrogant and irritating ever, and none of the supposedly shocking twists make an impact. Average at best.

Death Note the anime is one of the all time greatest television series, a true masterpiece and a contender for the most intelligent franchise by far.

I was always fearful to venture into the live action material and that doubled when I watched the embarrassment of Death Note (2017) I finally took a chance and watched Death Note (2006) and was thrilled at how well made it was and loyal to the original material. Sure it had tweaked a couple of parts of the storyline, but it still felt like Death Note.

The sequel was equally great and the third part was perfectly good as well, when I discovered a 4th movie had been made I questioned whether it had reached the stage they were milking it.

Following directly on from the 3rd movie, we're now 10yrs on from the original events of Kira with both Light & L deceased. The death gods have rained death notes down on the world and all hell is breaking loose. It's come down to L's successor and the surviving members of the old team to bring justice to those responsible.

This 4th movie clearly has a larger budget, the shinigami cgi is considerably better and the whole film just looks polished. It follows on perfectly and is a welcome addition to the franchise.

It has it's flaws don't get me wrong, but regardless is a great Death Note film even if it doesn't have the subtlety of the originals.

I'm not sure whether this is the end, I feel like it could continue based upon the ending but this is a decent enough send off should it not.

The Good:

Decent opening sequence

CGI has improved

Shinigami's are great

The Bad:

Some bad, dull and unlikable characters

Story is perhaps too grand for a 2hr film