Death Note: Light Up the New World

I watched this movie after the original authors of the Death Note released the Death Note Special One-Shot manga in February 2020. I enjoy the first two live-action movies of Death Note, they give a good alternate story to the Death Note franchise. The third movie is not that good but still watchable. After 10 years of the first movie, is it still a good choice to continue the Death Note movie? To be honest, I did not have much expectation for this movie. I only hope at least it is entertaining regardless of the story it tells.

I don't know if it's just me or everyone, but the whole movie feels really flat. I am sure it is because I've read the One-Shot manga first that made me feel this movie is mediocre. After the innovative storyline from the manga, people expect something different from the story of this movie. But again, repeated formula and lame twist. This is still a disease for Japanese live-action movies in general. The action and drama also did not well. The six death notes in the movie have no impact at all to the narrative aspect of the story. Although the story is flat, I have a bit of hope at the end of this movie. They might end it like I hope it to be. But, the ending is also disappointed. At last, if you want you can still watch this movie. But if don't want to, it still is okay, you did not lose anything important at all.

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.

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

To UnixPuppet: No, the reason people don't like this movie isn't because "it's not Kira and L". We don't like it because it's a poorly done movie.

Regarding your "review"-- the purpose of reviews is to review the movie being discussed, not give your opinion on how wonderful the franchise is. In your entire 10-star review, you didn't speak of this movie at all... but of the original Death Note.

Which brings us to that 10-star review. Do people truly think that users of IMDB can't spot a bogus rating from a mile off? I will grant that people have different tastes and will like / dislike different films. Diversity is fine. But giving THIS film 10 stars when it is nowhere near that level of film quality (and without reviewing the film itself) screams "I'm involved with the film!"

In short, to further discuss "Light Up the New World" itself-- it is a poorly-conceived, poorly written, dull shadow... especially when compared with the original Death note. Whether L and Kira are involved in the film or not is irrelevant; what's relevant is whether the characters who ARE involved and the story line presented are worthy of bearing the name of the Death Note franchise.

In the case of this film, it simply isn't. So a note to those associated with film making: don't rate your own films. If they can't stand on their own, let them fall. Patting yourself on the back is no source of praise.

Sorry, this movie (as several have rightly pointed out) does not present the skill and wit of the Death Note concept.

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.