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[PshycoNinja]

Reviews seem to be trickling out after the Comic Con screening/premiere so lets see some of the reviews:

IGN - 7 (Good)

Death Note adds more teenage melodrama and condenses the story of the original manga in a way that isn't always satisfying to watch. While the leads falter, the supporting cast steps up in a big way to keep their parts in the movie grounded and entertaining. Willem Dafoe's Ryuk was an absolutely inspired piece of casting, and he easily carried his scenes. If there is a sequel, bringing him back as Ryuk is a must.

GameSpot - Not Scored

With some issues, especially in its inconsistent pacing and dialogue, Death Note isn't a perfect adaptation. But it is a fun one. Fans of the original should walk away happy, and newcomers to the morbid world of shinigami and sociopathic high schoolers with god complexes will get more out of the film's relatively short runtime than they would from trying to tackle the anime's full 37-episode run.

Death Note probably won't become one of Netflix's biggest hits, but for what it pays tribute to and what it accomplishes, it's not hard to recommend.

LRM - B

All in all, this was a film that could have been a mammoth train wreck. A film that only uses the source material as a jumping off point? You could have easily had a director who tried to hard to split the difference between what happened in the manga and what he wanted to happen. This film exuded confidence, and went boldly in its new direction, which ultimately made for a much more enjoyable watch. If you're in the mood for a fun new take on the source material, you'll likely be in for an enjoyable ride. If you just want the manga transliterated to screen, you were never going to like this flick anyways.

Death Note may not win any awards, but it's a fun, stylized genre flick that makes for one hell of an entertaining thrill ride.

ColliderVideos - 6.5 (Recommended)

We Live Entertainment - No Score (Recommended)

Devilishly gory with a macabre sense of humor.

JoBlo - 5/10

There are several positive things to say about the film. The actors are solid, with Wolff, Qualley, Stanfield and Whigham ensuring their characters continue to grab our interest even if the narrative isn't doing them any favors. (Qualley has a few really great moments in the third act.) The music, as can be counted upon with Adam Wingard at the helm, is a highlight, and the film excels on most other technical levels, with the creation of Ryuk a big standout. (Dafoe is just the right man to lend his very distinctive voice to the character; a match made in horror movie heaven.) And Wingard knows how to swerve a scene from dramatic to funny to freaky and back again; he's done this plenty of time in the past with movies like YOU'RE NEXT and THE GUEST, and he proves adept at it here. He's a good director of actors and understands how to modulate tension within a scene.

But DEATH NOTE left me a little cold in the end - and what an abrupt ending it is! - but I can't say they didn't try to make this peculiar thing work. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense or flow very naturally, but it gets points for the effort.

Please add reviews to the thread as they come in.

 

[Lifeline]

Doesn't the movie come out next month. Pretty soon to have reviews.

 

[Magwik]

Doesn't the movie come out next month. Pretty soon to have reviews.

Comic Con screenings IIRC

 

[- J - D -]

Finally, a good-ish Hollywood anime adaptation.

 

[jack_package_200]

I imagine a common thread in all of these reviews is that Willem Dafoe is perfect.

Finally, a good-ish Hollywood anime adaptation.

Hopefully Alita: Battle Angel is good as well.

 

[Ratrat]

Finally, a good-ish Hollywood anime adaptation.

You might want to wait.

 

[Realeza]

Sounds solid, which is what I expected. Suck it purists.

 

[Imperial Bishop]

So it's okay-to-good.

Now I have some hope about the One Piece live action series.

 

[PK Gaming]

Not bad, not bad

 

[lightskintwin]

SchmoesKnow – 2.5/5

 

[chrisPjelly]

Sounds alright. I'll check it out, BUT I'm not going in expecting 1:1 adaptation. Sucks to see some of the fears about the leads come to fruition.

 

[PshycoNinja]

SchmoesKnow – 2.5/5

This one I wrestled with. It's another Collider video, and both of them give different scores in the video (.5/5 and 2.8/5 respectively). So It's hard to get something out of that, plus two Collider reviews in the OP was something I wanted to see if everyone was okay with.

I decided for now to put the "official review" from ColliderVideos in the OP.

 

[Certinty]

Seems decent enough to be worth a watch.

Watched the anime about a third of the way through and got bored, was far too long.

 

[lightskintwin]

This one I wrestled with. It's another Collider video, and both of them give different scores in the video (.5/5 and 2.8/5 respectively). So It's hard to get something out of that, plus two Collider reviews in the OP was something I wanted to see if everyone was okay with.

I decided for now to put the "official review" from ColliderVideos in the OP.

Oh I can see why, because I just finished watching the review and I saw their socres. I actually copy and pasted the review from a website listing reviews that had the link and the review as 2.5/5 for some odd reason.

 

[AgentChris]

Seems like an below average type of movie. The main actor was god awful in that clip they released yesterday.

 

[MetatronM]

Finally, a good-ish Hollywood anime adaptation.

A positive review from Gamespot and lukewarm at best reactions from IGN and Collider don't exactly make for ringing endorsements.

 

[Evil Monkey DTT]

Look I'll be honest, a live action American anime adapation getting anything past a 6 is a miracle. Ill give it a shot.

 

[PshycoNinja]

Seems like an below average type of movie. The main actor was god awful in that clip they released yesterday.

The reviews certainly don't paint it as a below average movie from what I read...

A positive review from Gamespot and lukewarm at best reactions from IGN and Collider don't exactly make for ringing endorsements.

IGN and Collider both had issues with it but both recommended the movie and seemed to like it.

At least that's how both reviews read/seem when read/watched in full.

 

[Nightwing123]

Its obvious the lead was a problem mainly because Nat Wolff is not a good actor. Personally I had more confidence in L's actor but I not hearing great things about him either. Unsurprisingly Willem Defoe's Ryuk might be the only reason to watch this movie. This is an Adam Wingard film I'm not shocked that the reviews are ranging from 6-8s he is such an inconsistent director.

 

[Kusagari]

The reviews make it sound like they did what I was hoping with this portrayal of Light.

 

[Imperial Bishop]

Finally, a good-ish Hollywood anime adaptation.

Spoiler

Yeah, I know it's not an anime adaptation, but it's close enough.

 

[koryuken]

Spoiler

Yeah, I know it's not an anime adaptation, but it's close enough.

All you need is kill!

 

[brickarts295]

Looks like its going to be average which is fine by me, specially since it's on Netflix. I'll give it a watch.

 

[PshycoNinja]

I personally look at it like this, if I want to watch the anime, I'll watch the anime. If I want an exactly 1:1 retelling of the manga in live action, I would watch the Japanese live action movies.

I love Death Note and have read and watched numerous materials on it multiple times. I appreciate this take because it has room to take it in a different direction and surprise me. I would've been personally disappointed with the film if it was just another retelling of the same exact story, as I have already been told that story so many different times already.

 

[Servbot24]

I can deal with a B grade.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Sounds like a drunk watch

 

[ElMexiMerican]

I'll take average for an anime adaptation.

 

[plasmawave]

Watching it just for Willem Dafoe.

 

[Not]

Oh, I thought this was a miniseries for some reason

 

[Izuna]

Wait, why do we care about IGN and GameSpot for movies?

 

[sn00zer]

Look I'll be honest, a live action American anime adapation getting anything past a 6 is a miracle. Ill give it a shot.

I think its funny that everyone hold this adaptation to some weirdly high standard given none of the Japanese live action movies were very good, nor was most of season 2 of the show.

Also I think outside of the Dragonball movie most American live action adaptation of comics are far better than Japanese adaptations of manga which look more likr a cosplay convention with poor CG most of the time.

 

[ZealousD]

So it's okay-to-good.

Now I have some hope about the One Piece live action series.

One Piece live-action still sounds like the worst idea in the world. In Death Note, Ryuk is like the only thing that might have trouble being put to live-action. But in One Piece, the whole damn world belongs on the page. They going to put in a CG Chopper? How ridiculous is Franky going to look? How could you possibly pull off a fight scene with Luffy?

 

[Turin Turambar]

One Piece live-action still sounds like the worst idea in the world. In Death Note, Ryuk is like the only thing that might have trouble being put to live-action. But in One Piece, the whole damn world belongs on the page. They going to put in a CG Chopper? How ridiculous is Franky going to look? How could you possibly pull off a fight scene with Luffy?

And Ryuk could be eliminated from the story. It never plays an active role in it. It never does something interesting, he doesn't present a twist or anything.

 

[ShaggsMagoo]

Wait, why do we care about IGN and GameSpot for movies?

IGN has reviewed movies for over a decade, they are no different than any other outlet.

 

[Psychoward]

Finally, a good-ish Hollywood anime adaptation.

I doubt it'll be better than ghost in the shell and that movie is the definition of mediocre

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

As long it fixes the godawful original ending, it will be a good adaptation in my book.

 

[SuperEpicMan]

As long it fixes the godawful original ending, it will be a good adaptation in my book.

I'm currently reading through the manga (on book 4 out of 6). I am enjoying it but would you say it is worth finishing? I have heard about the ending being bad a couple of times and I am beginning to worry I might be wasting my time and money.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

I'm currently reading through the manga (on book 4 out of 6). I am enjoying it but would you say it is worth finishing? I have heard about the ending being bad a couple of times and I am beginning to worry I might be wasting my time and money.

Well, yeah, is worth finishing, although I heavily dislike it, plenty of people enjoyed it. Personally I feel there's a point in the manga/anime, that should have been the end and it was perfect, but oh well.

 

[Blablurn]

sounds good to me. the recent clip they released looked awesome. i love this new take on DN since i saw the original story soooo many times already.

Spoiler

death note is the best anime of all time, fite me.

 

[LotusHD]

death note is the best anime of all time, fite me

Lol nah, it has too many missteps for me to ever say it's the best, like the whole awful amnesia subplot lol

 

[Yoshichan]

Lol nah, it has too many missteps for me to ever say it's the best, like the whole awful amnesia subplot lol

Wait, really? Fucking REALLY? The part where Light takes a huge risk and eventually, after a long, LONG time it pays of? This was "awful"? It's the peak for the entire series

 

[Westbahnhof]

death note is the best anime of all time, fite me.

I really don't mean this in a bad/condescending way, but is your experience with anime fairly limited?

 

[LotusHD]

Wait, really? Fucking REALLY? The part where Light takes a huge risk and eventually, after a long, LONG time it pays of? This was "awful"? It's the peak for the entire series

The plan itself was cool, obviously paid off. The shit we had to go through where he's helping L with other shit and what not definitely dragged out for way too long though.

 

[Yoshichan]

The plan itself was cool, obviously paid off. The shit we had to go through where he's helping L with other shit and what not definitely dragged out for way too long though.

I dunno man, to each their own. I thougt that it didn't drag out at all, it was like 5 episodes. And the whole thing was a massive build up to that one scene where Light essentially wins the entire thing. In the helicopter. Fucking goosebumps.

 

[NewGame]

Sounds solid, which is what I expected. Suck it purists.

Enjoy your B rated slop.

 

[Jest Chillin]

Wait, really? Fucking REALLY? The part where Light takes a huge risk and eventually, after a long, LONG time it pays of? This was "awful"? It's the peak for the entire series

That's a jump the shark moment. Which, for a series where multiple characters can predict their opponents exact logical process without even meeting them, is an incredibly difficult thing to do.

 

[kmax]

Spoiler

Yeah, I know it's not an anime adaptation, but it's close enough.

All you need is a light novel.

Still, it's the closest thing we've got, and it's not even an anime.

Video games and anime/manga adaptions have been proven to be impractical beasts to adapt. That goes even for the Japanese themselves. I don't think that's changing anytime soon.

 

[janoDX]

Will watch it, Dafoe carrying scenes, it has the typical American Melodrama, Death Note.

Yeah, I'll watch it.

 

[purseowner]

Dafoe is a perfect choice.

Everything else looks like offensively Americanised teen tech drivel that misunderstands what the hell Death Note was about.

 

[Secret Fawful]

I'm extremely sad to see sour impressions of LaKeith Stanfield as L since I loved him in Atlanta and he's the actor I was most excited to watch in this movie. Not to mention, I want to see more great black sleuths.