[SPOILERS] The Netflix Death Note Movie - Mom! Holy forget!
The Death Note Movie on Netflix was one of the most controversial bullstuff out of Netflix since "Dear White People" both for racial reasons, aka utter bullstuff, and tbh the Trailers made it out to look like a stuffty movie that didn't follow or use the source material very well. And while I can understand someone wanting a retelling of the original Netflix but in live action, I can't say I want a frame for frame rewrite because that's just lazy, and would just be watching a Death Note story come to life, rather than watching a new idea with old referential source material, but others would definitely be up for that.
Alright, before we go any further this is the
SPOILER warning that we all need to have. So I will be discussing specific plots in depth, but don't expect this to be a Nostalgia Critic level indepth review, in either of his famous or infamous formats, this will be discussing very very key points and will only give context when needed.
That being said don't read past the 3 lines if you don't want to be spoiled.
So, let's start off with the opinion before the piece and then you can get a grasp and put your perspectives against mine. Death Note the Netflix series was not going to be a great movie, I knew that, after all it would take someone incredibly skilled to make a series like Death Note better due to it's inherent flaws with it's base plot, you would have to throw that plot out the window and make a death note spin-off which would also be a big risk. That being said, I also knew that this movie was going to be stuff, but when you know things, sometimes you knew wrong, and oh holy stuff, I knew wrong times 10.
This movie does not follow the source material to a T, hell it even changes some of the death note rules, like touching the Death Note will NOT reveal a shinigami to whoever touched it, and there was no mention of the Shinigami Eye Deal, and they even implied that Light could Kill Ryuk if he was just able to write his name down in time. So no, this is not going to be your run of the mill Death Note live action movie, this is more like Death Note: ReImagined than ReLight.
So lets get started talking about some major changes, Ryuk is no longer a sideline character who just exists to study the plot like the audience does, Ryuk plays more of a mysterious character, you never know if he's actually influencing events or if he's just loving with Light, until about a quarter of the way through the movie when Ryuk supposedly causes some deaths of his own, and Here is where we talk about Light's differences. Light's character is very different, Light isn't the Death Note equivalent of Yugi, where he pulls stuff out his ass to randomly win in his mind games. Light makes many mistakes throughout the series, but you do see that while he is smart, he does make some mistakes, and sometimes he loses, instead of being one big build up where Light always wins no matter what, and then loses at the end. Light makes many mistakes because he is not willing to break his morals, or twist them, he only kills people if they're criminals, not who he deems to be immoral or challenge him, so when Ryuk supposedly kills innocent people to go along with his mysterious plan that he's lazily slapped here and there throughout the movie, Light is Furious. Light eventually goes very close to breaking his morals, but when he does he steps back and explains that his intention is to spare his victim, being L's right hand man, Watari, as he is only a means to an end, and that end doesn't need to be death, but through out this movie Light has a girl friend who didnt' show up half way through the movie to look good and act loving handicapped. No, Light's Girlfriend actually is more like Light from the Anime, cunning, quick thinking, but her morals are non existent, she's searching to survive and keep killing criminals, where as Light is just out to eliminate crime, and by no means will he kill the innocent, but when She takes Watari's Death Note page, that supposedly in this version if light burns, Watari would survive so long as it's done before the death date, but he can only do this once. Her reasoning is that, if light left watari alive he would reveal his plan to L or the Police incriminating light. So eventually Light hit's a point where everything seems to be falling apart, since Watari Died, L turned over his morals, breaking the law and acting out of emotion. While it isn't known to me if L would have killed Light, L did go against his morals where Light didn't. Eventually we hit this Ferris wheel where the whole shabang goes down, Light's girlfriend Dies, Light Survives via a Coma, and L is aprehended by the police, because Light's Father saw L as a threat to his son in a way that didn't help the Kira Case.
But the ending is where stuff gets insane, and I really get a "The Killing Joke" vibe from the movie, but if the Killing Joke's Ending was 2 Endings mixed into one. Light's Father reveals to Light that he knew he was Kira all this time, as he reveals a news paper that he claimed was in his Safe, and that eventually he put two and two together and found out the Light was Kira. He then asks light how he survived, and he explains a plan that Light thought up on the instant, and we saw, but we didn't see what happened at the time, which ultimately killed his girlfriend who turned on him, allowed him to survive, and get his death note returned to him. Then during this scene we see L infiltrating Light's home and finding a Piece of the Death Note that Light's girlfriend hid from him, the one that Watari was killed with, and as L finds the paper, he pulls out a pen, and then it switches back to Light at the hospital where Ryuk Laughs and says his infamous line "Humans are so interesting" then the movie fades to black and the credits roll.
Holy stuff, this movie was too good for a netflix movie, surprisingly good considering the Trailer, but still pretty bad due to some shotty acting here and there, some cringy scenes here and there, as well as the shoehorned pop music.
"7/10 - Too Many Pages" - IGN
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