Netflix's Death Note

Back in the late '00s, I watched a Japanese anime that was recommended to me by friends. The title was Death Note and it was fantastic in execution, though the premise is a little off the wall. The pitch that sold me, and that I think rightly describes the action, was this: "Moriarty vs Holmes as Japanese high school students engaged in a battle of wits over the perfect murder, told from Moriarty's perspective."

Now, Netflix has attempted to provide us with a feature length, live-action adaptation of the popular anime.

How well did they manage that feat?

(Spoilers after the break)




Show Summary:
Light Turner, a bright high school student, is given a Death Note by the death god Ryuk. Light uses the powers of the Note, which kills any human whose name is written in it, to avenge his mother's death and wage war on criminals. Hunted by human authorities and pushed to go further by both Ryuk and his girlfriend Mia, Light will discover just how far he's willing to go.

Themes:
Lord Acton's most famous statement leaps to mind: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Both the anime and the movie watch Light make choices that lead him further and further into evil. Justifications are made at each stage and they always are shown to be hollow.

Both shows also showcase the flip side of the narrative, praising character in the form of both Light's father, a stalwart police officer, and Watari, the caretaker for "L" who always puts his ward's needs above his own.

Costuming/Visuals: The characters and their looks were in line with slightly altered aesthetic the production team had in mind for the film. The key ingredient here is Ryuk, performed on screen by Jason Liles and voiced by Willem Dafoe. He looks amazing as a live version of the angular, quill festooned death god.

Acting:
This was a well acted film, in most respects, with good performances all around. Two actors merit particular attention:

Willem Dafoe as Ryuk: Dafoe is a heavy hitter in Hollywood and as soon as I heard his voice, I knew the casting department had made a good decision. He nails the creepy, otherworldly vibe the director seemed to be going for, and his facial expressions were motion captured to feature on the death god.

Lakeith Stanfield as "L": I was wondering if they could find someone who could provide us with the quirky, rapid fire zany genius of "L" from the anime. Stanfield's delivery is near perfect, even encompassing the posture and motions of the monkey-like animated character. I hope he got medical treatment for all the sugar he had to ingest...


Writing:
The original show had stellar writing, with plot twists and clever reveals galore. It's some kind of master class on writing a thriller.

The Netflix film adaptation is not on that level. Some of this is due to time constraints. You can't have a labyrinthine back-and-forth between two geniuses in an hour and a half. A good prestige takes at least two hours and ten minutes. 

Most of the issue is in the characters and their motivations. Only Ryuk is basically the same person from the series to the film. And this severely hampers what they can do with the premise.

In the series, both Light and "L" are best described as high functioning sociopaths. Their minds operate on a level beyond anyone else around them and as a result they do not maintain relationships with the same emotional ties as normal people. Instead, their lives are defined by principles. For Light, it's the idea of justice: evil is punished, good is rewarded. For "L", it's the law: order is maintained by the apprehension of criminal elements that parasitically feed on society.

In the film, Light, while bright, is not a genius and is fueled almost entirely by emotionalism. He first uses the Death Note to avenge his own wounded pride, then to sate his anger at his mother's killer. He continues to go further in his use of the Note in order to woo, win, and keep the charms of his truly psychotic girlfriend Mia. He is weak willed and easily led, and yet shows almost no remorse for his actions.

This makes him entirely uninteresting as a character. You know exactly what he's going to do every step of the way and there is no hope, however tantalizing, that he can be redeemed. It's a far cry from the slow, steady drip of further justifications we get from Light in the series.

"L" likewise reacts in an emotional rage when he realizes his aide/caretaker Watari has been killed. This leads "L" to commit an act as evil as the ones he is trying to stop and in so doing corrupts him.

Mia was a pawn in Light's game with "L" in the series, an innocent foil so blinded by worship of her "savior" that she couldn't see his lack of empathy. She was our "normal", the perspective the audience could immediately identify with. In the film, she's the temptress, a Miltonian Eve inviting Adam to have another bite.

The changes allow them to truncate the format and race more quickly into the action, but it undercuts the relationships that made the show memorable in the first place. The themes are the same but the execution is lacking.

Action:
We have a fistfight with an unimportant goon that sets up the wounded pride mentioned earlier. Several scenes show us the gory deaths of those under the influence of the Death Note. Light and Mia lie to family, law enforcement, and each other.

"L" gobbles candy, sits weirdly, and has a spastic attack of fear and rage.

Things ramp up as the movie heads into the climax, with a foot chase, a car chase, gunshots, a sneak attack, a toppling Ferris wheel, and a cackling Ryuk overlooking it all like a proud papa.

Summary:
If you are a fan of the original anime series, you're going to be disappointed with everything but the visuals in this adaptation. If you haven't seen the anime, consider this a high budget fan advertisement for the original series.