I've always been a fan of Death Note, but the announcement of a Western remake of the series had me a bit worried. Any anime remake in the west always has me worried. There's always something that's lost in translation from east to west. I came into this Netflix original movie thinking, "what exactly did I like about the original Death Note, and will it translate here?" I didn't mind storyline changes as long as the work captured what I liked about the original series.
I've boiled it down to two things: 1) the characters and 2) the cat and mouse mindgames. After watching the film it's safe to say that this remake completely misses the point of both.
First off, the characters. The Death Note remake tells the story of Light Turner, a teenager who gains the possession of a magical notebook that can kill. This version of Light is someone who has experienced injustice from society - he's a loser through and through. He uses the Death Note to impress a girl, Mia Sutton (this film's version of Misa Amane/Kiyomi Takada.) And that's kind of the biggest problem with this version of Light: he's become a boring, run of the mill protagonist. The audience HAS to cheer for him because he's such an underdog. In the manga and anime, Light is a super-intelligent, elite student. People don't beat him up and bully him, they adore and revere him; he uses the Death Note not just out of a sense of righteousness, but out of a god complex - he literally thinks he is a god. Making Light a run of the mill protagonist takes away a whole meta-layer of meaning from the film's themes of righteousness and the people who we trust to dispense that justice.
This film's version of L, on the other hand, is still eccentric and a peculiar person, but the script's characterization sucks the charm right out of him. In many ways original L was a mirror to the character of Light - he possesses the same level of intelligence but society views both characters in different ways. In this film, that aspect to both characters is lost. L acts scared and nervous when L should be calm and collected. L isn't even that clever in this iteration. While it's a valid way to take the character, it's just not as interesting.
If anyone should have taken the role of Light, it should be the character of Mia - she's far more proactive with her usage of the Death Note and she overall makes for a more interesting character compared to the boring Light. The film predictably pushes her to the periphery of the story. The only shining spot in the entire movie is Willem Dafoe, who plays the part of the Shinigami Ryuk. I think there's never been a more perfect casting choice in the history of anime adaptations. Again, like Mia, Ryuk is pushed to the side to give way to the more boring characters.
The second thing I liked about the original Death Note is the psychological warfare that occurs between its two characters. Personally this is one of the biggest reasons why the original series is entertaining. There were plans within plans, clever strategies and moments of extreme one-upsmanship. This is a series that can make a simple tennis match or even eating potato chips epic. Guess what, aside from a short thing near the end there's nothing like that here. Without the psychological warfare there was literally nothing left for me to latch on.
Adam Wingard is known for directing horror movies, and it seems he was going for a specific kind of aesthetic with this one, with more gore, sometimes lush colors and an eighties-inspired soundtrack. That aesthetic hardly fits this story, either, as it feels more like the deformed love child of Final Destination and 13 Reasons Why than a Death Note adaptation.
The 2017 Death Note remake is another example of a remake that thoroughly and deeply misunderstands its source material. Even if you have not watched an episode of the anime or read a chapter of the manga, it comes off as a forgettable, boring pseudo horror flick. My expectations coming in were low, but the film shattered those expectations in a bad way - the film was a complete waste of my time.
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