The Hollow And Forgettable Death Note Lacks Substance But At Least Willem Dafoe Is Fun In It

Because the majority of the most well-known American comic book characters are owned by two comic book companies (Marvel and DC Comics) that are each already owned by differing corporations, movie studios in recent years have been looking around for other already-established material to work as the basis for franchises that can replicate the success of these comic book based features. We've gotten more high-profile video game movies lately as attempts to make that subgenre the next beloved nerdy pop culture staple alongside comic book movies. Of course, we all know the majority of video game movies haven't gone so well and the same can be said for American movie adaptations of pieces of Anime, a subgenre the new Netflix movie Death Note belongs to.


If you're like me, you'll be walking into Death Note having no prior exposure to the mythology of this universe that was previously seen in assorted Japanese TV shows and movies. My ignorance of such a mythology came to an end with this American feature film adaptation, which comes courtesy of director Adam Wingard, the guy responsible for You're Next, one of the best horror movies of the decade. In Death Note, High Schooler Light (Nat Wolff) randomly comes into possession of the titular magical notebook that offers a person the ability to write a human beings name down and how they'll die and, just like that, the person will die in real life in whatever way the possessor of the Death Note wishes.

That sure is a lot of power to give one human being, and after taking out a school bully and the guy responsible for his mom's death, Light decides to use the Death Note to take out criminals all across the planet with the help of his newfound girlfriend Mia (Margaret Qualley), who keeps urging Light to keep taking his abilities to the next level, and the death-obsessed demon Ryuk (Willem Dafoe). In order to keep his identity concealed, Light conjures up the persona of Kira to take responsibility for the widespread deaths occurring across the planet. Many think this Kira person is a savior but many don't trust him, including experienced investigator L (Keith Stanfield), who seeks to find out who is really behind the Kira persona.

Death Note is an odd movie in that it rises to the level of serviceable and then completely stops trying to improve itself beyond that. The actors are mostly doing decent work, Keith Stanfield and especially Willem Dafoe are the most stand-out performances of the entire film by a country mile, the directing by Wingard is actually pretty good, but the real problems emerge from the screenplay penned by a trio of writers, one of whom is Jeremy Slater. While the script at least avoids being overlong and the various death scenes have an entertainingly over-the-top nature to them, it has a major tendency to just bypass pivotal character details or story points for reasons I can't quite fathom.

For instance, Light comes up with the Kira persona, implements it and then Kira becomes a God-like entity across the planet in the span of a singular 2-3 minute long montage, not nearly enough time for this event that reshapes the entire world to really have an impact, it just goes by in a flash. Similarly, the crucial Light/Mia romantic relationship is also established in another overly hurried montage while time spent with Light before he obtains the Death Note also have a rushed feeling to them in their execution, which leaves our lead character woefully underwritten. What's the hurry? Where does this movie have to go? Let's get acquainted with our main characters so I'll actually care about what happens once the Death Note leads things to get out of hand.

The rapid-fire nature of Death Note is a blessing and a curse and I'd have to say it's more of the latter element than the former. While the quicker style of the entire story at least keeps the pace moving, there's totally a way to slow down and let the viewer take in important plot points and character moments without hindering the overall pace of your story and Death Note has trouble actually doing that. Because it has no substance on its bones, the film just doesn't linger in one's mind like it should. The problems with our lead characters on a thematic level are only enhanced by the generic performances given by both Nat Wolff and Margaret Qualley, neither of whom are able to make much of their meagerly written roles.

At least some stylized traits in the story, like L's fixation on candy and odd way of sitting in chairs, do keep Death Note sporadically lively, same goes for Willem Dafoe as a creepy apple-obsessed demon who serves as an amusing commentator on the actions unfolding in Light's life. If only the movie surrounding these two was as entertaining as they were, maybe Wingard could have produced a movie up to the standards of You're Next (though Death Note at least rises above the tepid quality of that Blair Witch movie Wingard directed last Fall). More mediocre than being either a disaster or an unexpected classic, Death Note comes off as an empty exercise that's more distracting than entertaining or enlightening. Better luck next time on the anime movie adaptations, American movie studios.