A Little Different

Just finished up the live action Death Note and Death Note: The Last Name. We watched the first Death Note movie the other night and couldn't find the second movie, so we were literally left hanging (even though we have read the manga). Then, I found it tonight, so we finished it up.

If you don't know what Death Note is, click HERE for more about it.

It's actually best if you don't read the manga or watch the anime before seeing the live action movies. If you have, you'll find yourself criticizing how they did the scenes, or the way they HIGHLY condensed the movie. Of course, the whole series was condensed into two 2 1/2 hour movies. Really rather sad, considering you don't see how brilliant either Light or "L" actually are.

It took us both a couple of minutes to figure out what seemed to be a plot hole in the movie, but then we remembered the Death Note rules, but there still seems to be a plot hole, but we'll have to think on it.

As I said, if you've read the manga or seen the anime, it's best to go into this movie with the mindset of pure entertainment and to see how they did the characters. The first movie seems to just throw actors in the middle of this world and see how they act, but the second movie actually attempted to make them look like the characters (I think, anyway). The acting is better in the second--I think the actors finally grasped their characters.

Of course, since it is originally a Japanese film, some of the footage in the first film looks "raw". Some (actually, most) Japanese films have a raw footage look in them, a bit untouched. I'm not sure if this is a natural occurance, or they don't care, but if you're used to Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" filter, you'll notice the difference in film look quality.

And one tiny rant. The least looking-like-the-character is Yagami Light. In the first movie, he's downright ugly-looking. The second movie they cleaned him up a bit and styled his hair more like the manga/anime Light. I mean, c'mon! He's supposed to be a handsome genius (albiet, evil).

I was a bit surprised in the way they condensed it--they did a rather good job considering they only had 5+ hours to tell the whole series in. So kudos for that.

I recommend the film for fans. Even if you're not a die-hard Death Note fan, you might enjoy it. Other than that, it's a basic manga-to-film adaptation; has potential, but probably could have been done a bit better.

STORY: 7 (a good condensing of the storyline)
MUSIC: 4 (nothing special--the anime's music is much better)

L's real name is ローライト. Haha! Didn't think I'd actually SPOIL it for you, huh?

Okay, which one is the proffesional actor?

Would you believe the second one? Yup, the first one is a cosplayer. The second one is the actor in the Death Note movies. Here's the official manga picture of L:

Now, let's compare Light Yagami from manga to live-action. First, can we mention that light is HOT in the manga? And then he is hit with an ugly stick. About 7 or so times.