Wow... They could not have missed the mark more with this film... Style over substance and too over produced and stylized for its own good. Pop synth neon gritty 80's wannabe trash.
I didn't really care that L was a black guy, but the character just didn't do it for me. L is supposed to be calm and autistically charming, but this one is kind of just comes off like a street-wise hacker with a sweet tooth.
Light's girlfriend Misa was... not even the same character. At all. They could have given her a different name entirely and it wouldn't have mattered one bit.
Light is supposed to be this America Psycho level genius and yet he seems like any other kid. They try to show his genius in various plot points, but it comes off as forced as the rest of the film he acts like a susceptible moron.
Willem Dafoe as Riuk was the closest to being accurate, however they made him like an antagonist... which kind of misses the entire point of Riuk to begin. This is his entertainment, he doesn't have a stake in who wins or who loses. That's what made him so interesting.
The movie doesn't even end, it just stops. Gives up, more like. I don't even think they were leaving it open for a sequel, they just literally ran out of story to tell.
Overall it seems like a film made by people who didn't really understand what DeathNote was all about... And the decision to make this a single film really shows that. It needs to either be multiple films in a series or just another TV show entirely. Sorry but you can't possibly tell this story in a way that does it any justice otherwise. Just comes off as watered down Cliff's Notes garbage.
