Written by: Charley Parlapanides & Vlas Parlapanides and Jeremy Slater (screenplay), Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata (based on "Death Note" by)
Directed by: Adam Wingard
Starring: Nat Wolff, Margaret Qualley, Lakeith Stanfield, Shea Whigham, Willem Dafoe
Rated: TV-MA
Plot
Based on a Japanese manga series, a high schooler possesses a notebook that grants him the power to kill anyone by writing their name in the notebook. He uses the notebook to kill criminals, while a detective pursues him.
Verdict
This is a great concept that is crushed under its own weight. While I haven't read the source material, the movie feels like a lot of information was compacted and edited to fit into the allotted run time. Any introspection is completely absent as the characters never really consider what they could do with or the ramifications from this notebook. The quirky detective doesn't translate well to reality.
Skip it.
Review
A stylish opening grabs your attention, but I was frequently questioning the logic of this world Why does the classroom have so many marbles, jars, and marbles in jars. Logically there is no reason, logistically it to creates a cool scene when Light stumbles into them shelves and causes it to crash to the floor.
Light (Nat Wolff) picks up a notebook that fell from the sky and meets the creature that put it in his possession. Ryuk is a strange looking creature that delights in death. Willem Dafoe voices the character, and the movie relegates the monster to the shadows because the costume never looks that good. The monster needed a costume on the level of Pan's Labyrinth (2006). It never escapes being a man in a costume. Wolff's 'scared' acting leaves a lot to be desired.
Ryuk convinces Light to use the book. That results in the first death of the movie that mimicked the Final Destination Rube Goldberg machine. It's the sharpest ladder I've ever seen and I'm still puzzled over how it was actually attached to a truck.
Light picks up a girl with his kill book, and we get a quick leap into two teens killing criminals with the book. Were these kids just predisposed to be psychopaths? For a minute this felt like Natural Born Killers (1994), but that effect didn't last long. Light, dumb name aside, could create a kill list. He seems like a kid that was picked on and the movie had a chance to explore that. I get this is pulling heavily from the source material, but did the source not consider this either?
Lakeith Stanfield plays a mysterious detective that is more cartoon than man. I'm sure that worked much better in the manga. The detective has an almost preternatural knowledge of who's behind the killings and deduces it's Light rather quickly. It's a big leap.
The mechanics of anything in this movie just aren't explained. Light kills criminals and creates a religion/persona, Kira. People follow Kira because Kira makes the world a better place. This also happens too quickly. This could be it's own movie as well.
I really think that what makes this movie weird and nonsensical probably worked in the manga. The movie could be more like The Box (2009), character driven with characters feeling the effects of their decisions. This story is global and it could have narrowed the focus to the emotional ramifications of just one death. The movie gives no emotion or weight to killing people. This weird kid finally has power over bullies and we don't see him respond to it. He could make himself a popular kid at school, but we don't see that and don't know whether he wants that or not. I have to assume this suffers from cramming twelve volumes of manga into ninety minutes. The end tries to be stylish again with an '80s song, Air Supply - The Power of Love, playing during parts of the final scene but it just feels forced. That's exactly what this movie is. It would have been better served to take the idea of a powerful killing machination that happens to be a notebook and keep a tight focus on what this mean for Light specifically and his social circle. Everything else is superfluous and just doesn't fit well in a movie. Adaptations from a source material are difficult to do well, and this seems like another case that just can't capture the original.
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