{"id":26168,"date":"2017-08-22T01:21:08","date_gmt":"2017-08-22T05:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=26168"},"modified":"2017-08-22T01:21:08","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T05:21:08","slug":"death-note-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/22\/death-note-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Death Note (2017)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve been a casual fan and observer of \u201cDeath Note<\/a>\u201d since the mid-aughts and have always been fascinated with its premise and the moral dilemmas it props up for the audience and its characters. It\u2019s almost like \u201cThe Box<\/a>\u201d but with a hit of adrenaline and more complex ideas and philosophies. Director Adam Wingard adapts \u201cDeath Note\u201d for a new audience, taking the material from Tsugumi\u00a0Ohba\u00a0and\u00a0Takeshi\u00a0Obata, and adding his own quirks, ideas, and dashes of dark comedy. What we get is a stark, entertaining horror movie that is very much a \u201cDeath Note\u201d tale, but one that works in its own rhythm for a broader audience, without alienating the core fan base.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Director Wingard wisely doesn\u2019t spend the one hundred minute run time of \u201cDeath Note\u201d on endless exposition. Instead he and writers Charley\u00a0Parlapanides,\u00a0Vlas\u00a0Parlapanides,\u00a0and\u00a0Jeremy\u00a0Slater explain certain elements and keep minor points ambiguous. Even through the very end, a lot of what we know about the book is shrouded in mystery and we can never be sure what to make of the demon and book keeper Ryuk. Is he a cursed demon looking for someone to take his place in hell, or is he just a demon having some good old fun with us stupid humans? \u201cDeath Note\u201d stars Nat Wolff as Light, a brilliant student who spends his days doing assignments for classmates for extra cash. After one unusual stormy day, Light discovers an unusual leather book called \u201cDeath Note\u201d and much to his horror is approached by an enigmatic firey eyed demon named Ryuk.<\/p>\n

Ryuk offers to give the book to Light, explaining that by writing names down on the book, Light has the power to decide who dies, and how. Filled with rage over the death of his mother at the hands of a powerful gangster, Light begins to take it upon himself to begin striking down criminals and murderers across the country. With his new girlfriend Mia (A very good Margaret Qualley), they set out to right a lot of wrongs with the alias of Kira. But things get complicated with a mastermind detective named \u201cL\u201d begins tracking down \u201cKira.\u201d \u201cDeath Note\u201d is altered in the realm of motivations and aesthetic, where director Wingard frames the movie as more of a teen drama with a heavy emphases morality and an eighties motif. While the original movie was more a crime thriller with a cat and mouse game, Light is depicted as more of a confused character who takes his role as \u201cKira\u201d seriously, and begins to rationalize a lot of his actions and murders.<\/p>\n

Lakeith Stanfield who gave a memorable turn in \u201cGet Out,\u201d is excellent as the enigmatic \u201cL,\u201d a brilliant avenger who is committed to stopping Light at all costs, and becomes obsessed with stopping him the more people around him begin dying by the spell of the book. Stanfield has a good time in the role and Wingard stages some great moments with Wolff, including a confrontation in a restaurant. I\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t mention Willem Dafoe who is a dynamo as the morally ambiguous monster Ryuk. As the demon and death dealer, Ryuk is someone who constantly taunts Light, and he\u2019s a consistently devious force that lurks in the shadows cackling in delight. The animation for Ryuk is mesmerizing as fans will definitely appreciate how his design isn\u2019t at all a departure from his appearance in the original series.<\/p>\n

I wish we could have seen much more of \u201cL\u201d working his magic foiling the crimes of Light, as well as the cat and mouse game that made the original movie so compelling. Stanfield and Wolff work well off of one another and I wish there was more emphases on the pair out witting one another. That said, \u201cDeath Note\u201d is a stellar iteration of the series, and Adam Wingard delivers a pulpy and engaging tale of a character pushed in to a corner due to grief,. All the while he successfully explores how the \u201cDeath Book\u201d is a weapon of great destruction, as well as a very enticing and seductive tool that appeals to our core desire for power and control over mortality.<\/p>\n

Debuting on Netflix August 25th<\/sup>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been a casual fan and observer of \u201cDeath Note\u201d since the mid-aughts and have always been fascinated with its premise and the moral dilemmas it props up for the audience and its characters. It\u2019s almost like \u201cThe Box\u201d but with a hit of adrenaline and more complex ideas and philosophies. Director Adam Wingard adapts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,240,276,302,477,703,874,1008,1087],"class_list":["post-26168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-adaptation","tag-crime","tag-demons","tag-drama","tag-horror","tag-mystery","tag-romance","tag-supernatural","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26170,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26168\/revisions\/26170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}