‘Death Note’ Review Round-Up
The live-action remake of popular Japanese manga and anime Death Note is coming out soon on Netflix and early critic reviews are trickling in. While many people have expressed concern into how this adaptation will go (particularly in regards to its controversy surrounding its casting and American location).
This past weekend at the annual San Diego Comic-Con, a few fans and press members were given a chance to preview the show followed by a Q&A session with the cast members.
Overall, the reviews are a little mixed, but they shared some consistent thoughts. Gamespot believes that the show has “little in here that should enrage most fans” even if it is “far from an exact adaptation, taking great liberties with the plot and some of the characters as well.” LRM chimes in agreement, saying “fans of the manga will likely still poke and prod this adaptation due to its relative unfaithfulness to the manga.”
And for fans of the original anime, they may agree with JoBlo’s sentiments who stated:
Whatever the excuse, there is definitely something lost in translation in bringing DEATH NOTE to life as an English language film for the first time. It’s not a terrible film by any means, but it’s frequently an awkward one. It is clearly ambitious, with enough spirit from the cast and crew to make it look as if there’s something meaningful brewing underneath the surface gloss, but it keeps tripping over its own feet thanks to a storyline that appears to keep changing the rules as it goes along. Furthermore, it glosses over the most interesting part of its premise – would you play God if you could? – in favor of a fairly ho-hum cat-and-mouse thriller angle. The material is challenging, there’s no doubt about that, and it would have been a herculean task for anyone to make it sensible and effective in the span of a single movie. This attempt at DEATH NOTE comes up short at being a coherent adaptation of a sprawling international cultural phenomenon, and it likely won’t serve as an enticing gateway for newbies.
As of now, it seems like the remake adaptation definitely strays from the original anime and manga, and whether or not that’s a good thing will depend on the viewers. But until the series officially comes out on Netflix, you can watch the trailer below in anticipation for what’s to come.
Death Note streams on Netflix on August 25, 2017.
What do you think of the series? Will you be watching it? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: ComicBook
