"Death Note" based off of the anime, manga of the same name joins the long list of controversially Whitewashed adaptations churned out by the film business, but let's get into the real problems with Netflix, Adam Wingard's take on the popular anime, manga. "Death Note" is a bland, poorly paced, poorly directed, poorly acted, and most importantly very, very stupid movie, and that's not a knock on the original material because well, I haven't seen it. (also, it's an anime) Since putting out two very good original films in "You're Next" and "The Guest", Adam Wingard has seem to have forgotten how to be a good director with his latest offerings in the form of "Blair Witch" and the movie I am talking about with you right now, this film should have been called "Dutch Angles: The Movie" because there are A LOT of them, it would make Michael Bay jealous, and the acting isn't much better. Nat Wolff as Light is just so bland and poorly written, there's nothing about him to like and his seamless willingness to take part in bringing death to criminals is not in the least convincing, same with his sadistic girlfriend played by Margaret Qualley, who goes from beautiful cheerleader to psychotic partner in crime in a heartbeat. Keith Stanfield is poorly cast as L whilst Willem Dafoe is perfect as the demon Ryuk. With better direction and a better script this could have at least been a quite decent film, the film also fails with its tone which is just all over the place, maybe if the film was taken in a less serious tone with a director like Edgar Wright or Taika Waititi, it could have been great.
Review of Death Note
