Today, fellow movie expert Punchy Critic and I went to watch a special viewing of "L: Changed the World." It is the final chapter of the live-action "Death Note" movies, which is based off of the popular anime series of the same name. Before I went to the theater, I kept reminding myself not to compare this to the anime series because this movie should be isolated from the first two live-action films. Why? The second Death Note deviated from the anime series in a big way, so I knew that this third film was going to be a completely different animal; It was.
Campy and cheesy doesn't even begin to describe this movie. The script was poorly written to the point that I was cringing throughout the entire movie. The movie was about L's final 23 days on this Earth and his final case. The case was about an environmental group who developed a lethal virus to wipe out human beings for their role in destroying the world around us. It seems that everyone is "going green," and this didn't leave Death Note behind. There was no antidote for the virus, so the group was trying to find one, so they can go ahead with their vicious plans.
Throughout the entire film, they kept referencing the United States. As always, the United States got blamed for everything. I am so tired of these "the USA is to blame for everything going on in the world" plots. It was so typical of them to do this. I knew before the movie started that they were probably going to go that route, and of course, they didn't disappoint.
Another annoying factor was how they totally thought the audience forgot a major part of the storyline. In the beginning, a Thailand village gets infected by the lethal virus and men with Hazmat suits come to take blood from the infected to take for research. One of the operatives, who is like L, befalls the fate as the villagers and tries to warn the initiative that L is part of. He is accompanied by a little boy, who even though he was in the village, is completely symptom free. However, for the rest of the movie, til the last 30 minutes, no one thought about it. You are telling me that L can find that Light Yagami is Kira, but he didn't think about that fact? Punchy and I were cracking up.
The Hazmat Suits being used as a fashion statement was pretty funny. It came in all colors of the rainbow: yellow, blue, orange, red, gray. I told Punchy that I wanted my own Hazmat suit because they sure were pretty. It didn't make any sense. What was the point of having different colors? It just made the movie more cheesy.
The death scene of the leading scientist was laughable. For a moment, I thought I had started watching a bad horror film. The blood looked, like Punchy said, like it was sweet -n- sour sauce. For me, I thought some of it looked like water with red food coloring. Additionally, the amount of time it took that dude, who had just injected himself with tons of the virus, went from sympathy to laughable. Everyone was laughing because he kept coming back and back and back.
The environmental group was another stupidity. Here are these nerdy students who are working with plants. All of a sudden, they become these hardcore vigilantes who know one could beat. The girl upset me the most because she was skinny as a rail, I assume had no combat training, but she turned into this psychotic, blood-thirsty killer who everyone should be afraid of. Ughhhh...I kept whispering to Punchy, "What the hell is that about?"
They took L's eccentricity and turned it into something that we are suppose to mock and laugh at. It irked me how they tried to make him this physically weak individual who couldn't even lift a finger. Even though I said I wouldn't compare this to the anime series, I had to on this. Why? L is suppose to be the same character as in the anime. In it, L knew martial arts and could beat the best of them.
I can't really type more because then I will reveal the entire plot, and I don't want to spoil it for anyone. The movie was disappointing. Even if it was more of a standalone movie, it still shouldn't have deviated that much from its roots. It was this slapstick comedy that was still trying to have something of the Death Note series.
When the credits rolled, everyone around us stayed behind because they promised that someone would win an autograph of the actor who plays L. Punchy and I looked at one another and rolled out.
