Death Note

Name: Death Note
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Released: August 25, 2017
Duration: 101 min
Rating: 43
Cast: Christopher Britton, Jack Ettlinger, Jason Liles, Lakeith Stanfield, Margaret Qualley

2017

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally unfavorable reviews based on 482 Ratings

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3.2	User Score Generally unfavorable reviews based on 482 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Warner Bros. | Release Date: August 25, 2017 | TV-MA

Starring: Christopher Britton, Jack Ettlinger, Jason Liles, Lakeith Stanfield, Margaret Qualley, Masi Oka, Matthew Kevin Anderson, Michael Shamus Wiles, Nat Wolff, Natalie Moon, Paul McGillion, Paul Nakauchi, Shea Whigham, Willem Dafoe

Summary: A high school student comes across a supernatural notebook, realizing it holds within it a great power; if the owner inscribes someone's name into it while picturing their face, he or she will die. Intoxicated with his new godlike abilities, the young man begins to kill those he deems unworthy of life. [Netflix]

Director: Adam Wingard

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Fantasy, Horror, Crime

Rating: TV-MA

Runtime: 101 min

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Critic Reviews

Zach Budgor

Aug 31, 2017

Wingard’s Death Note moves like a bullet and doles out practical gore and overheated melodrama in equal measure. Read full review

Blair Marnell

Jul 24, 2017

What’s frustrating is that with better lead performers and a tighter script, Wingard could have made a great adaptation. Instead it settles when it should have soared. Read full review

Clayton Dillard

Aug 21, 2017

Whereas the more grounded scenes of Death Note anchor a startlingly bloody fantasy of power run amok, the scenes that fixate on super powers and code-busting seldom manage to rise above the realm of serviceable YA fiction. Read full review

Justin Lowe

Aug 22, 2017

Rather than relying on amplifying typical genre conventions, Wingard methodically lays the foundation to set up this particular Death Note adaptation for a potential sequel, but the outcome is more deliberate than inspired. Read full review

Peter Debruge

Aug 24, 2017

The movie never quite reckons with just how twisted a concept it’s peddling, and that’s easily the scariest thing about it. Read full review

IndieWire David Ehrlich

Aug 21, 2017

The only reason to take such a uniquely Japanese story and transplant it to Seattle is to explore how its thorny moral questions might inspire different answers in an American context, so for this retread to all but reduce America to its whiteness indicates an absence of context more than anything else. It’s the most glaring symptom of a film that utterly fails to investigate its premise. Read full review

Inkoo Kang

Aug 21, 2017

The new horror-thriller is cheesy, asinine, convoluted and ludicrous. On the plus side, if your eyeballs need a vigorous workout, this will have them rolling nonstop. Read full review

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User Reviews

brunoalmiro

Aug 25, 2017

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. ótimo... foda-se se e diferente do anime.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................… Expand

10 of 81 users found this helpful1071

fabioloso31

Aug 25, 2017

Death note is an adaptation of the famous manga and anime, and while its source material is way better than this movie, I found myself enjoying this cinematic outing. The script was rushed, yes, mainly in the beginning, but it wrapped up pretty nicely in the end. I also thought that it was aDeath note is an adaptation of the famous manga and anime, and while its source material is way better than this movie, I found myself enjoying this cinematic outing. The script was rushed, yes, mainly in the beginning, but it wrapped up pretty nicely in the end. I also thought that it was a good idea to try and update the story for western audiences, you need to try and call people's attention and I think they did that very well. Overall I liked the film, it's not perfect and I knew they would take a lot of liberties, but it was very enjoyable and the direction by Adam wingard is amazing!… Expand

6 of 28 users found this helpful622

ElPolloLoco82

Aug 25, 2017

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Bottom line, this movie needed to be a miniseries and not rushed into roughly an hour and a half movie. The pacing was too fast and it doesn't allow you to really connect with any of the characters in the movie. Another problem I had with this adaptation, which is what most people will point out is that they fundamentally changed the core attributes of the characters that they adapted from the anime series. For instance, Light was smart, but he wasn't genius level smart like he was in the anime series. He also wasn't very confident and the way they approached being "Kira" was completely different. Light, in the anime series, was all about creating and being the god of this new world order where crime will essentially be eliminated, and nothing and no one would stand in the way of that. This Light, just didn't have the stomach for it. Not to mention, Light, in the series, was the epitome of what every man wish they were, and every woman wished they were with. Light. in this movie, was remarkably average; even down to the reason for why he continuing to use the Death Note and pursued this life as Kira, all to impress a girl (Mia). What really made the anime series shine though, was the way Light and L danced a mental tango where Light was trying to either find a way to eliminate L or convince L that he wasn't Kira and L trying to get L to slip up so to confirm his suspicions that Light was Kira. In this movie, not so much; L confronts Light at a gelato shop, where he breaks Light to into letting it slip that he was Kira. This movie would have been better served if they cast a better Light, and didn't write him as such an unconfident wussy. Also, in the series, Ryuk and Lights relationship wasn't as adversarial as it was in this movie. In the series, Light and Ryuk was there for some side commentary and answer any questions that Light may have had in regards to the Death Note. In the movie, they really didn't like each other. Ryuk was the true star of this movie and because they played the relationship the way they did, his screen time was pretty limited. All in all, it's going to upset fans of the original anime series. To the point where they will flat out give this a "0" because of those differences. I think if you come in, never seeing the anime series, you'll find this movie to be remarkably average. That's why it's getting the oh so average score of a "5".… Expand

4 of 14 users found this helpful410

Feud

Dec 14, 2018

Even worse than expected.
This movie has an amazing story to work with, but they completely mess it up. Every character is badly written and utterly miscast except for Ryuk.
I thought Willem Defoe did a great job as Ryuk and i wish he took up more screen time because i could not stand anyEven worse than expected.
This movie has an amazing story to work with, but they completely mess it up. Every character is badly written and utterly miscast except for Ryuk.
I thought Willem Defoe did a great job as Ryuk and i wish he took up more screen time because i could not stand any other character.
It's pretty clear that the writers and director did not study the source-meterial well.
The music in this movie was so weird and inappropriate.
The acting wasn't very good either. They really missed the tone of this movie. I wanted to see a clever conversation between 2 geniuses but all i got was a chase scene between an average detective and a dumb high school cuck.
Apart from some nice shots and Ryuk this movie was a laughable disaster.
A generous: 2/10.… Expand

3 of 4 users found this helpful31

hopefulcynic

Oct 19, 2018

Wow. Just. Wow. I heard this movie was bad and thought what the hell, I'll go into it like I did with Cloverfield Paradox (a really dumb movie) and just have a fun time. That worked with CP, but holy hell was Death Note a bad movie. Now I don't expect everything to be like the anime. ThereWow. Just. Wow. I heard this movie was bad and thought what the hell, I'll go into it like I did with Cloverfield Paradox (a really dumb movie) and just have a fun time. That worked with CP, but holy hell was Death Note a bad movie. Now I don't expect everything to be like the anime. There are some things from the show that would only work in an anime (such as Misa's personality and the potato chip scene), but changing Light and L the way they did was a bad choice. I'm sure a lot of people are going to get mad that they made L black. I get that, but didn't really care as L's ethnicity was never an important part of the show and the show takes place in America. The changes that did piss me off were how stupid, emotional, and irrational they made those two main characters. In the show, L and Light are brilliant and watching their cat and mouse games play out is what makes this show so much fun to watch. L is also subtitle. In the show, L eventually introduces himself to Light and even invites him into the investigation. He's smart and knows that he can get to know him better even though he only thinks it's a 5% chance that Light is Kira. There's a scene in the show where L "interrogates" Light by playing a game of tennis without saying hardly a word. That's the subtlety that made the show great. In the movie, L confronts Light pretty early on and tells him that he knows he's Kira. Light doesn't even deny this. They get into a shouting match and L starts knocking things off of the table.

I'm going to stop myself here because I want to give my 2 cents on the movie as it stands on it's own. Without ever seeing the anime, you're still going to hate this movie. It looks like it was directed by drunk teenagers that happened to have a decent budget (though they clearly did not spend that money on good actors). It felt like there were scenes that were supposed to be in the movie, but the editors forgot to add them. For example there's this scene where Ryuk tells Light that he told him to give up the note, "but [Light] didn't listen". The problem with that scene is that that discussion never happened. There is a scene in the beginning where Ryuk tells Light how to get rid of the book, but in that scene he's pretty much encouraging him to use it. This happens a lot, but I don't want to spoil the movie. This movie is filled with plot holes and inconsistencies. It's frustrating to watch. Don't watch this movie even out of curiosity. It's hands down one of the worse movies I've ever seen in my life. The only redeeming quality this movie has is that William Defoe as Ryuk was **** brilliant. He nails that character so well. In fact, they handled his character pretty well. They changed a lot about him from the anime, but some of it was better for the movie. The problem is that they don't explore the character at all. The closest they get is a warning in the note that "He's not your pet. He's not your friend. Don't trust Ryuk". Nothing ever comes from that. The show actually doesn't obsess over the killings from the death note. Sure Light uses it, but most of the deaths are mostly heart attacks (that's how the person dies if you don't specify) and the whole show is about exploring morality, right and wrong, and who gets to makes those judgments. I thought this show was going to ditch that and just be a gory horror film. That would have been better than trying to do both. The thing that made the show so good is that it kept surprising you because the writers were intelligent and came up with things that blew you away. This show just didn't have the talent to pull that off so it's in between the two and it just doesn't work.

Save yourself and avoid this movie like the plague.… Expand

3 of 4 users found this helpful31

Toasty87

Jul 12, 2020

Terrible overacted remake of the Japanese cult classic it's just bad really really bad.

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

babylonchase

Aug 26, 2017

I am still in disbelief that Netflix somehow made one of the best manga/anime of the 00s a wholly unwatchable insulting piece of cinematic garbage. 5000 words isn't enough to properly convey not just my disappointment in their adaptation of the narrative, plot, and characters. NetflixI am still in disbelief that Netflix somehow made one of the best manga/anime of the 00s a wholly unwatchable insulting piece of cinematic garbage. 5000 words isn't enough to properly convey not just my disappointment in their adaptation of the narrative, plot, and characters. Netflix basically did their own thing and—like Iron Fist—it sucks.… Expand

7 of 9 users found this helpful72

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