The Death Note Series Part Two

DEATH NOTE: NEW GENERATION

(2016)

Dir - Shinsuke Sato

Overall: MEH

Essentially serving as an elongated trailer for Death Note: Light Up the New World, the companion piece webseries Death Note: New Generation debuted about a month earlier.  Co-existing in the same universe set up in the following decade's trilogy of films that were based off of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's manga, a new crop of characters are introduced, spread out over three twenty-two minute episodes.  These include a combination of those who are following in either the footsteps of the anti-hero Death Note wielder Kira or his eccentric, super genius nemesis L since once again the title notebook of doom is in another's hands and a fresh crop of criminals are dropping dead across the globe.  If it all seems too similar to what has already been delivered in the series, that is because it is.  The final episode "Shien's Chapter: Fanaticism" though is easily the most refreshing as it is the first proper glimpse we have been given into one of the aforementioned doomed criminal's psyches; a now reformed, deeply remorseful janitor who is trying to justify his own happiness with a fiance and baby on the way.  There really is not enough here to garnish a heavily level of enthusiasm as to what the cinematic franchise will offer up next, but the already initiated will probably enjoy the familiarity.

DEATH NOTE: LIGHT UP THE NEW WORLD

(2016)

Dir - Shinsuke Sato

Overall: MEH

 

To date the final cinematic chapter in the Japanese franchise of Death Note films, Death Note: Light Up the New World continues from the groundwork laid out with the joint webseries Death Note: New Generation.  This serves as a direct sequel to the second movie from ten years prior, with the stakes properly raised and continual references to characters past and events that have already transpired.  Several of the actors return in either cameos or in Erika Toda and Shidō Nakamura II's case, more fleshed out roles as Miss Amane and the voice of Ryuk respectfully.  For better or worse, the story here hits several identical beats as before.  Considering that one of the selling points for these movies in the first place are the clever plot reveals, this might be a problem in that fans will likely be able to spot them before they happen.  Juggling an abundance of characters might also make things a bit too convoluted and unintentionally silly since by comparison, the first two films did a better job taking their time to establish everyone properly.  From a production standpoint though, this is a slick affair with a pretty serious, dark tone and vastly improved digital effects.  It is certainly still enjoyable, just less memorable due to its retreaded nature.

DEATH NOTE

(2017)

Dir - Adam Wingard
Overall: WOOF

In an attempt to re-calibrate Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's manga and subsequent, Japanese film series Death Note into its inevitable, American remake, nearly everything that made the initial source material compelling is wrecked with some of the worst choices possible.  Director Adam Wingard creates an unintentionally hilarious, awful mess that is likely to come off as preposterously stupid to the uninitiated while also coming off as preposterously stupid to both diehards or just anyone casually familiar with the earlier films.  Only the bare bones premise of a teenager named Light coming in contact with the title book of doom, him having a police detective for a dad, the apple-eating death god named Ryuk boasting the same look, and super detective L eating lots of candies are kept as the entire plot and virtually every character's personality, motivations, and mannerisms are changed for the worse.  Light is a mopey wuss who is more hung-up on his cohort girlfriend than concerned with his twisted,  anti-hero agenda and the film only dances around the morally challenging questions that the initial series endlessly explored.  L gets it the worst though, going from his original form of an eccentric, emotionless, painstakingly careful strategist to an impulsive, screaming, ranting and raving psycho that comes to only the most obvious conclusions while solving virtually nothing of importance.  It is unfortunately necessary to compare this to all of the other properties in the franchise in order to justify its existence as a fresh take, but it only ends up being more of a rotten one instead.