I really had high hopes for this film, which I think was the biggest problem I have when writing about it. After finishing the series most of my friends who were big Death Note fans recommended the live action movies, claiming they were as good as the show, or close enough to it.

The animated series was compelling if somewhat convoluted by the end, and I liked the ambiguity of the whole good/bad dilemma – who is right? Kira or L? One of my biggest gripes with the film adaptation was that it seems to abandon this ambiguity by the end. It’s interesting that they make Light more realistic – more human, you could say – but at the same time Ryuzaki is the complete opposite, a cartoon character embodied in a live actor. And in the middle you’ve got the “meh” CGI Ryuk.

It’s not all bad though. The film itself, while mostly following the original series (with some additions/omissions as expected), is slightly less convoluted than the series due to Light’s character being a bit more subtle. I’m usually not a fan of simplifying things for mass appeal, but it certainly makes this feel more like a real movie and less like an anime. At least until L shows up on screen.

I’ll probably watch the sequel with lowered expectations, but I’d have to say Death Note is still worth watching if anything because it’s a solid adaptation of a fantastic series. It’s always difficult to faithfully adapt any source material across the divide between mediums like animation and real life, but Death Note does it in a way akin to Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City: by sticking to the source.