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Death Note (2017)
Why ruin a great thing?
TLDR; Don't watch this. Even if you have no familiarity with the original story, this is horribly done on every level.
** SO MANY SPOILERS ** I loved the manga and the anime. I'm excited for the Japanese live action. When I heard Netflix came out with this, I was excited... til I actually saw it. I'm writing this as I watch it. Let's break it down: Now, I'm going to ignore the changes that technically have no bearing on the story, such as this takes place in America instead of Japan. While in the Japanese, Light's last name was a sort of pun, they changed it here, but it's not important to the story, so I'll ignore it. Here, his mother is dead and there's no sign of his sister, which isn't necessary to the story, but seems like an odd change.
The movie opens with Light selling test answers. Already, this is a major issue. Original Light does what he does because he believes in right, in justice, in the law, and wants to pick up where the law leaves off. Selling test answers goes against everything Light is and believes. New Light swears frequently and violently, gets into fistfights, gets detention, and rather than test out the Note, he dives right in with a violent, gory death. This is just the first few minutes! Willem Dafoe makes a great Ryuk, although they creeped him out and took away the humor from him. They changed some rules of the Note and added some, including that touching the Death Note no longer enables people to see Ryuk; they have to actually be the keeper of the Note. Apparently, Ryuk is the one who does the killing; Light just orders him around by writing in the book and forcing him to do things, which ticks Ryuk off, so why would he want to drop the Note? 20 minutes in, Light decided, why be secretive? The first girl who looks at him --Mia -- gets to know about the Death Note. She's a "rebel;" you can tell because she smokes during P.E. So hardcore. Even though she's a... cheerleader? Because sure.
Light isn't the intelligent, calculating young man that made Death Note so interesting. He's an easily-terrified, horny teen. He actually asks Mia how he's supposed to kiss people! He and Mia seem to get off from killing people. Seriously; they make out or have sex while talking about who to kill or while actually killing people. When he stops killing, Mia leaves him. She decides he can't handle it, and will kill him unless she gets the Death Note.
He isn't well-educated or from a good family; his father's a drunk and they live near the train. Rather than consider every move and possible outcomes, Light kills without discrimination and then panics when he realizes it's possible to get caught.
Rather than the world come together over Kira, Light forces people to write "Kira" before they die to push them into worshiping him as a god.
L is played by a black dude, which I have no issue with, and he speaks Japanese really well, so Netflix gets points for that. He keeps the pronunciation of "Kira" throughout the movie. He moves and holds himself like L does. I like Watari as well. Masi Oka gets to be in it as Detective Sasaki, for all of 3 seconds.
The entire movie is overly gory. L and Light don't go back and forth in a battle of wits. L doesn't follow any sort of logic. He just magically knows things, like he knows Light is Kira, although he has no evidence, no thought process to back it up. He shows up in front of Light, and Light doesn't keep his cool, doesn't trick L, doesn't do anything except freak out and basically admit that he's Kira.
One change I like is that this Light thought to use Watari against L. L's response when he realizes it is great as well, but then he loses his cool and flips out. He manages to suddenly know what happened to Watari, even though they, again, never explain how he knows. Seeing L struggle when presented with the opportunity to use the Note was interesting, but still felt out of character.
You'll get sick of Light complaining about all the rules. In the manga, the rules were few and they made sense. Here, there are about 100, and Light constantly whines about the loopholes and how hard it is to keep it all straight.
** ENDING SPOILERS ** How is the great L taken down? By a dude with a 2x4. How does the amazing Kira go out? By a lover's quarrel. The music that plays as he and Mia fall from a Ferris wheel makes this movie a parody. No Misa-Misa, no second book, no Near. His father finding out and being like, "Oh, okay" really irks me as well.
Horribly done. Incredibly disappointed. Even as a stand alone, this movie makes no sense and is terribly done.
The Good Place (2016)
Plot Twists Abound!
I only started watching it for Kristen Bell, but it quickly became my favorite TV show. I couldn't spoil this even if I wanted to. You really have to watch it for yourself. Every episode left me going, "Wait, what?! How can you stop it there??" and the final episode of the season literally made me scream "WHAT THE FORK?!" Ignore the reviews of anyone who hasn't seen every episode yet. Trust me when I say, you have no idea what you're watching until that last episode. Then, you'll likely have to re-watch it (like I am right now) to see it in a whole new light.
I LOVE plot twists. This show has the biggest one I've ever seen, and it's only the first season! Where do they go from here??