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Death Note: L, Change the World REVIEW (My honest Thoughts) (!!!SPOILERS!!!)
For those of you who don't know, Death Note was a widely popular manga and then was made into an anime, where it gained even more popularity.
L, Change the World is the third live action movie for the franchise.
The story of Death Note revolves around a notebook called the death note that, when you write someone's name in it, they will die. The entire series is a thrilling detective mystery with unique characters, events, and setting.
Now that was a quick overview of what Death Note is. For all the fans, we know there's a lot more to it than that. So if you're not a fan, checking out the manga or anime will fill you in.
So basically, the first two Death Note live action movies were a retelling of the manga and anime, but with some changes such as different endings, cutting out characters, and so on.
So after all this, what did I think of L, Change the World?
10 minutes into the movie, my first thought was "Are they actually ripping off Resident Evil for their plot?" And that really is what it is! People in a small country are being infected with a deadly virus that kills them. A scientist, known at first as K, developed the virus. Her reason was "To save the world, I must kill people". Really o_O? The only difference here compared to Resident Evil is this virus doesn't bring people back as zombies or "infected people", it just straight kills them.
So with the plot in hand, L must save the world by stopping this virus. Wateri sadly dies towards the beginning of the film and is how L becomes connected to this virus breakout. Along the way, he meets a few characters: the daughter of a scientist, who worked with K, and killed her father, now she wants revenge, a boy who is a genius at math and was sent to L by F, and a scientist who helps create the antidote for the virus. What I think of these characters is this: the girl is real annoying, the boy is quiet, barely talks, boring but him being as smart as he is is somewhat interesting, and the scientist is your average older figure for all the younger characters in order to move the plot along.
So as you might of guessed, yes, L stops the virus, everyone is saved.
The end of the movie actually had a nice wrap up. Towards the beginning of the movie, L is shown in possession of both Light's Death Note and Misa's Death Note. In order to make sure they are never used again, he burns both of them. Before he does this, he writes his own name in the Death Note for some reason, and says he "will die peacefully of a heart attack in 23 days". So through the entire movie, you constantly see how many days he has left. The weird thing I found is he goes through the first two weeks rather quickly in the movie, in about 15 minutes. Then his last 5 days take forever (of course), which last the rest of the movie, about 2 more hours. So yeah, lack of consistency there, which I expected.
The end of the movie shows L leaving the small, barely talking boy with no name, at the Whammy House, Wateri's orphan house that he founded. L then decides he will name the boy. And guess what he names the boy? Near! Wow, didn't see that one coming huh? (rolls eyes) Then L walks away into the sunset, letting you know he is going off to die.
So yeah, that was the film in a small nutshell. If you want to know the details, somehow see it or wait for the DVD, because there is more but that was the basic overview to the best of my recollection.
Ok, besides what I have mentioned, I had a lot of problems with this film. For one, for it baring the name DEATH NOTE, the movie is barely even about the actual notebooks at all! The whole story of the manga and anime revolved around the notebook, it was the cause of the plot. You saw the notebook, people wrote names down every so often. In this movie, the notebooks are on screen 3 minutes at most, then they're burned. GONE. The notebooks don't really drive the film. You could argue they do because you know L is going to die in 23 and he wants to stop this virus before then. My argument with that is he would of stopped the virus even if the notebooks were still existing, they weren't the driving force of the film, L's desire to stop the virus was. So that pissed me off. All this movie is is an exploit of the character L to rack in more money from fans since the first two films did so well.
Also, the great lack of familiar Death Note characters was disappointing. Some lack of them are understandable: we know Light is dead based on the last movie, and Mellow and Near weren't introduced yet. Some of them I wouldn't consider them actual "characters in the film", more like they made cameos. Misa is seen for about 30 seconds if you count. She is in the elevator when Wateri dies, that's it. Ryuk, a beloved Death Note character, also makes a cameo for about 2 minutes when L is about to burn the notebooks. He has about three lines and that's it. See what I mean? In film terms, they're not really "characters" of this film, they made "cameos" and were 'eye candy' only for fans. How disappointing.
Another ongoing complaint I had was many awkward moments. Now I know this happens a lot with Asian films brought over here because of the Asian culture and a different delivery of verbal communication. A lot of awkward stares, awkward dialogue, and awkward jokes.
So with all this complaining, is there anything I DID like with this film?
Yes. Ken'ichi Matsuyama did a FANTASTIC job for the role of L. The L we all know and love is represented on the screen to near perfection. All the mannerisms, posture, and over look and feel of the character was great.
Also in this film, an earlier compliant I had with the other two films was fixed in this one. There was music and musical scores in this one! It gave the film more feeling and depth to be had.
Granted this film also had a lot of funny moments. There is a secret getaway truck that L has which is a laugh out loud. I won't spoiler why, that one you'll have to check out, ha.
So overall, it was a somewhat kinda semi-entertaining film. Die hard Death Note fans should still like it though. Me, I'm just a fan of Death Note. I'm not a hardcore fan or do I consider myself a "fanboy" for Death Note, because I'm not. Fanboys and Fangirls will like this film no matter what, and I'm fine with that. I have a different opinion, respect that please. If I see something in the film I don't like, I will state it, as I did with this really long review. I won't just suck it up and accept it just because its Death Note, sorry.
So if I were to rate this, me personally as just a fan of Death Note, I'd say a rental at best. Its not worth seeing in theaters just as a fan. (Which is fine, the movie was only in theaters April 29 and 30). If you're a fan, rent it when it comes out. Then it's worth a watch. Die hard, hardcore fanboys and fangirls, well I guess if you haven't seen it you'll have to wait, you would of liked it.
Oh, one more complaint...this was my first time at something exclusive like this for something anime related, and damn are fangirls annoying! Wouldn't shut up the whole movie, thought everything L did in the movie was super cute or gut busting hilarious, because the movie was not that cute or funny...not even close. If you're a fangirl, do all of us a favor and be quiet and the next movie. Please?
Add a Comment
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Comment by Rihards Demiters on May 23, 2009 at 10:15am -
*sigh*
The thing is, this movie DOESN'T bear the title "Death Note". It's just called "L:Change the world".
The whole reason the movie was made, was because Ken'ichi Matsuyama was SO awesome as L, that fans DEMANDED one more movie with him as L.
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Comment by Shinryu80 on May 4, 2009 at 6:09pm - sounds really weird
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Comment by CULT STATUS on May 3, 2009 at 7:26am - yeah, I'm good on that one. The anime itself was probably the pinnacle of death note stuff for me and it really left no room for expanding on the story.
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Comment by Shane Chne on May 2, 2009 at 8:41pm
- Although this movie is a stand alone, it makes numerous references to the first and second Death Note movies. So, you haven't seen those movies, alot of it will not make sense. Also, the live action movies changes around the plot of the manga quite a bit. So just reading the manga or watching the anime will not help you here.
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Comment by Gordon Freeman on May 2, 2009 at 3:36pm - Eh, I'll probably skip this one. (Oh, and wasn't L supposed to be British or something?)
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Comment by h8rofcrapmovies on May 1, 2009 at 10:03pm - i saw this on youtube a couple months back i liked i have the first 2 movies on dvd plan on getting this 2 complete the series and i hope WB gets the amarican version right i have a disscution of who should b the directer and i have cast predictions up though those aren't finished.
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Comment by Stephan on May 1, 2009 at 7:46pm - Ugh. All the live action Death Note movies are horrible(though I am biased as a viewer of the original series), this one definitely seems just as bad.
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Comment by Alicia Marie on May 1, 2009 at 6:07pm - oh and you might want to edit your title for the blog. You wrote "Word" instead of "World" just fyi especially since it was featured.
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Comment by Ascerno on May 1, 2009 at 4:53pm - I walked out durring this movie I did not like it at all I read the manga and watched the cartoon and i was expecting more from this. I never saw any of the live action films so I was assuming i could just jump in. I mean why did he suddenly think it was ok to write his name down in the death note then burn them. It was stupid and as the movie went i was getting madder and madder
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Comment by Alicia Marie on May 1, 2009 at 4:14pm
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So, wait...L killed Ryuuk? Cause he burned the notebooks right.....wtf lol. Yeah, the way you described the movie seemed like it should have been a prequel or side story.
They should have got rid of the notebooks and all the other characters and just said this was a job that L did previous to taking on the Deathnote case. THAT would have made sense.
I'm glad they added a musical score. I had the same "akward" problems with the first movie that you did--for a fan who knows the story you're watching the movie like....ok, what's next? Nothing is presented to you in a fresh or interesting way. I didn't really get excited watching the first movie and fell asleep near the end.
You can watch it online (all the movies) at mysoju.com. I go there all the time to watch asian dramas! :)
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