By Corey Floyd
Netflix released their American adaption of Death Note. In Japan, there are several Live action Deathnote Films and two of them sit between 70- 82% on rotten tomatoes so I wondered why the need to do this. You can watch The original anime on Netflix right now. Perhaps this is an attempt to Show people a anime story without subjecting them to animation. Naturally, the purists of the anime are highly against this. It's understandable Hollywood executive has shown that they don’t understand anime or at least have no respect for it. Exhibit A: 
But I try to give this a chance since I have seen American adaptations of Asian pieces work perfectly as well.
When I saw that Netflix hired Adam Wingard to direct I got a little excited. Wingard is a director who has been very successful in horror. Wingard who already has made a name for himself with bone chilling pieces like you’re next and
his installments in the VHS series were as scary as and scary as they come. It would seem that this is a winning combination. So the questions is ……………… WHY DID IT SUCK!!!!!!! 
When I saw that Netflix hired Adam Wingard to direct I got a little excited. Wingard is a director who has been very successful in horror. Wingard who already has made a name for himself with bone chilling pieces like you’re next and his installments in the VHS series were as scary as and scary as they come. It would seem that this is a winning combination. So the questions is ……………… WHY DID IT SUCK!!!!!!! 
Let’s start with bad casting Nat Wolf plays Light Turner. His most commonly seen in teen related tearjerkers such as “The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns. The 23-year-old felt he was pressing up against a glass ceiling of being typecast. I supposed this was his breakout role. Well, he did break the glass ceiling to bad the shards cut his wrists in the process. His portrayal of an American version of Light Yagami is so far off a stormtrooper would have hit the mark first ( Star wars Joke ). He comes off very stiff. He’s not believable especially when he screams at the first site of Ryuk. The tone shift between this Light and the Japanese version is staggering. They should have look for someone with more experience. Matt Wolf career is in the Note for sure.
Lakeith Stanfield plays L. the private eye with a genius I.Q. Stanfield has been one of the hardest working men in Hollywood over the last few years from Straight outta Compton to Atlanta he is everywhere like a young Samuel L Jackson. Is portrayal of L is very good. He also gives the vibe that makes you think of the group Anonymous vague, mysterious and threatening. I have to admit casting Sanfield gave this a slight racial undertone of being sick and tired the white savior trope and call him out for he really is a murderer. His performance was top notch and very close to the original character in my opinion. 
Ryuk was voiced by Willem Dafoe. One of Hollywood's creepiest and most talented actors. Most nerds know him as the Green Goblin from Sam Raimi’s Spider Man. This man career is paved in iconic disturbing characters good & bad so when it was announced that he would play Ryuk I felt that was the best casting choice in this film or just the best thing about this film period. 
What I found interesting about his performance was he was just the voice. He didn't do the makeup and effects work. Which is shocking to since he put on that ridiculous goblin costume as well as full drag for The Boondock Saints. Jason Liles is who we see in the film he’s done some other creature work as well MIB 3 and Conjuring 2 just to name a few. The combination does work well and is the best performance in this feature.
When the movie was over I bet you were sitting there like.
Why did this suck so bad? A pretty okay director, sub- par leading role but good supporting cast. I think it was the film's presentation. When I look back at the Anime and the Japanese films of the same name I realize they wanted to tell a fleshed out story characters and their respective arcs. We didn’t get that here, we couldn’t get that here in 90 minutes. Yes!! Ninety damn minutes. Even the original version was 2 hours long and was two movies. Even with a good supporting cast the fact that there was no care to tell a good story it’s an insult to people who already know the material. Even though this film was not made for them they are the reason you even made the attempt in the first place. If you are new to Death Note the main character will throw you out of it cause his acting is as stiff as Kristen Stewart in anything. To be honest I feel like Wes Craven would have done a better job with this. Oh… wait 
If hey were smart they could have just re wrote this and we would have a better product. It would have been a B+ sadly I’m giving this moving a big F+
Why did this suck so bad? A pretty okay director, sub- par leading role but good supporting cast. I think it was the film's presentation. When I look back at the Anime and the Japanese films of the same name I realize they wanted to tell a fleshed out story characters and their respective arcs. We didn’t get that here, we couldn’t get that here in 90 minutes. Yes!! Ninety damn minutes. Even the original version was 2 hours long and was two movies. Even with a good supporting cast the fact that there was no care to tell a good story it’s an insult to people who already know the material. Even though this film was not made for them they are the reason you even made the attempt in the first place. If you are new to Death Note the main character will throw you out of it cause his acting is as stiff as Kristen Stewart in anything. To be honest I feel like Wes Craven would have done a better job with this. Oh… wait If hey were smart they could have just re wrote this and we would have a better product. It would have been a B+ sadly I’m giving this moving a big F+
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