American "Death Note" Movie

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Re: American "Death Note" Movie

Postby A Combustible Lemon » Tue Sep 05, 2017 9:29 am

A Combustible Lemon wrote:I watched it and loved it, but it's going to make Death Note fans hate it. It bothers to characterize everyone and give them motivations and reasons to do things, and there's only one long season-end-rewind-to-show-off-light's-plot at the end of it.
It butchers the source material, but I don't like the source material. (I don't think it butchered the source material)
Light Turner is basically the kind of guy who'd be Light in real life. Some fucking nerd with problems with how unjust the world is. His mom died and the killer got away, that's his motivation for embarking on the Kira thing. My death note fan friend (who was frothing when I talked to him) mentioned they switched around Light and Misa a bit. That's basically true, yeah. Mia's the sociopath with no real idea of the consequences of her power trip, Light's the guy with an actual reason to be angry.
What I liked was that Light never really lost track of what was happening. He knows from the beginning that killing is bad. I also liked that they removed the more stupid paranoid-delusions-are-actually-genius elements of his character with the ridiculous pencil-lead door trap nonsense that originally got me hating Death Note.

It works independently of the original series because honestly, it's not a series. It's a movie. It has a well defined beginning and an end and strikes narrative chords where appropriate. It's got the death note, it's got the rules, it's got the Kira cult, it's got L.
It feels like "the anime movie". You know the type. They adapt by cutting out 90% of the anime and tie the remaining together well enough to make a coherent story. There's plenty of precedent for that in the anime industry.

I also like it because this version of death note isn't likely to get people worshipping a Mary Sue with a God complex as someone with the right ideas because they mistake his plot armour for his genius.

As for the american adaptation stuff, Light's called Light because his mother was a Hippy. Kira's called Kira because it's russian for Light, the japanese transliteration for the english word "killer" is written off as an obvious misdirection by basically everyone. L's blackness doesn't really hurt anything, he's still a fucking weirdo with magic detective powers. There's a prom dance in school at the end of it because that's a thing in american schools just like light's state exams were in the anime/manga. (Man imagine if SATs were treated with the same cultural significance as "prom day")


>the bolded part is much of my argument

>fans will hate X
>because bothers to characterize people, which original did not do
>original has rewind-to-explain-plot bits which this also has
>have friend who was frothing when I was discussing this with him


>highlights bad behaviour in the protagonist as a good thing and that's problematic for people who tend to view morally grey characters as more justified than they are


Do you see people who dislike Walter White's sympathetic characterization because the audience convinces themselves he's doing it for his family after the show sits us down and explains slowly and patiently that he was always the bad guy from the beginning of the second episode as making arguments in bad faith too? I mean, light dies you know. To the dismay of all the people who think his idea of culling people until they behave is good, I've noticed.
Is this a conversation I'm allowed to have?

Or is it because I said Death Note doesn't bother to characterize Light as a real person with actual motivations? am I not allowed to think that? Because he really has no reason to behave the way he does, and the manga does not care enough to point out why randomly killing people is a bad thing.

What else did I say that's sooooooo mischaracterizing?
At one point, Light puts a goddamn pencil lead on a door hinge over a tripwire to point out that a fucking investigative team put the tripwire back in place but not the pencil lead.
This is a paranoid delusion. This is something actual paranoiacs would do. This is also written as indicative of light's genius because he deduced that they totally put the first thing back but not the second.
While that's a perfectly logical deduction to make, it's a fucking stupid scenario overall because pencil leads break from slight winds hitting them. I once broke one by swinging it.
Am I allowed to think it's bad because it characterizes fundamentally unhealthy behaviour as a good thing?

I haven't said a goddamn thing out of line and 90% of my post is about the movie taken by itself. If you felt attacked by a fucking joke about how fans won't like it because "it bothers to characterize people" and literally call it "fans of X only like it because of [stupid reason] and that's why they're wrong", I don't even know how to begin to address that.
You know "it doesn't bother to characterize people" isn't something I'm saying fans like right? Like, that's not a strawman, that's me insulting the source material. A strawman is an implication that an opponent holds a position they don't. I don't actually address why people like Death Note. It's because they like mysteries and intelligent (well, presented as intelligent) protagonists and justice porn combined with a fun concept about what you'd do if you could kill anyone you know. I'm saying "I don't like death note because it doesn't bother to characterize people" or, if you want it in your heart of hearts to be accusatory, "People like death note despite it not bothering to characterize people".

Similarly, when I say "Twilight fans won't like Harry Potter because it bothers to have meaningful character interaction and tell a compelling story" I'm not saying "Twilight fans like it because it doesn't tell a compelling story or have meaningful character interaction."
I'm saying "I don't like twilight because it doesn't have meaningful character interaction or tell a compelling story" if the reader's sympathetic, or "People like twilight despite it not having meaningful character interaction and not telling a compelling story." if you want to make sure it's offensive.
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Re: American "Death Note" Movie

Postby Tesseracts » Tue Sep 05, 2017 7:00 pm

Longer review pending. For now my thoughts can be summarized with this.

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Re: American "Death Note" Movie

Postby sunglasses » Tue Sep 05, 2017 7:29 pm

I wanted Tess' video and already hate it.

I have no plans to watch this.

then again, I didn't watch the o.g. deathnote and instead read the manga which seemed to jump the shark IMO around half way thru.

Also, scream a little less, Light, jesus. Not everyone is gonna react like that when they meet a floating thingy with sharp teeth. Live a little.
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Re: American "Death Note" Movie

Postby Grimstone » Sat Sep 09, 2017 6:09 am

At first I thought the scream he made in the video Tesseracts linked was edited, but it's not. That's really how he screams in the netflix movie, wtf.
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