Netflix’s Death Note
TL;DR: D. It’s bad. And even more frustrating, it could have been a much better movie with a few changes. But it’s only ~80 minutes.

I should mention that I haven’t seen any of the source material and was only vaguely aware of it before hitting the play button. I wanted to watch and judge this movie as a wholly stand alone work, rather than get bogged down in where the adaptation failed or why the casting wasn’t diverse enough.
I’m not sure where to begin with this one. I made it 24 minutes in to the movie before I had a full page of review notes. I guess I’ll start with this.
What’s so bad about it?
Like most unintentionally bad movies, it all boils down to a huge discrepancy in what the movie is about and where it strays too far from that. The movie asks you to push past the silliness of the premise and engage in a story that’s ultimately about a teenager (our protagonist, Light), feeling the injustices of the world (Light’s mother is killed by a man that is never sentenced; Light gets in trouble after being beaten up by a bully), being given the ability to exact vengeance in literally any way he chooses. In Death Note’s case, the movie sticks closely to this, but doesn’t do any of the work to reinforce it. For example, Light goes on a murder spree, murdering non-convicted criminals (“suspects” is the technical term) and even starts taking requests, but there’s no real consequence or confliction about it. The story’s main conflict comes from Light and his girlfriend Mia. More on her later. Light wants to keep killing. So does Mia. They ultimately disagree on whether or not they should kill the people investigating them, which is an obviously silly plan, and comes out of nowhere. There’s no motivation for anything. Stuff just happens .Ultimately, this is my gripe with the movie.
It’s like an entire arcs happen off screen
I don’t know if a studio expert said the core audience wouldn’t stick through a 2 hour movie or what, but it feels like huge moments are missing from the movie. Mia shows up out of nowhere. It’s clear that maybe Light has a crush on her, but a few scenes or a little dialog to establish this would have gone a long way.
Light: I can’t tell you.
Mia: Ok.
Light: You really wanna know?
Mia: Sure.
Light: Okay, I’ll tell you.
This is actual dialog from their first time on screen together. From there, it’s never explained why Mia is so onboard with murdering strangers. It’s never explained why these two bond. When Mia declares her love for Light, it comes out of nowhere and has no basis within the movie. They decide to give their new hobby a name (“Kira”) for no understandable reason. Mia turn to become a villain just happens with no explanation.
I have a huge list of notes that could read like a CinemaSins transcript. It’s like an entire arcs happen off screen.
Why I didn’t give it an F
The few places where Death Note shines is the actual murder/deaths. They’re well shot and nice and gory. Almost to Final Destination levels of creative kills. Unfortunately, the movie uses these scenes so sparingly that it feels like they made it in to the final cut by mistake. Had Death Note fully leaned in to a thriller gore-fest, it’d be much more forgivable. Oh, and Willem Dafoe is good.
Final Verdict
Death Note can’t decide what it wants to be and, even within the context of itself, manages to be too silly to bother with. It’s only 80-ish minutes, so if you’re still curious, it’s not like you’ll waste an afternoon on it.
How I’d Make It Better
Instead of a typical wrap up, I thought I’d offer my suggestions to make the movie better.
Flesh Mia out some more
Mia has zero motiviation in the Death Note and it’s weird that she decides she has to be in control of it. I would give her a backstory that resulted in a person she wanted to kill, but couldn’t tell Light about. Maybe Light’s dad ruined her life at some point and she’s been holding a grudge about it ever since. I’d also have her approach Light only after she makes the connection that people are dying that Light expresses having a problem with.
Have more scenes in school
I compltely forgot these were high school students. When they had the homecoming scene, it felt like it was from left field. I would simply set more scenes in school. Violent bullies, the date rapists on the football team, perv-y faculty, a potential school shooter. Lots of victim options in a school setting and lots of things to use for creative deaths. Pepper in a subtle build up to homecoming, maybe establish Light and Mia’s relationship a bit more. More scenes in school could have fixed a lot of the movie’s issues.
Drop “Kira” entirely
The whole “Kira” thing is stupid. Why name it? Why not just keep doing what they’re doing and let religious superstition set in. This would have given a chance to explain what a shinigami is, as superstitious criminals discuss the force behind all of the deaths. This would have also given L more opportunities to display how brilliant of a detective he is, as he would have been the one to realize the murders weren’t just happening randomly.
Drop L’s entire backstory
The movie doesn’t have time to explain it, and when it tries, it’s mostly distracting nonsense. American audiences are well accustomed to brilliant detectives with quirky habits and strange techniques.

