Death's folly

Being an avid anime fan, I came across the original Death Note anime series about 10 years ago and saw the whole thing from beginning to end. Going into Netflix's adaptation of the anime, I knew what to expect and and what NOT to expect in terms of whether it'd be faithful adaptation of the manga or it would do things differently and go its' own direction; sadly, it's the latter for this American version. For those unfamiliar with the series, Death Note is the story about a high schooler named Light Turner (Nat Wolff) who comes across an eerie looking notebook that falls out of the sky with the words Death Note imprinted on the cover. As Light studies the notebook, he is met by a sinister entity named Ryuk (the well-casted Willem Dafoe), a death god who informs him that the book has the capability of killing anyone in the world as well as choosing the cause of their death by writing their name inside. The skeptical Light is immediately intrigued as he begins a crusade to wipe out the evil of the world using the Death Note. His actions begin to catch fire from the police and the attention of a renowned detective who goes by the alias L (Lakeith Stanfield). From the moment I saw the first trailer for Death Note, I knew in some ways Netflix's version was going to catch heat from fans of the anime and original manga. For me, the biggest concern wasn't the whitewashing issue (can we please get past this? This is an American adaptation after all), the length of the film (which is more or less 100 minutes) or the differences between the film and the anime; my main gripe is the changes they made to each of the character's personality. For instance, Light Turner (Light Yagami in the anime) was a calm and smart A+ student in contrast to here where he's a moody, sulky kid who is smart but rash, and is also an only child (he had a little sister in the anime). L's character changes are what truly got me upset and in part is one of the reasons why this version failed immensely; in the anime he was reformed, provocative and planned out all this actions methodically to stay one step ahead of Light. He never got upset nor broke his calm demeanor; in this version, L starts off like this but near the climax of the film, he snaps and resorts to more violent terms trying to bring Light to justice (I won't spoil how that ends for him). Given the amount of source material there is to go on, there's no reason why the story should've sucked so badly or, with an exception for Willem Dafoe and Shea Whigham, that the acting could be this sub-par. I'll be blunt: fans are going to hate this American adaptation and it definitely won't buck the trend of bad adaptations of anime properties. The only positive note is that it's not as terrible as Dragon Ball: Evolution; that being said Death Note is a missed opportunity to create what could've been an intriguing adaptation. If I were Netflix though, I'd write this movie inside an actual Death Note.