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Netflix Death Note Trailer. Release August 25th.
- Thread starter BY2K
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Yup...
Principate
Saint Titanfall
Light's character arc isn't particularly long or hard to develop. Even in the manga it's reasonably quick and set up in the initial chapters doesn't change until the first confrontation with L and then the end with some significant keikakuing in the middle (there's what the majority of the story actually entails rather than deep character development for light).
He's a genius straight A highschool student whose father is a cop and has a significant disdain for the inefficiencies of the justice system and hatred for criminals. Being the narcissistic ass that he is upon discovering a way to solve societies problems according to him he starts to go off the rails and develops a god complex. While high on his invincibility he gets a shock ass kicking by L. Detective games begin. he eventually loses and starts to break down as his ego pops.
He's not supposed to be some weirdo loner that society dislikes that completely misses the point of his character and the introspection it provides. Despite his genius he's supposed to represent a reasonably average guy (though someone destined to become a future elite among society) with a simplistic view of the world. The story goes out of it's way to link back that without the death note he wouldn't be too dissimilar to someone you or I would know.
Having him already be a weirdo turns this story into mentally deranged serial killers rampage on criminals rather than reasonably normal persons decent into madness trapped by their own simplistic answers to complex problems.
One of the most ironic parts of lights character development especially with this setting is that he is astonishingly similar to the sort of descent an American cop in a corrupt police force would go through complete with the god complex. it's an unnervingly similar story. Combine that L being black and there you have it.
King Gilga
Member
Not exactly an exciting trailer. And the Light kind of looks like a douce.
Whatever I'll still watch, can't possibly be worse than the japanese live actions.
Whatever I'll still watch, can't possibly be worse than the japanese live actions.
lightskintwin
Banned
OK but this isn't the manga and we're still making a lot of assumptins without any context of whether it makes sense in the film and if it was done well.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
That's far enough but I was mostly arguing against the notion that light's character development isn't possible in the run time of a film which I disagree with. Whatever the film manages to pull off with story it decided to go for I'm not too fussed either way. Death Notes story is incredibly hokey to pull off either way regard. Biggest issue won't necessarily be the script but the acting and realistic portrayal of the script because the combination of realistic and supernatural in this particular story combined with some of the ridiculousness of some of the schemes has all sorts of manners to break apart at the seams.
veloxStrix
Banned
If this trailer is indicative of anything in the movie, I'm out. No sense wasting my time on garbage. Light was such a strong protagonist because he was intelligent and charismatic. In the very first moment we get to see Light in this trailer, he seems like he can barely read. Not to mention the weird edgy shot of the smoking cheerleaders? I understand that you can't judge a movie from a single 1 minute teaser, but they might as well have posted a minute long video of a red flag.
Not to mention the other obvious issues going on.
Then why use the manga's name? If the film drastically changes the character's personality then the series is just relying on an established franchise to draw an audience. That doesn't exactly give me any confidence either. Death Note treads a remarkably fine line between edgy nonsense and dramatic moral quandary. I hope the producers understood that as they made this.
Not to mention the other obvious issues going on.
Then why use the manga's name? If the film drastically changes the character's personality then the series is just relying on an established franchise to draw an audience. That doesn't exactly give me any confidence either. Death Note treads a remarkably fine line between edgy nonsense and dramatic moral quandary. I hope the producers understood that as they made this.
Thatonemoor
Member
The guy with the hood and the mask is L right?
Edit: wtf at August release??
Edit: wtf at August release??
lightskintwin
Banned
Because it uses a Death Note along with a set of rules and stipulation. Honestly that premise is interesting enough on it's own, you can tell a new story in any setting you want with completely different characters and still stay true to the spirit of the manga. A film is a sum of it's parts, and Light's character will hinge on whether his characterization was good within the context of the film, than rather if it was faithful to the source.
Japanmanx3
Member
Not feeling at all. Making Light look like a punk is not Death Note. Intrigued by L tho at the very least.
Cause it's like a summer film..., except you don't go to the cinema to watch.
You just stay home and watch it on your TV.
So not like a summer film.
At all.
Netflix.
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
Man, if they try to make us sympathize with the misunderstood white dude who has to kill the black detective......................................
I'm pretty sure the story is the exact opposite of that.
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
It better be. Having Light look like an outcast is not good, imo.
TetraGenesis
Member
I feel like a lot of people don't realize who Adam Wingard is.
He directed You're Next and The Guest which are both tremendous thrillers (well, the former more so than the latter) and this totally seems like an evolution of his taste and aesthetic.
Both of those films deliver their suspenseful narratives with a bit of a self aware cheese. I love it. Things like the cheerleader smoking a cigarette and Light's blonde highlights read to me as enticingly tongue-in-cheek.
THIS IS GOING TO BE VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE SOURCE MATERIAL. Accept that now and embrace it! Why would you just want a direct rehash of the anime or Japanese film adaptations? Those exist. You can watch them right now.
If it ends up being shitty and dramatically different from the source, well, what a waste. But if it takes the idea in a new direction and is successful, now we have multiple good works of fiction that explore the same idea in their own way. Awesome!
I will totally parrot the notion that I wish this were a six episode limited series or something instead of a two hour film, though.
Love this. Well put.
He directed You're Next and The Guest which are both tremendous thrillers (well, the former more so than the latter) and this totally seems like an evolution of his taste and aesthetic.
Both of those films deliver their suspenseful narratives with a bit of a self aware cheese. I love it. Things like the cheerleader smoking a cigarette and Light's blonde highlights read to me as enticingly tongue-in-cheek.
THIS IS GOING TO BE VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE SOURCE MATERIAL. Accept that now and embrace it! Why would you just want a direct rehash of the anime or Japanese film adaptations? Those exist. You can watch them right now.
If it ends up being shitty and dramatically different from the source, well, what a waste. But if it takes the idea in a new direction and is successful, now we have multiple good works of fiction that explore the same idea in their own way. Awesome!
I will totally parrot the notion that I wish this were a six episode limited series or something instead of a two hour film, though.
Love this. Well put.
GuitarAtomik
Member
This and Dafoe are the main reasons I'm optimistic. The Guest was so good.
plagiarize
Banned
Yeah, I agree with this.
But I'll say this: The Japanese live action films were fantastic. I'd love for a great release of those in the West. For a lot of people this is as good as we'll get, so if it isn't as good, it's not like you can easily and legally get the Japanese movies (with a translation) here in the US. I have a lovely Japanese DVD set on my shelf, but it doesn't have subs.
So that's going to get it compared much more readily than it would if I could hop onto iTunes and buy a subtitled copy of Kaneko's movies. 'You can watch them right now' really isn't telling the whole story.
This is more like the situation with the Star Wars special editions. Yeah, you can get despecialized editions, but people would still like to be able to buy a legitimate official Blu-Ray release in their native country, you know?
GuitarAtomik
Member
I'm all for those being available but man. I thought the first two were awful. I had a hard time getting through them and my tolerance level is HIGH. I didn't bother watching the rest.
TetraGenesis
Member
Oh, really? I thought it was available on Amazon Prime Video or Crunchyroll or something. If not, that's a good point. Maybe the renewed interest in the series due to this film will be cause for a subbed version to come to a streaming service like that in the future!
AntraxSuicide
Banned
Small addition here:
the manga does actually point out that Light basically always thought like this and was probably going to end up pulling a Dexter in the end. When he loses his memories, he still ends up strongly identifying with Kira without knowing it's him
Black Republican
Member
hmm
RedAssedApe
Banned
why wtf
Agent_ShortBus
Member
Please be the next Dragonball Evolution 🙏🙏🙏
Yeah, aside from Blair Witch which was a miss I really liked everything I watched from him. The combination of Keith Stanfield, Adam Wingard and Willem Dafoe is more than enough for a day one watch from me.
chrisPjelly
Member
To everybody that thinks this is garbo, remember that Willem Dafoe is Ryuk
cj_iwakura
Member
I love Wingard's films, I'm in regardless.
As a HUGE Blair Witch fan, I'm excited for what he did to the series, even if it went a little too far. He clearly treated the lore with love and respect.
As a HUGE Blair Witch fan, I'm excited for what he did to the series, even if it went a little too far. He clearly treated the lore with love and respect.
I'm honestly going to give this film a watch just to see his performance.
jack_package_200
Banned
May I ask what you liked about Blair Witch?
cj_iwakura
Member
It's very much in the style of the original films, and expands on the lore. He deliberately made it a handheld film and didn't mess with the tone or the plot of the original.
I also liked how even modern technology
was of no match for Elly Kedward.
If anything, my only real problem
is how relentlessly bleak it was. Elly really had it out for them. She made them suffer.
I'm not sure about the manga, but in the anime he kissed Misa to appease her or shut her up a few times. I'm pretty sure he kissed the reporter as well? He didn't seem interested in it all though. Just used it as another way to manipulate people.
AntraxSuicide
Banned
Oh yeah, forgot about the reporter. Pretty sure he slept with her; definitely sleeps with Misa since they get married and all.
NotTheGuyYouKill
Member
I wonder why he's still calling his alternate persona 'Kira'
jack_package_200
Banned
For me, this movie lives and dies on its game of wits/cat and mouse with Light and L.
Obviously Light is a weeb in this adaptation.
I didn't care for the trailer. It felt like a cheap action flick. Death Note was about the character interactions, the mind duels of between Light and L, and the trailer didn't set a good tone for that.
I'm also curious about the characterization of Light, the sullen loner type is overdone in a lot of mainstream films, especially white loners, so I hope that isn't the route that they're going for.
After not being thrilled with Ghost in The Shell, I'm not optimistic about this one either.
Dafoe as Ryuk is a plus, though.
I'm also curious about the characterization of Light, the sullen loner type is overdone in a lot of mainstream films, especially white loners, so I hope that isn't the route that they're going for.
After not being thrilled with Ghost in The Shell, I'm not optimistic about this one either.
Dafoe as Ryuk is a plus, though.
God if they made Light a proper 4chan dweller and made him utterly irredeemable that could be great. Like proper 'oh this guy is an anti-hero, oh no wait he's just a straight up villain' shit.
Basically using the structure of the source material to pull a reversal of normal American tropes could be very good if handled with care.
Keihart
Member
Just as a side note, most of the look of the characters and their fashion was made by Obata and not Ohba, Ohba would describe the characters personality and Obata interpret that. There is a funny anecdote in an interview where Obata says that the desings for Melo and Near got switched because he read the characters description switched but Ohba though it was a neat contrast between personality and look.
Anyhow, i don't wanna dismiss the show yet because not looking like the anime or manga since the japanese adaptation tried and sucked, i'm more comfortable with this, they might actually make something good with the concept if they are not tied to the source material that closely. Evil Dead was a pretty awesome remake in my book and it's only loosely based on the original.
Anyhow, i don't wanna dismiss the show yet because not looking like the anime or manga since the japanese adaptation tried and sucked, i'm more comfortable with this, they might actually make something good with the concept if they are not tied to the source material that closely. Evil Dead was a pretty awesome remake in my book and it's only loosely based on the original.
That would actually be goddamn clever.
This would actually really clever and fit our society right now.
You could make the Death Note easy into a analogy of the Internet. It's a way to destroy somebody's life, through the safety from your home and disconnection from the task itself. All you need to know, is the person's real name and face in both cases. Even people following you and praise your actions exists.
Ryuk should be a reminder to the audience, that the Death Note itself isn't evil and a necessary object for his kind. But bad people can use it for evil actions. So to make clear, that it isn't the Notes (internet) fault, it's Lights ego and personality.
I would love this change and playing up the teenage angst, which only reveals, what a terrible person Light truly is. Death Note at the end is about, how power shows the true self of a person.
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