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[BreezyLimbo]

This is why I hate American adaptations. They always go to the laziest most overused tropes over and fucking over. GITS went through similarly stupid changes when Americanized, which the director/writer thought were so clever. These people must have serious cases of tunnel vision

And someone thinking theyre a god and megalomaniac isnt an overused trope?

Adapting the story and putting it in the perspective if Light frustrated with society is parallel to the manga.

In both the movie and the manga both Lights are frustrated with society. We dont know much of movie light, but in the Manga Light always thought himself superior to everyone else.

People extrapolating so much from a 2 minute trailer is giving me an aneurysm.

 

[Zakalwe]

Those are just things he does. I can sit on my feet and eat candy, that's not a personality.

I mean sure, you could just have Vinny Jones playing L as a cockney hardman who likes sweets and sitting in a perched position and it would be nothing like the character, but they look like extensions of his personality here not just something he's doing.

It's the vibe I get from the trailer at least, could be less effective in the full thing but for now I'm quite impressed with this part at least.

 

[BronsonLee]

Lol, for a REALLY short amount of time. He meets Raye Penber in episode 3/chapter 5 and that's pretty much where he indisputably is revealed as a sociopath

Yup, the second the stuff goes down with Penber/his wife I was all in on wanting Light fuckin' dead

Shitball edgelord

 

[mantidor]

Lol, for a REALLY short amount of time. He meets Raye Penber in episode 3/chapter 5 and that's pretty much where he indisputably is revealed as a sociopath

But keeping that from a trailer that aims at an audience that knows little to nothing about the original manga/anime is understandable, that is of course if that is their original purpose, to make the audience to side with him initially.

 

[Soulfang]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/06...-the-original-story-with-its-american-setting

Sounds like most of you all who were trying to figure out what Wingard was going for were on the right track.

This kind of connects to the other thread we have going on about fans inheriting the movie industry. The reaction to this film makes me question why studios even try to straddle the line with faithfulness for movie adaptations anymore. Calling the characters "Light" and "L" and having L keep superficial aspects of his character from the original isn't doing anything to attract preexisting fans to watch this version.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

But keeping that from a trailer that aims at an audience that knows little to nothing about the original manga/anime is understandable, that is of course if that is their original purpose, to make the audience to side with him initially.

Oh I wouldn't expect that in the trailer. I'd even be okay with a completely different sequence of events early on that similarly establish Light's character. I was just saying we found out very quickly that the dude was a psycho

 

[Zakalwe]

I've watched it a few more times and I have to say I've grown more confident this is going to be be good.

L looks really good. I always liked how he had such wide open eyes, like he's opening them as wide as possible on purpose to see as much as he can. The actor here appears to either have naturally large eyes or is exaggerating it on purpose to match, the latter seems likely considering how he's also adopted other mannerisms that make me see the character in him. It really seems like they understand what to do with his character, which givs me a lot of confidence.

I'll echo what others have said and say I hope they keep Ryuk in the shadows too. I really like the horror effect of him rising up behind the furniture and him whispering from the shadows. It'll also help keep him more believable if we don't see the cgi as prominently.

I'm not concerned about Light either. At first it seems they've changed the character making him weaker, but that's only the incident at the start, he seems to adopt a swagger as the trailer progresses, and the final line and his smirk shows he's believing in himself in the way the character would.

Really curious how much of the original they keep in, if we'll see other Shinigami and their realm. Not been following this too closely, do we have more details?

I'm also a pretty big fan of the director. Quite excited to see this now.

 

[_Ryo_]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/06...-the-original-story-with-its-american-setting

Sounds like most of you all who were trying to figure out what Wingard was going for were on the right track.

This kind of connects to the other thread we have going on about fans inheriting the movie industry. The reaction to this film makes me question why studios even try to straddle the line with faithfulness for movie adaptations anymore. Calling the characters "Light" and "L" and having L keep superficial aspects of his character from the original isn't doing anything to attract preexisting fans to watch this version.

I would actually prefer a brand new Death Note story with entirely new characters instead of a bastardization of the source material thats mixed with new stuff.

Like if you want to tell the story as close to it originally was do that.

If you want to tell a completely new story that takes the rules and themes of Death Note universe into account, do that.

Do not mash them both together and expect a gem cuz its gonna be a mess.

 

[kewlmyc]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/06...-the-original-story-with-its-american-setting

Sounds like most of you all who were trying to figure out what Wingard was going for were on the right track.

This kind of connects to the other thread we have going on about fans inheriting the movie industry. The reaction to this film makes me question why studios even try to straddle the line with faithfulness for movie adaptations anymore. Calling the characters "Light" and "L" and having L keep superficial aspects of his character from the original isn't doing anything to attract preexisting fans to watch this version.

Good read. And yeah, I'm thinking that just changing the names of the characters to something else would probably help this whole situation. Like make it a story of "what if Ryuk went to America instead of Japan in the Death Note world" rather than making the original story take place in America and changing the characters to better fit an American setting.

 

[kiunchbb]

Light is someone that would kill his family if one of them saw his death notes.

Why is he sharing this secret with a friend?

 

[FluxWaveZ]

I'm not confident that they will properly reflect who Light was in the manga/anime, and that's a huge part of Death Note's appeal. The fact that he's a sociopathic, villain antagonist is novel in itself, and is the driving force for everything that happens in the story. If they try to make him as compassionate as that one line in the trailer potentially indicates, it's no good.

 

[Zakalwe]

I'm not confident that they will properly reflect who Light was in the manga/anime, and that's a huge part of Death Note's appeal. The fact that he's a sociopathic, villain antagonist is novel in itself, and is the driving force for everything that happens in the story. If they try to make him as compassionate as that one line in the trailer potentially indicates, it's no good.

The final line and the smirk though, it seems like they'll build him up into this even if he doesn't start that way entirely.

 

[Hyperactivity]

Light is someone that would kill his family if one of them saw his death notes.

Why is he sharing this secret with a friend?

I'm not confident that they will properly reflect who Light was in the manga/anime, and that's a huge part of Death Note's appeal. The fact that he's a sociopathic, villain antagonist is novel in itself, and is the driving force for everything that happens in the story. If they try to make him as compassionate as that one line in the trailer potentially indicates, it's no good.

Yup. This is the main issue I'm worried about. By all accounts Light seems like a successful person from the outside looking in, whereas in reality he's a sociopath that develops a god complex and is given the actual powers of a god.

 

[chrisPjelly]

Seems... okay. Light is decent, Mira is eh, and Ryuk is PERFECT. L is kind of really baaaaaad though. Nothing against having him be a different race (same thing goes for everybody else), but his line readings here were AWFUL. Nothing about his personality screams that he's an eccentric shut in. Mind you, I know that, being an adaptation, they will change things to their own pace, but L and Light's clashing personalities are PIVOTAL to what makes the series so enjoyable. I'll check it out, but I don't have as many high hopes as I originally did.

 

[airmangataosenai]

Having L be angry and showing frustration in that manner feels like too much of a departure from the original for me. Him and Light both think they are the ones in control at all times. That is key to the entire relationship between them.

 

[faint.]

Seeing angry L and Light say "we are not the good guys anymore" doesn't give me hopes that this is going to be faithful.

 

[Wolf Akela]

He does go out in public as well to investigate Light in person but know one knows he's L in that form -- he's just a classmate at his college. We don't know for sure that he is actually known to others as L in the speech moment shown in the trailer for what it's worth.

That's the thing. In the Netflix adaptation, L is making announcements in person, in public, as L. It's out of character. He's supposed to be very secretive. No one even knew who he really is, what he's supposed to be like, and people didn't even know Watari was ancient.

In the originals, he does go out as a normal person, but he doesn't tell everyone that he's L.

Now, it's entire possible that

Spoiler

the black guy is just Lind Taylor though, but I'm pretty sure black L is all but confirmed. It would be lame if they tried to backtrack on that decision, unless both Lind and L are black.

The characters are just by name now. Well, Ryuk is Ryuk I guess. But honestly I wouldn't even mind if they went with a human form Ryuk (think Lucifer from Constantine) as long as they kept his core values.

 

[BreezyLimbo]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/06...-the-original-story-with-its-american-setting

Sounds like most of you all who were trying to figure out what Wingard was going for were on the right track.

This kind of connects to the other thread we have going on about fans inheriting the movie industry. The reaction to this film makes me question why studios even try to straddle the line with faithfulness for movie adaptations anymore. Calling the characters "Light" and "L" and having L keep superficial aspects of his character from the original isn't doing anything to attract preexisting fans to watch this version.

Thats good.

Trying to directly adapt the characters from the original version would never work, simply because setting it in America changes the environment that the characters grow out of. Its like I said, Light Yagami growing up in Japan is going to be different from Light Yagami growing up in the US.

 

[black070]

Willem Dafoe's laugh at the end sells it, it's simply genuis casting.

 

[Arkeband]

Now, it's entire possible that

Spoiler

the black guy is just Lind Taylor though, but I'm pretty sure black L is all but confirmed. It would be lame if they tried to backtrack on that decision, unless both Lind and L are black.

That'd actually be pretty funny and a much better ending than the Japanese live action adaptation's.

 

[wrestleman]

How does that explain

Spoiler

L though?

Spoiler

Literally one of the biggest core concepts of Death Note is that there is a whole house of kids being raised to be the next L. This guy could be one of them easily.

 

[AntraxSuicide]

Good choice of adaptation. The point to Light's character is that he really has no right to do what he does, and can't justify it given his privilege. Making him a white boy who thinks his life is soooo hard (essentially a school shooter) that he needs to kill people fits for an American adaptation. Tons of those shitheads running around.

 

[broncobuster]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/06...-the-original-story-with-its-american-setting

Sounds like most of you all who were trying to figure out what Wingard was going for were on the right track.

This kind of connects to the other thread we have going on about fans inheriting the movie industry. The reaction to this film makes me question why studios even try to straddle the line with faithfulness for movie adaptations anymore. Calling the characters "Light" and "L" and having L keep superficial aspects of his character from the original isn't doing anything to attract preexisting fans to watch this version.

More or less sounds like vibe I got from the trailers. I'm happy that it's adapting Death Note for a different culture and different time. Makes sense than trying to make a direct adaptation of a story set in 2000s Japan.

 

[Dysun]

The portrayal of L is all wrong. Just seems like they kept the surface level traits of the character.

Light looks ok, if a bit angsty.

 

[Kusagari]

I don't get what they're doing with L, especially considering what Wingard says about him in that interview.

I have no problem with L being some kind of super detective kind of hand-crafted by the U.S. government,

Spoiler

hell, that's not too different from the original really

, but then why is he showing so much emotion the entire time in the trailer?

 

[Servbot24]

At first I was like "eewww" but I'm starting to warm up to it. I'm just really hoping this "sympathetic" Light is some sort of red herring, the original manga started in the same way now that I think about it, it was so easy to side with him until you slowly realize what a sociopath he is.

Light was a maniacal homocidal psychopath in the first 10 minutes. That's actual something I would have liked to have seen handled differently, a gradual descent into evil could have been a bit more interesting.

 

[7he Talon]

Does anyone know the version of 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' that playing in the background of the trailer?

 

[newtypepilot]

hey vancouver is playing as seattle again for the Nth time.

 

[Nightbird]

So we're fanfiction now...?

That's one way to look at it.

It's basically one big "what if?"

 

[IAmAnAgnostic]

You can't change something as fundamental to this series as the main character and expect it to work. The entire story more or less revolves around Light. Every scene written was about him either trying to advance his narcissistic plan, avoid being caught by any means necessary, manipulate others or giving insight to how he wants his "perfect world" to be. Changing L would also ruin a lot of the shows dynamics, but even though L is definitely the second most important character, he isn't as required for the story to be exactly as he originally was. His main purpose is to try to catch Light, it could work even if L had a completely different personality, but L still needs to be smart. (and announcing yourself in public is just stupid)

If Light isn't a remorseless narcissist with no regards on how anyone else ends up as long as his perfect world becomes a reality... well it just isn't Death Note then. It'd be like removing the temptation of the One Ring in Lord of The Rings. The main driving force is just gone from the equation and the entire story is completely different.

Also, why are they doing this? They have a very unique story on their hands, why adapt it at all if you are just going to "generify" it immensely? Write your own teenage angst drama with a superpower and actions scenes, thank you very much.

 

[Nightbird]

On the other hand, why do the xth Manga-to-live action adaption?

I'd rather have something hugely different, where the story can take an different turn than play an 90+ Minutes game of "Find the error"

Because let's be honest: even if they did an straight Manga-to-live action adaption, the response would only be slightly better, because everyone would still search for even the tiniest mistakes to point them out, and we would drown in "5/10/20/100 things the Netflix Death Note movie did wrong" videos or blog posts.

 

[hurricanes]

Look horrible.

 

[SentryDown]

I'm confident, looks like they took the right decisions to fit the themes into a 2 hours movie. Almost none of the changes to me feel like it was made because they had no idea what the source material is about, rather the opposite which is a sign of a good adaptation.

 

[xk0sm0sx]

I love it, in that what-if Death Note took place in America.
They nailed that aspect down firmly.

I wasn't very hot about the movie at first, but now I definitely want to watch it.

 

[lightskintwin]

I love it, in that what-if Death Note took place in America.
They nailed that aspect down firmly.

I wasn't very hot about the movie at first, but now I definitely want to watch it.

The more I keep watching the trailer, the more I notice that it has a lot of nice shots in it. So at the very least, it should be visually interesting.

 

[CrazedProfessional]

Really not feeling L you guys.

Hes kind of cold and calculated and addicted to candy and sits all weird and Light is meant to be a Grade A student and basically academically perfect. The relationship works is because they both strive for their own twisted definition of a perfect world without crime.

Death Note isn't really a series about some kid picking up a notebook at a Green Day Concert.

 

[Mediking]

On the other hand, why do the xth Manga-to-live action adaption?

I'd rather have something hugely different, where the story can take an different turn than play an 90+ Minutes game of "Find the error"

Because let's be honest: even if they did an straight Manga-to-live action adaption, the response would only be slightly better, because everyone would still search for even the tiniest mistakes to point them out, and we would drown in "5/10/20/100 things the Netflix Death Note movie did wrong" videos or blog posts.

Yeah... true... very...true...

 

[Yoshichan]

Just finished Death Note anime, or at least, you know, the important parts

Is this a tv-series or a movie?

 

[LotusHD]

On the other hand, why do the xth Manga-to-live action adaption?

I'd rather have something hugely different, where the story can take an different turn than play an 90+ Minutes game of "Find the error"

Because let's be honest: even if they did an straight Manga-to-live action adaption, the response would only be slightly better, because everyone would still search for even the tiniest mistakes to point them out, and we would drown in "5/10/20/100 things the Netflix Death Note movie did wrong" videos or blog posts.

Well yea of course, a straight 1:1 adaptation, especially as a movie no less, couldn't possibly be as good as the manga/anime. So yea, they should feel free to change a few things, or have some twist I guess. That said, some things, like the character's personalities, matter more than smaller stuff like the setting. If you do something that appears to be "hugely different" with an adaptation, can't really be surprised when people get increasingly skeptical.

Just finished Death Note anime, or at least, you know, the important parts

Is this a tv-series or a movie?

Movie.

 

[jett]

I'll say this much, I prefer what this movie is doing over the usually awful cosplay-looking shit of Japanese-produced live action anime adaptations.

 

[NaDannMaGoGo]

You can't change something as fundamental to this series as the main character and expect it to work. The entire story more or less revolves around Light. Every scene written was about him either trying to advance his narcissistic plan, avoid being caught by any means necessary, manipulate others or giving insight to how he wants his "perfect world" to be. Changing L would also ruin a lot of the shows dynamics, but even though L is definitely the second most important character, he isn't as required for the story to be exactly as he originally was. His main purpose is to try to catch Light, it could work even if L had a completely different personality, but L still needs to be smart. (and announcing yourself in public is just stupid)

If Light isn't a remorseless narcissist with no regards on how anyone else ends up as long as his perfect world becomes a reality... well it just isn't Death Note then. It'd be like removing the temptation of the One Ring in Lord of The Rings. The main driving force is just gone from the equation and the entire story is completely different.

Also, why are they doing this? They have a very unique story on their hands, why adapt it at all if you are just going to "generify" it immensely? Write your own teenage angst drama with a superpower and actions scenes, thank you very much.

I share this sentiment.

If they do change Light to be a substantially different character then there's really no longer much of a point to this 'adaptation'. At that point it would be better to just take the basic premise of the Death Note book and create their own characters and plot around it. No need to keep the same names etc. when those don't matter to a new audience anyways or even seem downright strange, and the fans of the manga and anime won't have to compare the film characters to their original counterparts. That's just something that's going to happen inherently if you keep those names.

 

[Jangowuzhere]

I thought this looked pretty good thinking it was a TV show.

Then I learned it was a movie....eeehhhhhhhh