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NEWS: Live-Action Death Note Director Wingard Discusses Possible Sequels


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Lady Multi



Joined: 11 Dec 2004
Posts: 673
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 2:30 pm Reply with quote
Without spoiling the movie, I can see it having a sequel. I thought it was pretty decent of a movie for an Americanization adaption. Kinda falls into the category of the pilot manga for Death Note as "interesting" for me.

Overall feels of it was: (1) not enough Ryuk antics considering he's always watching and waiting and (2) almost a bit too much teenage drama... that was my feel of the movie. Seemed the conflict was more about the teenage drama than the Note. Again... interesting
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 2:49 pm Reply with quote
Well, if I can say something positive about the film, it's that it did its best to be almost nothing like the original story. As a big fan of adaptive liberty, I appreciated the end take on the property because it was absolutely telling its own story. The ending was also about as American as I could've expected(in that it pretty much subverts and flips the entire message of the manga), though it makes sense considering the desire to make a sequel film. Light's characterization was also "maybe" reasonable. He was portrayed as being smart, while actually being pretty dumb, but it felt accurate to how a pissed off high schooler would actually react to having possession of the Death Note. I wasn't a huge fan of him, ultimately, but I've seen worse characterizations..
As someone who is often pretty annoyed by the vitriol surrounding any and every live-action adaptation of anime, I try not to be overly negative, but in the end, I felt this was a pretty bad film. I would probably watch a sequel though, to be fair. The twist at the end was a little expected, but still fun and I'd be interested to see where Wingard wants to take it.
Oh, also, it's definitely going for EDGY AS F*CK, with plenty of gore, and emo teens getting hot and heavy.
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scriver058



Joined: 21 May 2006
Posts: 127
Location: NY
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 4:01 pm Reply with quote
Liked it more than I thought I would. I too appreciate that other than the basic frame of the story, that it's nothing like the manga or any of the previous adaptations. This Light is a smart kid but for the most part is nothing like the polished genius that the original was. The 2 leads were decent enough, but Ryuk and Mia Sutton stole the show. It did the things you expect from an American adaptation, which is to toss in a ton of gore and swearing, but I can't say I was bored at all. 7/10.
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revolutionotaku



Joined: 19 May 2011
Posts: 881
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 4:47 pm Reply with quote
How will it make it's $40 million budget back if it's only streaming on Netflix instead of being released in theaters?
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Fallenmessiahx



Joined: 14 Apr 2010
Posts: 116
Location: Denver colorado
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 6:12 pm Reply with quote
revolutionotaku wrote:
How will it make it's $40 million budget back if it's only streaming on Netflix instead of being released in theaters?


Netflix is it's own beast and cannot make money "back" in the traditional sense. They probably focus on views to decide on a sequel. I would be very interesting learning about all the details that Netflix takes into account to make more of a show/series.
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Calsolum



Joined: 11 May 2010
Posts: 898
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 7:09 pm Reply with quote
i was so hopeful for this that i actually waited till 3am in my timezone to watch it on netflix.
And while im not mad at netflix for trying something different... it was just really bad.
the only good things about this movie was ryuk's voice and the spoiler[last minute plan light came up with] at the end. But light's intelligence throughout the movie made that last thing seem like an asspull.

All in all I'm just done Westernizing Japanese anime or manga. Every live action adaptation has been really disappointing and I can't tell if its because the people in charge of making these decisions just suck at their job, are not qualified to make this decisions or maybe we SHOULDN'T do live action adaptations period.
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Guile



Joined: 18 Jun 2013
Posts: 595
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 7:38 pm Reply with quote
Calsolum wrote:

All in all I'm just done Westernizing Japanese anime or manga. Every live action adaptation has been really disappointing and I can't tell if its because the people in charge of making these decisions just suck at their job, are not qualified to make this decisions or maybe we SHOULDN'T do live action adaptations period.


If Hollywood ever made a proper adaption and it was bad, then it would be the last. Since Hollywood has yet to shown capable of making a faithful adaption, it's currently the first.
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CatSword



Joined: 01 Jul 2014
Posts: 1489
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 8:49 pm Reply with quote
Netflix, please do something productive with the money that could be used for a sequel to this. Make another season of Sense8. Hire someone for your anime department that is familiar with the concept of simulcasting. Anything.

Just please do not throw it at Death Note 2: Light Turner Gets Edgier 3D.
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prime_pm



Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 2333
Location: Your Mother's Bedroom
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 9:02 pm Reply with quote
Regardless of how I felt of the movie, positive, negative, ups, downs, I really do want a sequel. Good or bad, this flick warrants a second.

All right, bring on Bojack Horseman now!
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crazieanimefan1



Joined: 18 Feb 2015
Posts: 409
Location: Auburn, AL
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 9:42 pm Reply with quote
I'm giving this a C on the rating scale. While it did suck me in, there were parts I wasn't happy with.

Mia however, was not the annoying ditz of Misa Misa we all loved. She was a misfit like Light and they went off to the Deranged Island of Misfit Toys together...you ask me, spoiler[she was killed off too soon. She had no regard to Light, except to have a crush on him, unlike her anime counterpart, who worshiped Kira because he killed the murderer that killed her family.]

Second, this version of L seemed to have more loose screws than a can of nuts. He popped star candies like drugs, seemed to get unhinged pretty quickly, and had a fondness for slamming his fists into tables and looking like he had the tranquil fury boiling to the surface. Made me think he was a hidden homicidal maniac and the ending...god, I hate cliffhangers.

It could go either way.

L could've wrote his own name, boom, no more L, we get Near and Mello.

L could've wrote Light's name, then no sequel.

L could've done his movie counterpart and spoiler[given himself 28 days to prove Light was the one].

But to me, the personalities of the two were switched. Anime/Manga Light was the one to come close to the fury protrayed in this movie's L. While Light in this one had the more calm, goofy nature of the anime/manga L.

Ryuk...I can't help picturing Green Goblin. Defaeo did a wonderful job, but goodness knows he channeled Green Goblin into Ryuk.

The blood and gore...hell, if you watch Tokyo Ghoul, you get the same thing, so I'm all right in that department.

That's my take...I know some may think it weird.
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navycherub



Joined: 26 Oct 2007
Posts: 233
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 11:07 pm Reply with quote
I'd love a sequel.
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residentgrigo



Joined: 23 Dec 2007
Posts: 2404
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 11:20 pm Reply with quote
40 mil is a huge step up from the 6 mil Netflix payed for Beasts of No Nation but the upcoming Bright cost 90 mil, so there must be some logic behind all of this budgeting. We´ll see. About the film:

This is the best life action version of Death Note yet but that wasn´t too hard. This American take is so different that new names should have been used but even that would have been problematic. Someone would then have decided to make this a soft-sequel to the event from the manga and all viewers would then ask themselves why they aren´t watching the "original story" instead.
Having our protagonist Light develop from a milk toast to a psycho over the course of 93 minutes and not just a 2 chapters is actually an improvement on the source material and Nat Wolff showed a lot of range in the role. His now romantic girlfriend is arguably a step down and the decision to make Misa a classmate instead of an obsessed fangirl is way too contrived. His nemesis L is very good in the role but he behaves like his manga apprentice Mello. Willem Dafoe also got to play the role of a lifetime, even if Ryuk is just a sporting role. The cast worked pretty well overall, even if nitpicks can be had, and the film is very well directed. All the problems are with the script, as it crams way too much into 1 single film and this should have been a (still short) miniseries instead. This and the very intriguing cliffhanger ending are the film´s major flaws. You don´t feel like having seen a complete product in the end and want to start the next film/episode but there isn´t one as of now. I would be more critical of the film if we were swamped with great life action adaptation of manga/anime but we instead continue to get unwatchable trash as the Death Note J-Drama or the US Ghost in the Shell so i need to applaud productions that bothered to understand the core of what they were adapting! Adam Wingard´s crew certainly tried under challenging circumstances and gave me an entertaining remix of a modern classic, so i look forward to more. It was lastly interring to see all this inventive gore in a story that was originally intended to be read by schoolboys. It fits pretty well. 7,5/10
PS: The first life action DN film is ok but no one can say to me that it lives in another quality league than this one. Comparing both is actually pretty interesting, as it has the better script while the US version managed to trump all other aspects.
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Cutiebunny



Joined: 18 Apr 2010
Posts: 1746
PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 12:03 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Hopefully people will watch it and Netflix will order a sequel. They definitely are ready to. They just need people to watch it.


That means that they're not ready for a sequel. Laughing
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Nonaka Machine Gun B



Joined: 03 Feb 2009
Posts: 819
PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 1:20 am Reply with quote
Without giving much away, the movie essentially takes the Misa Amane stand-in and makes her Light Yagami; Light Turner is his own different beast. I would watch a sequel for sure.
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Heishi



Joined: 06 Mar 2016
Posts: 1314
PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 2:00 am Reply with quote
Having just seen this one, I can say it was decent. For an American adaption anyway. I still think the Japanese ones are better, but overall this was an interesting take and I enjoyed Dafoe's take on Ryuk.
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