Death Note: L Change the World
Death Note: L Change the World
NR | 07 February 2008 (USA)
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"The human whose name is written in the Death Note shall die." After making the hardest decision ever, another serious case confronts L. There are only 23 days left and without his best partner Watari, L has to solve the case all by himself for the very first time.

Reviews
Intcatinfo

A Masterpiece!

Sameer Callahan

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

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Calum Hutton

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

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Kaydan Christian

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

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Granger

This movie is a contrived, violent, gory and foul-mouthed (at least in the translations) insult to the legacy of the Death Note series. While using the same actor to play L... his actions are over the top. He types like a monkey, walks like an ape, and has nothing of the flair of his original representation of L.Intelligence and an original story made the original Death Note a unique work of art. This film contains none of such. Instead it devolves to a basic action / gore thriller that conflicts with the original story line. If we are to accept this story as true, the would have to be two "L"s... identical twins both working non-stop around the clock-- one to deal with this virus and the other to stop Kira. That of course is nonsense and jumps the shark into the troposphere.This is a poor effort-- poor enough that I give it my rare 1-star two-thumbs down rating that I usually reserve for the worst of schlock movies. This isn't bad enough to be good... and not nearly good enough to be Death Note. As much as I like this actor, even he couldn't pull this one out of the dumpster.Parental warning: this should by no means be considered a family-worthy film. (Nor even adult-worthy, for that matter.) If you enjoyed Death Note and consider it one of the most original movies ever made... this is likely to be a considerable disappointment.

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kaevmon-aenok

Well you don't have a clue about the original storyline! Simon may have some stuff wrong, except in the original anime/manga L died before solving the Kira case, he didn't get 23 days, he didn't survive but Kira did, and burning the death note never would've happened prior because he didn't know about the kira case or death note so saying it's a prequel would also be false. In the anime it was never destroyed, especially when L was alive. L DIED! This is a changed storyline that didn't coincide with the original, but if events happened differently. You have no idea what you are talking about if you never even saw the anime!

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furvus-1

If you know the Death Note manga/anime/film series, be forewarned that this film has very little to do with the concept of Death Notes and Shinigami. The only connection is the character "L", who is played very well, again, by Ken'ichi Matsuyama, He played "L" in Death Note (2006) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758742/ and Death Note 2:The Last Name http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0810827/"L", or L Lawliet to his friends... oh yeah, he hasn't any... is one of the coolest characters in manga/anime history, and Ken'ichi Matsuyama plays him as well as anyone could, IMHO. This is a good film nevertheless, but the plot has nothing to do with the Death Notes of the previous films. That's all, folks! :)

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max williams

Living up to the excellence of Shusuke Kaneko's Death Note films was always going to be a daunting task. The makers of this film responded to this challenge by avoiding it.The film's prominent ties to its predecessors, most notably the inclusion of several characters and events from them, are entirely superficial, and I was left with the distinct impression that Nakata's primary desire was to make a bioterrorism thriller, with the Death Note movies and the character of L serving merely as convenient springboards.After going to the trouble of hiring several actors to reprise their roles, (Such as Erika Toda as Misa, Asaka Seto as Naomi Misora, and Shunji Fujimura) their characters are criminally underused. This is not just lazy, it is cruel. It's the equivalent of dangling food in front of a starving dog only to pull it away after only letting them lick it. Even the unperceptive viewer can tell these are blatant attempts to fake a connection which is essentially nonexistent.The sheer magnitude of neglected opportunities to capitalise on the wealth of plot and character established by the Death Note films is staggering. A event as stupendous as Kira's reign of death would have a lasting effect on society; the Death Note films show the beginnings of this, with people divided over whether his actions were right, and many supporting him to a religious degree. Yet in L: Change the WorLd, its almost as if none of it had ever happened. Life goes on as usual, with scarcely a mention of the monumental upheaval the world has just undergone. This also could've provided many interesting possibilities, such as the Kira cult becoming involved in the plot, or characters such as Misa and Ryuk playing new roles and continuing to develop. Apparently, Nakata couldn't care less.What's more, he can't resist falling back on his roots as a horror director, and is determined to scare the audience with the victims of the virus. Unfortunately, the result is corniness rather than adrenaline. The rest if the time, he's either plodding through the drama on autopilot, or inserting light comedy in a haphazard manner.The writing isn't much better. The script is brimming with trite clichés, yet is oblivious to this and makes no effort to put a fresh spin on them. It has some admirable aspirations, namely its attempts to explore L's human side, and capture the topical issues of terrorism and the Bird Flu/SARS scares in the same way that its prequels addressed justice and the death penalty, but in execution it fails. Overall, it largely plays like amateur fanfiction, overusing the surface strengths of the originals (namely L's eccentricity) while losing its deeper strengths. Interesting ideas are left to rot on a compost heap of generic characters, messy plotting, and lame attempts to emulate the excesses of the typical Hollywood action movie.To his immense credit, Kenichi Matsuyama lifts L above this malaise and squeezes a river of blood from the stony script in his typically witty and charismatic performance. Once again, he embodies the character down to his finest mannerisms, and makes like he just crept off the set of The Last Name. True, his English skills are modest, but this is actually believable; I met many Japanese people who spoke in this way during my time in Japan.Sadly, however, much the use of English throughout the film is reminiscent of the Heisei Godzilla series in its grating inanity. Also, the Japanese performances outside of Matsuyama range from decent, (Fukuda Mayuko as Maki) to downright cheesy. (Most of the villains) Even Erika Toda as Misa had none of the spark Kaneko drew out of her in the prequels during her brief cameo.Even Death Note veteran Kenji Kawai's score, while certainly not bad, is a far cry from his work on the previous films, though largely because he's mostly forcibly limited to low key background music and the long periods of sluggish silence Nakata so adores. He finally finds a chance to shine towards the end, where he provides two impressive pieces; an epic cue that accompanies L's arrival at the climax, and a melancholy piece that fits the fittingly touching conclusion nicely.Cinematography is also a step down, losing the smooth, rich clarity of the Death Note movies for a dry and altogether bland visual style.Thankfully it's not all doom and gloom; there's some good apples among the piles of rotten ones. As mentioned previously, the ending is suitably poignant, though the tears it almost brought to my eyes are due primarily to my love of and familiarity with the character. I also laughed aloud at several of L's displays of quirkiness, and flushed with joy at the rare but delicious moments of Death-Note-style "intellectual pwnage." The opening title sequence is slick and classy, capturing the feel of its predecessors wonderfully.The FX are strong for a Japanese film, and are actually slightly more advanced than those of the first two films. The destruction of the infected village is vivid and impressive, and the practical effects for virus's symptoms are mostly well done. Ryuk's execution via CGI during his brief appearance is about on par with his previous incarnations.But you know something's wrong when your counting the good moments rather than the bad ones.In the end, the film's highlights are like sweet chocolate chips in a bitter and mouldy cookie. It succeeds as fanservice and as cold commercial calculation, but fails as art, entertainment, or storytelling. It's an awful shame, because with the ingredients left by its marvellous predecessors, it could have been truly great.

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