Nat wolff and controversy aside I really enjoyed death note, it has the aesthetic I really liked, with a semi neo noir feel, and the soundtrack is definitely the best, the only actor that I saw as unbearable was Nat wolff, and I enjoyed everyone else's performances, though ridden in cheesy lines and cringe worthy moments, I see it as more of a cult classic people will watch to trash,i think that it's more of its own thing borrowing elements from the original which in my opinion is a decent watch
If you take joy out of the movie, that’s great, have fun. It’s definitely it’s own thing, I think most people can agree on that.
The cinematography was good, and the neo noir feeling was nice, and on a technical level it looked well done. So in that regard I agree about the aesthetic. If you’re referring to the oh-so-edgy visuals and the eighties style aesthetic and the attempt to include horror-style visuals for Ryuk, I didn’t care for it.
We are going to have to disagree on the soundtrack. The eighties synth style is out of place for the tone and subject of the film. Wingard has his roots in the horror genre, so the cult classic eighties feel was probably intentional, but the style clashes with the film for me. It works for something like Stranger Things which actually takes place in the eighties and which is actually a horror story with an actual horror monster, but not so much for Death Note.
Borrowing elements from the original is one of the parts that annoys me personally. I wanted an adaptation that got into the complexities of the situation like the original, not a few borrowed elements inserted into a high school AU murder-romance where all the characters are OOC and the murderer is portrayed as even more of a victim than any of the people he murdered. And this is where some of the controversial stuff must come into consideration even when it’s viewed as a standalone film. I can’t just set that aside. For me, it’s deeply unsettling for portraying its main character that way, and for how his father who is a cop acts in some situations, and in how the story narrative portrays this. I’ll stop there because there are plenty of other posts getting into the problems it has as a standalone film.
If you can enjoy the movie with all of that, then cool, enjoy. I personally don’t.
Just to add - It’s fine for people to be critical of something and still enjoy it, or enjoy parts of it. There are parts of the film that I liked, but not enough. If you make any nice fanworks, I’ll probably enjoy them and reblog them, just as I’ve been reblogging some gifsets and fanart when I see them. No one needs to shy away from playing happily in the sandbox, and no one should give you grief for it. The critical analyses and frustrated mocking are probably here to stay though.
