Death Note Review Round-Up: Here's What The Critics Are Saying

GameSpot

"There's good news out of Death Note's first public screening, held during San Diego Comic-Con this week: There's little in here that should enrage most fans. Death Note is far from an exact adaptation, taking great liberties with the plot and some with the characters as well. It doesn't even try to replicate the anime's entire story, which arguably went on for too many episodes in its original run. But it does cram a lot of story in, which turns out to be both a good and a bad thing." - GameSpot

LRM

"The upcoming Death Note film is one that's been plagued with doubt and ridicule from day one. Anime and manga fans aren't exactly known for keeping their feelings secret, and with the continual declarations of whitewashing overseas properties the casting of Nat Wolff as Light certainly didn't help a whole lot. But would this be a film that would crash and burn like other similar manga adaptations like Ghost in the Shell and Dragon Ball Evolution?

LRM had a chance to attend a special screening at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, and we're happy to report that no, we do not believe this one will suffer a similar fate. While fans of the manga will likely still poke and prod this adaptation due to its relative unfaithfulness to the manga (it uses the premise as a jumping off point, rather than sticking to each core plot point), I thought it was a great adaptation — one that has the ability to stand pretty well on its own." - LRM

IGN

"Death Note is one of the most popular manga series in the world, and it has already been adapted as an anime series and as a live-action movie in Japan. Director Adam Wingard (Blair Witch, You're Next) took the helm of the American adaptation, which is coming to Netflix next month. At Comic-Con, Wingard expressed his hope and belief that his movie would buck the trend of low-quality American anime remakes. However, he only partially succeeds." - IGN

JoBlo

"Whatever the excuse, there is definitely something lost in translation in bringing DEATH NOTE to life as an English language film for the first time. It's not a terrible film by any means, but it's frequently an awkward one. It is clearly ambitious, with enough spirit from the cast and crew to make it look as if there's something meaningful brewing underneath the surface gloss, but it keeps tripping over its own feet thanks to a storyline that appears to keep changing the rules as it goes along. Furthermore, it glosses over the most interesting part of its premise - would you play God if you could? - in favor of a fairly ho-hum cat-and-mouse thriller angle. The material is challenging, there's no doubt about that, and it would have been a herculean task for anyone to make it sensible and effective in the span of a single movie. This attempt at DEATH NOTE comes up short at being a coherent adaptation of a sprawling international cultural phenomenon, and it likely won't serve as an enticing gateway for newbies." - JoBlo

More Death Note News

MORE: Netflix's Death Note Director Debunks Film Rumors & Dragonball Evolution Comparison

You can read up on Death Note below thanks to Viz Media's Synopsis:

"Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects—and he's bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But will Light succeed in his noble goal, or will the Death Note turn him into the very thing he fights against?"

UP NEXT: Death Note Virtual Reality Is Here

What if you had the power to decide who lives and who dies? We suggest you obey the rules. Based on the famous Japanese manga written by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, Death Note follows a high school student who comes across a supernatural notebook, realizing it holds within it a great power; if the owner inscribes someone's name into it while picturing their face, he or she will die. Intoxicated with his new godlike abilities, the young man begins to kill those he deems unworthy of life.

Death Note will be available to stream on Netflix beginning August 25, 2017.