(SPOILER WARNING!!)
... Why does this film exist? No joke, I'm still baffled why Netflix decided to do a live action adaptation of Death Note... which already has a film adaptation and sequel from Japan. This then begs the question of why do a film version of it anyway? People already have the anime and manga at their disposal and it's not like it's hard to find. Hell, I picked up a boxset for the anime from my local HMV, so it's not like I can't just put that on any time that I want.
I guess it didn't help when it came to the early promotion of the film, with confirmation that it would just be an Americanised version of the manga... did these people learn nothing from Dragonball Evolution?
And when I say Americanised, I of course meant completely whitewashed, to the point where there are only about four people of Asian descent in the film and they only passingly mention some crimes in Japan.
But enough about that, what actually happens in this film? Scratch that; the question should be "what doesn't happen in this film"?
The story focuses on Light Turner, played by Nat Wolff (as opposed to Light Yagami), an angsty teen in high school who comes across a black note book that falls from the sky, the titular Death Note. The book has the ability where if someone's name is written in the book, they'll die, so long as the person writing the name knows what the other person looks like. Other details such as time of death or cause of death are also additional factors that one can add if they wish.
As one could guess, this book is not of Earthly origins, as it was once the property of the Death God (or Shinigami) named Ryuk, voiced perfectly by Willem Defoe. With this new power, and after much convincing from his later found girlfriend Mia (played by Margaret Qualley), Light starts using the Death Note to kill people, but only major criminals and terrorists as a means of bringing justice to the world. All the while, his identity as Kira starts being hunted down by the mysterious and reclusive detective known only as "L", played by Keith Stanfield, among other side stories that worked much better in the original because they had time to be fleshed out.
And really, that's a big problem with the film; it tries desperately to tell too much of the story in such little time, that none of it feels like it ever has time to develop. Stuff like the sudden relationship between Light and Mia happens in a few minutes of the running time and far too early on. As such, it's also hard to get invested with the characters if their character arcs are just being rushed through just to get the death scenes. Characters like L's confident Watari have little to no character as they hardly get any focus and what little focus we get on our main characters is dull and uninteresting, thus we don't care about the events that they go through.
The death scenes themselves are part of why the film was trying far too hard to be dark and edgy, instead coming off as comedic and silly. I kid you not, the first death scene is a generic high school bully being decapitated by a step ladder that flies off of a swerving car. How am I supposed to take this seriously when this is the kind of death you see in a Final Destination movie? Heck, apparently one of the note book's rules is that the cause of death have to be realistic; how realistic is "decapitation by ladder", or "covered in water and electrocuted by cables that causes entire upper body to explode"? These deaths scenes are over the top, unrealistic and needlessly gory just to get the blood hungry teens watching this riled in the seats.
When you get down to it, why do the people behind this film even try to make it excessively dark and edgy? The original Death Note was already a fairly dark story, but that wasn't what people liked about it; they liked seeing the interplay between Light and L as they try to outsmart each other, thinking of new strategies and treating the entire conflict as if it were a game of chess. But outside of one small scene when Light and L meet face to face for the first time, that aspect of the story is pretty much wasted to focus on our boring and unlikable idiot protagonists as they treat the whole thing like they're on their fucking honeymoon!
And it's not like Light is still depicted as this genius-level intellect with a literal God-complex who uses other people for his own agenda as he was in the original; he's just a whiny, bratty teenager with an attitude problem and no incentive to actually change the world for what he thinks is the better. Because of this, the entire ethical debate that arouse from the manga, anime and fans of the show is pretty much nothing more than little snippets of window dressing that doesn't actually affect the story. More focus has been put on the superficiality of the death scenes and damn near impossible plans than the actual story or characters.
Even fan favourite character Ryuk, brilliantly performed by Willem Defoe, has had a major character shift that makes him seem more like a villain that he actually was. In the original, Ryuk only dropped the note book into the human world because he was bored and wanted to see what would happen if a human used the book for their own deeds. This also allowed for brilliant interactions between him and Light as the human kept on surprising the Shinigami with his methods and dark sense of justice. In this version, he's just a jackass who encourages Light to be a murderous psychopath for his own sadistic pleasure, which was not what endeared people to Ryuk in the first place. Willem Defoe's performance in this film was definitely the best thing about and it's clear that he was born to do this voice, but that's not enough for me to overlook how poorly written he was and how much little presence Ryuk had in this film. Ryuk is literally in the film for about five minutes of screen time, so he hardly has any agency in this story.
Furthermore, this film seems to be under the misnomer that if it has constant swearing and blood, that it'll automatically be more adult and mature. This, of course, is simply not true. Having to constantly use gore and foul language is not gonna get a more adult audience or rating. If anything, it comes off as more childish because they're pandering down to the lowest common denominator and treating them as idiots who can't appreciate character and story. I may be a foul mouthed asshole myself, but I don't do it because I want to look more adult. I do it because it's a part of my basic vocabulary. I swear on instinct everyday and only when appropriate to the situation. How can supposedly adult filmmakers not fucking understand this?
From the first trailer, people knew that this film was gonna fail just on the basis that they're taking a story ingrained in current Japanese society and culture and turning it into a dull, boring and borderline culturally insensitive crime story that happens to have a supernatural element in it. Is it the worst live action adaptation of a manga/anime? No, that's still Dragonball Evolution. But just because it's not as bad doesn't make it good, as it suffers from the exact same problems; bad storytelling, piss-poor characterisation, inconsistent pacing, terrible acting, lazy dialogue, misunderstanding of the source material to the point of seeming like they never read it and being a misguided adaptation that doesn't respect the aspects of the original story. It's a mediocre to sub-par teen drama on it's own, but it can't be seen as such because of it's connection to Death Note. It's simply not a good movie and everyone involved should be ashamed for making such a piece of shit.
If anyone actually likes this movie, Dr Cox will see you now:
Overall rating: 3/10 (Shit).
Til next time, this is Callum Lewis, the Media Man, signing off.
Saturday 26 August 2017
Tuesday 15 August 2017
Shin Gojira (2016)
(SPOILER WARNING!!)
Recently, over here in the UK, Shin Gojira (or Godzilla Resurgence) was given a one night showing in select theatres around the country. And of course, I was fortunate to get a showing after learning that it was at my local Stratford East Picturehouse. Thus, now that I have seen the big G's latest outing (especially after re-watching the 2014 version and discovering that it kind of sucked), I figured now would be a good time to give my thoughts.
As expected, the story is mainly a soft reboot of the 1954 classic, though this one has something of a... unique spin on the story. In this case, Godzilla first emerges from Tokyo Bay as this arm-less amphibian creature that can't stand upright. However, as it comes ashore, it's body starts to evolve and adapt to the heat and oxygen of dry land, eventually growing in size and having more of a resemblance to his classic look, though the red all over the crevasses on his body brings to mind his look in Godzilla vs Destroyah.
Regardless, much of the story (in the same way as the original) is about the destruction Godzilla causes in Japan and how the government try to deal with this ever present threat that could literally squash them at any moment. No doubt how most Americans feel with Trump in the White House.
Jokes aside, I must give credit to this film for taking more of a serious, albeit traditional, approach with Godzilla whenever he's on screen. He may not be fighting a giant monster, but that's not what this franchise was initially about; the original big G was created as an allegory for the H-bomb that was dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII, as well as the dangers of nuclear technology if misused. Granted, the nuclear allegory is still there in this version, but I actually think that THIS incarnation was more based on the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, thus (just like the original film) it would still strike a cord with the Japanese audience due to how recent the event was.
I even really dig the overall redesign for Godzilla; it's different, but still retains the iconic aspects of the design that made it timeless. Stuff like the large size, or the jagged look for the dorsal fins on his back all work to give him a much more fierce and demonic appearance, accented perfectly with the red and charcoal colour scheme. This really is one of the best redesigns the character has had in the franchise, thought the CG in some places look a bit off, especially with his first form when he comes ashore.
It's a pity, then, that not much else about the film is worth noting in particular praise. Firstly, the characters themselves, while not unlikable, are pretty bland and forgettable, not helped that there are so many of them. There is an entire cabinet of politicians, each one voicing their opinions, and none of them stand out in any meaningful way, thus you don't really care when they are eventually killed by one of Godzilla's atomic breathe attacks. Granted, they try to add some character quirks to the scientists and army personnel who are trying to find a way to stop Godzilla and they are fairly intelligent people, but the quirks can only hold interest for so long before one starts to get tired of them.
Furthermore, the soundtrack, despite being excellently orchestrated, is used in the strangest of places. The main score in particular, "Persecution of the masses", is initially used for when Godzilla is arriving ashore, but most of the track is used for just seeing politicians we don't care about walking through hallways and just talking to each other while Godzilla is rampaging. Even use of the score from the original film feels out of place, not matching with the mood and offsetting any tension in the scene. It feels odd to hear a track similar to one from the Halo games used when the scientists are looking over a piece of paper.
So overall, I guess that I like Shin Gojira fine enough, but I don't think every Godzilla fan will get into it. It's very slow, none of the human characters are particularly interesting and the CGI, especially early on, is pretty abysmal to look at. If someone is looking for Godzilla to do some cool shit in the film, it's definitely there; it just so happens to be in an otherwise mediocre script with science that I'm not certain is accurate (is that how a super coagulant works?).
Overall rating: 6/10 (Average).
Til next time, this is Callum Lewis, the Media Man, signing off.
Recently, over here in the UK, Shin Gojira (or Godzilla Resurgence) was given a one night showing in select theatres around the country. And of course, I was fortunate to get a showing after learning that it was at my local Stratford East Picturehouse. Thus, now that I have seen the big G's latest outing (especially after re-watching the 2014 version and discovering that it kind of sucked), I figured now would be a good time to give my thoughts.
As expected, the story is mainly a soft reboot of the 1954 classic, though this one has something of a... unique spin on the story. In this case, Godzilla first emerges from Tokyo Bay as this arm-less amphibian creature that can't stand upright. However, as it comes ashore, it's body starts to evolve and adapt to the heat and oxygen of dry land, eventually growing in size and having more of a resemblance to his classic look, though the red all over the crevasses on his body brings to mind his look in Godzilla vs Destroyah.
Regardless, much of the story (in the same way as the original) is about the destruction Godzilla causes in Japan and how the government try to deal with this ever present threat that could literally squash them at any moment. No doubt how most Americans feel with Trump in the White House.
Jokes aside, I must give credit to this film for taking more of a serious, albeit traditional, approach with Godzilla whenever he's on screen. He may not be fighting a giant monster, but that's not what this franchise was initially about; the original big G was created as an allegory for the H-bomb that was dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII, as well as the dangers of nuclear technology if misused. Granted, the nuclear allegory is still there in this version, but I actually think that THIS incarnation was more based on the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, thus (just like the original film) it would still strike a cord with the Japanese audience due to how recent the event was.
I even really dig the overall redesign for Godzilla; it's different, but still retains the iconic aspects of the design that made it timeless. Stuff like the large size, or the jagged look for the dorsal fins on his back all work to give him a much more fierce and demonic appearance, accented perfectly with the red and charcoal colour scheme. This really is one of the best redesigns the character has had in the franchise, thought the CG in some places look a bit off, especially with his first form when he comes ashore.
It's a pity, then, that not much else about the film is worth noting in particular praise. Firstly, the characters themselves, while not unlikable, are pretty bland and forgettable, not helped that there are so many of them. There is an entire cabinet of politicians, each one voicing their opinions, and none of them stand out in any meaningful way, thus you don't really care when they are eventually killed by one of Godzilla's atomic breathe attacks. Granted, they try to add some character quirks to the scientists and army personnel who are trying to find a way to stop Godzilla and they are fairly intelligent people, but the quirks can only hold interest for so long before one starts to get tired of them.
Furthermore, the soundtrack, despite being excellently orchestrated, is used in the strangest of places. The main score in particular, "Persecution of the masses", is initially used for when Godzilla is arriving ashore, but most of the track is used for just seeing politicians we don't care about walking through hallways and just talking to each other while Godzilla is rampaging. Even use of the score from the original film feels out of place, not matching with the mood and offsetting any tension in the scene. It feels odd to hear a track similar to one from the Halo games used when the scientists are looking over a piece of paper.
So overall, I guess that I like Shin Gojira fine enough, but I don't think every Godzilla fan will get into it. It's very slow, none of the human characters are particularly interesting and the CGI, especially early on, is pretty abysmal to look at. If someone is looking for Godzilla to do some cool shit in the film, it's definitely there; it just so happens to be in an otherwise mediocre script with science that I'm not certain is accurate (is that how a super coagulant works?).
Overall rating: 6/10 (Average).
Til next time, this is Callum Lewis, the Media Man, signing off.
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