Watch Death Note: L Change the World For Free

not horrible nor great

Great Film overall

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

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.

The third and final film in the DEATH NOTE trilogy isn't quite as good as the first two films: they were back-to-back thrillers that slotted perfectly together into a quite wonderful double bill. This is more spin-off than sequel, with the fantasy trappings relegated to the sidelines and the emphasis on a traditional thriller centring around L's final 23 days on earth. Much of the plot centres around the outbreak of a highly contagious virus, reminding me of the Dustin Hoffman starrer, OUTBREAK. L is the protagonist thrown into this slightly predictable plot and much of the film's charm comes from his character.This is the film that seeks to humanise L so that he becomes more than just a series of quirky gestures. The third quarter of the film basically departs from the thriller aspects and just focuses on our hero hanging out with a couple of kids and getting involved in society. Kenichi Matsuyama is absolutely wonderful in this role and his presence alone kept me glued to the screen when otherwise this would have been nothing more than a forgettable, convoluted thriller. RING director Hideo Nakata enjoys playing up the grisly aspects of the virus outbreak, with lots of bleeding pustules and eyeballs, and throws in a couple of stand-out moments along the way (L's way of boarding the airliner and the village set-piece are highlights here). Although the supporting cast is populated by strong actors, none of the other characters are ever more than one-dimensional so the film's a bit frustrating in that respect. To be fair it's not a great film at all really, but it is a watchable one – and most of that is down to Matsuyama's presence.

In my review for the second part of the Death Note movies I referred to it being a great clash because it's a strategic battle and doesn't include guns and brute force.In this movie however is the exact opposite.Can you imagine a non fitting protagonist for an action movie?That's your guy!L.Where are all the strategic plans we were shown during the original Death note films?Where is the mastermind seeing through every criminal act in the whole world?It certainly is disappointing when we get to see that in this movie L has no plans at all.Just doing stuff without explanation on why he is doing something or why he is going somewhere.Makes you feel like he is thinking "let's go and we'll see what we'll do when we get there".That is so not L! That's a plain action movie with all the usual saving the world clichés.Want to see it out of curiosity?Try it.As an action movie it ain't bad.But it's clearly not L's style of doing things.

I am a big fan of Death Note and was very satisfied with the 'stunning conclusion' as promised on the DVD case. I think L is a very intriguing character and it was interesting to see a different side to the previous L we had encountered in Death Note 1 and 2. I think Kenichi Matsuyama is a remarkable actor and played his role exceptionally. I heard that he put a lot of his own thoughts and ideas into the character, who he seems to be very attached to from what I've seen in interviews. I can't imagine any other actor who could have played the role as well as Kenichi Matsuyama. He brings a kind of mystery and charm to the character, and you instantly feel drawn to him. The plot itself is attention-grabbing and it was nice to have a change to the usual Death Note story line. I think any more movies following that story line would have become slightly repetitive. The leap through different stages of time helped the viewer to understand elements they may not have fully understood from Death Note 1 and 2. The ending was well written and slightly heart-breaking, I still always feel like crying every time I hear L say his last line. Overall, I think it was a superb movie and definitely worth watching if you are a fan of Death Note.