So.
I went to the opening night of the special screening of the first Death Note live action movie last night. The theatre itself wasn't particularly packed, though I'm pleased to say it wasn't exactly empty, either. I even saw someone dressed up, haha. It was a very nice Mello cosplay. (I was so sad I didn't bring my camera to take a picture of her!)
So, anyway, they showed a preview of the Bleach: Memories of Nobody movie that'll be showing June 10 & 11 (I think; you'll have to check the Fathom Events website to double-check), and that looked pretty interesting. I'll probably go if I don't have anything else to do.
So, on to the movie itself. (SPOILERS, AHOY!)
As one of the few Death Note fans that hasn't managed to already see the movie online somewheres, I didn't know what to expect. Overall... I have to say the movie was decent. It wasn't stellar and it wasn't abysmal; it was nice and in the middle.
Now, I realize that when you take something that's been done in two different mediums beforehand and turn it into a live-action venture, some things are going to get lost in translation. However... The avenue the director took by having Light and Shori so closely together and whatnot wasn't something I was really kosher with. Especially with Light acting the was her was toward her (even though we saw the real Light shine through at the very end). Also, the fact that they actually showed Naomi dying was troublesome. I mean, that was one of the most interesting first major twists in the early story: We don't know what really ended up happening to her, but in the movie she just up and kills herself, just like that. (Well, of course, Light made it happen, which was actually well thought-out on the director's part, because that's something that Light would probably actually do, but the principle remains.)
There were also little things that bugged me (most prominently the fact that they changed Raye's last name: A native and a foreigner marry?! NOT IN OUR GODDAMN COUNTRY.), but they're easily glazed over. But enough about the hitches.
The acting, I thought, was actually very good, especially with L, Soichiro and Light. Now, I'm the first to admit that I'm an L fangirl till the end, but speaking from the most neutral standpoint I can have, the actor that played him got L down to a T. (Hence why he's getting spin-off movies, more than likely.) When I imagined L as he would be in real life, the way Ken'ichi Matsuyama played him was exactly that. It was both really refreshing and really creepy to see, heh.
It was the same with Light, though he really didn't get down the uber-creepy, demonic "I AM GOD, MWAHAHAHA!" look that Light is famous for. But it was still a really good job.
And Matsuda was as hilarious as always. Silly Matsuda, he tries so hard.
But, like I said, it was a decent movie. I would have preferred that it was shown in Japanese with subtitles so I could hear the actor's original voices (which would have probably made the film look a bit better, what with dubbing over live-action doing what it does to the film itself), but beggars can't be choosers. Besides, I've come to adore Matsuda's English voice, since it fits him so well. (Have you noticed that I'm a Matsuda fangirl too yet?)
So, yeah. I would suggest giving the movie a rent when Viz releases it to DVD (if they haven't already). It's mostly worth it.
