Light Turner, a bright student who stumbles across a mystical notebook that has the power to kill any person whose name he writes in it. Light decides to launch a secret crusade to rid the streets of criminals. Soon, the student-turned-vigilante finds himself pursued by a famous detective known only by the alias L.

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If you didn't already know, the new trailer for the upcoming live-action Death Note movie went up on YouTube yesterday -- and it's receiving a lot of hate. At the time of writing this, the likes and dislikes of its trailer are almost the same, at around 21k each. That's pretty bad. For those who know nothing about Death Note in general, this live-action movie, directed by Adam Wingard, is based on the original, incredibly popular Death Note manga/anime, which ranked #1 in popularity on MAL (MyAnimeList). Here's the trailer and some images of the movie.







So why is the movie getting so much hate? It's because it turns out that the movie drifts away from the original source material. In other words, it's not going to follow the original story and the characters are going to have some major alterations. The setting, for example, is going to take place in America (Seattle, Washington) instead of some place in Japan, but I don't think that's the main thing what fans are angry about -- it's the characters. In short, their names, looks and personalities are changed. Instead of Light Yagami (main character), it's Light Turner. Instead of Misa Amane, it's Mia Sutton. It's a good thing that the death god, Ryuk, will still retain his original self, lol. If you've read the manga or saw the anime, and then saw the trailer, you can definitely tell that the characters are really off balance. They're doing things that the original characters would never do. There was also a lot of hate in the past, when they announced the cast, on how they're using American actors instead of Japanese actors, but imo, if an actor could portray their character well, who honestly gives a shit. But in Death Note's case, we won't be really be able to tell since the characters aren't based on source material. On the other hand, I'm glad they casted Willem DaFoe (dude who played Green Goblin in 2002's Spider-Man) to voice Ryuk. I think his voice is great for that part. Here's a visual comparison of the actors and their characters.

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Live-action anime/manga adaptations in general don't do that well, too. Just look at the Ghost in the Shell, Dragonball: Evolution, Attack on Titan and Parasyte: The Maxim live-action movies. Here's my short, personal answer on the reason why they're bad: They'd rather make a movie to attract the larger audience (usually not the fans) to ultimately make more money. I'm not saying the movie is gonna be trash, I'm just not gonna hold high expectations for it. Who knows, the movie might actually be great, despite all the changes made. Regardless if it's good or bad, I'm still gonna watch it.

Anyway, since we're on the topic of Death Note, you should check out the anime if you haven't already. It's definitely well worth the time, especially if you were planning on watching the movie when it comes out. The anime is 37 episodes long, with each episode being around 20 mins (if you skip the OP/ED). There's also an English dubbed version that's available (which is actually pretty good) for those who can't stand subtitles.

The Death Note live-action movie premieres on the 25th of August on Netflix.

Feel free to leave your thoughts about the movie and the whole situation regarding it!