Death Note: The Last Name

Runtime: 141 minutes

Genre: Psychological/Supernatural Thriller

Release date: July 4^th 2008

Star Rating: 2/5

Director: Shusuke Kaneko

Writers:  Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata (comic) Tetsuya Oishi (screenplay)

Cast: Ken’ichi Matsuyama as L, Tatsuya Fujiwara as Light, Erika Toda as Misa Amane, Shidou Nakamura voice of Ryuk and Shinnosuke Ikehata voice of Rem.

Death Note: The Last Name is the second film based on the Manga comic series of the same name and picks up where the first film left off with Light in possession of the death note, the world’s deadliest weapon, with the power to kill anyone in the world simply by writing their name in this book. The film follows Light’s crusade against evil as he uses the book to kill all the criminals in the world whilst the ICPO, led by the mysterious L, attempt to catch him and bring an end to the series of murders he has committed.  

The portrayal of L by Ken’ichi Matsuyama is the stand out performance of the film creating an almost Sherlock Holmes-esque character whose weird eccentricities, such as wearing a Halloween mask to hide his face in public, provide much needed comic relief in this rather dark film.

However, the central plot of this film is the psychological chess match between L and Light leading to a dialogue heavy narrative with very little to visually interest the audience. The director seems intent of sticking religiously to the source material which gives the film an exasperating run-time of 141 minutes and the narrative feels sluggish as it struggles to pick up pace- the first 90 minutes are just plain boring.

Verdict: Death Note may well please the fans of the original Manga comics but for those of us unaware of the source material will find the narrative slow and tedious with very little to visually spark the imagination. The one redeeming feature of this film is that the conclusion is both shocking and inspiring and will captivate your attention for the first time in the film providing twists and turns whilst dealing with the key moral issue, is it right for humans to play god?