Based of the Manga by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata.
Plot: A American high School student by the name of Light Turner discovers a mysterious notebook titled Death Note, and uses it purge the world of criminals. Later giving himself the title Kira. Then mysterious detective by the name of L starts to suspect that Light is Kira.
Positives: Before, I rip this unholy abomination into shreds here are some things I like. I like the films cinematography ( although there are to many dutch angles), the gore was good, I prefer Mia Sutton over Misa Amane from the original manga/ Anime ( but, I liked her in the Japanese live actions though, and she was decent in the original manga/anime), and William Dafoe's performance as Ryuk was very well done.
Negatives: Time to tear this film to pieces!
They made Light from the manga/ anime into a idiotic character when he is supposed to be a highly intelligent character. L was very good up until the last 30 minutes or so when Watari died. At that point he was like completely different character. My biggest gripe with the movie is that it lacks the questions that manga asked examples include What is justice? Was Light justified in his actions? And, another thing this film lacks is the conflicting preceptions of justice that Light and L had. The movie just throws all those interesting ideas out the window for a horror movie with a teen romance.
Final thoughts: This movie had potential written all over it, but it just falls flat on its face. I just hope they do better the next they adapt Death Note again here in the states.