Mia has a large part to play in the story that her shallow character never earns. That basic lack of motivation extends to nearly every character in the film, from Light’s father to his accomplice girlfriend, Mia (Margaret Qualley). A few throwaway lines address that issue - his mother was murdered, so he has a vague desire to kill “bad guys” - but these topics are never explored on any significant level. But his performance just builds on the fact that his motivations for using the “death note” are never especially strong in the first place.
Mostly, he speaks with a pained, constipated look that doesn’t fit someone contemplating the complexities of murder. Given Wolff’s portrayal, it’s often hard to tell whether a given line is meant to be comedic or serious. Light falls somewhere between an unhinged sadist and whiny teenager. If the film’s writers or director Adam Wingard envisioned Light as a likable character, the on-screen version is a spectacular failure. Netflix’s take on the cat-and-mouse game of murder is riddled with problems from start to finish. Eventually, he attracts the attention of law enforcement, especially an eccentric detective who just goes by “L” ( Lakeith Stanfield). Then he invents Kira, a god of justice who claims credit for the killings. After it literally falls from the sky, with no explanation ever offered, Light begins using it to kill people he deems evil. The film, like its source material, dictates that anyone with the magical notebook is granted the power to mete out justice as they see fit.
This murder - rapid, weightless, and unnecessarily gory - is Death Note in a nutshell.ĭeath Note is an adaptation of the popular anime and manga franchise of the same name.
He writes the name down, and the victim dies by decapitation moments later, through a twisted series of circumstances. Light Turner (Nat Wolff), newly in possession of a book that lets its owner kill anyone whose name and face they know, picks a target. Netflix’s Death Note can be summed up by the film’s first murder, which takes place hardly 10 minutes in.