Strikes the right balance between the grim, the grisly and the fun.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 2, 2024

This is probably the result of trying to cram an entire series in under two hours, which leads to a climax as convoluted as the Note’s seemingly endless rules.

| Feb 3, 2023

Wingard's lack of control over the material seems unlike his work, and yet the uneven result speaks for itself.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 17, 2022

...even if we judge Death Note on its own virtues instead of as an adaptation, it falls pathetically flat.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Sep 25, 2020

Death Note can't escape the fact that it is utterly ludicrous

| Original Score: C+ | Jul 17, 2020

Death Note is fairly emo and Twilight-y (thought thankfully not as mind-numbingly serious) but Wingard's horror credentials are front and centre in the film's unexpectedly gruesome deaths.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Oct 4, 2019

The Netflix adaptation feels like the Final Destination franchise and Dawson's Creek had a regrettable affair together and Death Note is the aborted baby that they attempted to sweep under a back alley dumpster to keep hidden from the rest of the world.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 1, 2019

'Death Note' is what happens when you take a filmmaker with such a great personality as the good Wingard, you give him fifty million dollars and, more importantly, total creative freedom. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Aug 13, 2019

As someone with no previous affections for this series, Wingard drew me into this world; one which, previously, I didn't even care about, that I might like to see more of.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 3, 2019

It's good for a couple of unintended laughs, all sealed up in a shiny candy wrapper. There's nothing here worth getting angry about, nor is there anything worthy of praise; the resulting film is more of a footnote than a Death Note.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 18, 2019

This F-grade review has nothing to do with the whitewashing in Death Note and everything to do with being a walking disaster of a film.

| Original Score: F | Nov 16, 2018

Adam Wingard's stylish direction and the solid casting do make it more than watchable, but the story and pacing are hampered by an overstuffed plot ...

| Original Score: 5.5/10 | Nov 11, 2018

While it didn't exactly inspire me to rush out and track down the other adaptations, it did once again remind me of what a talent Adam Wingard is.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Nov 3, 2018

[Death Note] shamefully uses Japan and Japanese people at its convenience.

| Original Score: F | Oct 31, 2018

This terrible movie ain't worth me explaining the premise.

| Sep 26, 2018

Stylistically Death Note is stunning. Suitably heightened and hyper-stylised, everything feels otherworldly. The gore, and there is plenty, is similarly heightened, and could easily be straight out an anime.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 29, 2018

Simply put, if the concept behind Death Note sounds intriguing, stick to the anime or don't bother.

| Aug 28, 2018

Another manga live action manga adaptation butchered, how long will this genre have to wait before it has its Spider-Man 2 moment? Before we get a good one? Longer still it would seem. Today is not that day.

| Aug 20, 2018

It's an almost inherently engrossing premise that's employed to progressively hit-and-miss effect by director Adam Wingard...

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 5, 2018

...the film never goes into the deeper, more fascinating concepts that it could've tackled, which feels like a missed opportunity.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 24, 2018