Well done Netflix, you had one job! To make a the Americanised version of Death Note feel like Death Note.

While I'm still saving my stance on the movie, I will complain about how Netflix cannot even simply make it feel like Death Note.

Trailer:

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Why this doesn't feel like Death Note, oh boy. Let's start off with Light's design.

While they have not specified where the movie is set, I assume it'll be America because of the name change from Light Yagami to Light Turner. And speaking of Light, what's up with that design?

Light was always based off the model student, but with a dark side. This design makes him look just plain edgy.

What made Light... Well Light?

Let's look. Light had the model student look, neat appearance, innocent look, but with the way Obata drew him for his more dark side, the long hair helped play a part of the dark feel and the sharp and dark eyes helped. His clothing choice was smart and not what an edgy teen would wear.

This new Light doesn't have the long hair, it brings a sense of emo and dark with the right set up, but this hair is more up in the air. Like a comb over. His clothes seem more edgy, bagginess. He gives off a punk feel, whereas Light should have a student feel with a dark vibe cleverly hidden in the background. With Netflix not being able to capture that feel, this might aswell been someone else entirely.

Also, what's up with the trailer? There's such a dramatic background music PLUS it's presented as a action-thriller, especially with that carnival scene. Light is not a hands on person. He is blending in the crowd and sniping off people. This scene feels like Light will get into some sort of actual danger, when the only time he was in danger was facing L. L is the reason Death Note was such a thriller. The Light vs L dynamic contrast helped build thriller. With the lack of L in what we can get in here, it won't feel like Death Note. It feels like Hollywood making that dynamic contrast thrown out of the window and replaced Light's personality aswell. Makes me wonder if they read the source material.

Secondly, the Death Note does NOT look like the Death Note. The Death Note should've looked like a regular notebook, not something out of a fairy tail. If you can't even grasp the Death Note's core concept, you shouldn't be handed making a spin-off.

Thirdly, how over dramatic everything seems. Death Note isn't even all that dramatic. It's more tension based, slowly building up events till it snaps and everything comes crashing down. Example, the Yotsuba Kira arc.
It built over numerous episodes, and then snapped at a point and bringing back Light vs L. That was great by the way, one of my favourite arcs.
Showing these criminals doing these complex shit like going through some lasers or whatever doesn't build tension, and it doesn't make it feel like Death Note. Death Note never explored criminals that much, it explored morals, character dynamics and much more, and this adaptation fails to grasp this air even by the slight bit.

Finally, it won't feel the same as Death Note because... Well, of different writing styles between West and the East. While I prefer Eastern told stories (so Asian stories) the writing styles are vastly different. If you told Japan to make The Walking Dead an anime, you'd probably get Highschool of the Dead, and what's similar about them? Zombies. The approach is way too different. That's why I feel like Netflix shoulda hired some people from Japan to help write the scripts so it'd feel like Death Note atleast in the storyline, and then get some people to translate the script. If you have the budget to make Death Note an American movie/tv series, finding someone to translate shouldn't be that hard.

I think that Anime should just stay as Anime or Manga. It's a visual storytelling with a cartoon like style, so it wouldn't do well in Live action (except slice of life as it's irl, but then again, art styles) and because it's made in the east, people from the west trying to adapt it wouldn't get its style. I feel that maybe if Netflix went over what made Death Note, Death Note, we could've had something special. All I see right now is another Dragonball Evolution.

That's all, Fox out.