What happens when a teenager gets a notebook from a demon that allowed him to decide on anyone’s death no more than two days away? If that teenager happens to be Light Turner, what happens is Death Note. Although there are definite horror elements there, I would classify this as closer to Dark Fantasy. It’s a fairly fun movie that manages to completely skate past the issues surrounding someone killing more than 400 people. It ultimately boils down to a game of cat and mouse between Light Turner and the mysterious L tasked to find him. It’s an enjoyable watch, but ultimately forgettable. And I suspect a lot of that comes from the fact that they were trying to 888 minutes of anime (which I have not yet seen) into 100 minutes of movie. They skimmed past a lot of really interesting character development and SO. MANY. CONSEQUENCES. in order to get everything in that it’s just sad.

Ultimately, this is a movie you should see so you can have the impetus to watch the anime and/or write fan fiction that explores all the cool shit the movie left out.