Movie Monday: Death Note TV versus Movie

Movie Monday is a new feature at Cover2CoverBlog where I talk about Book-Movie Adaptations. If you have any recommendations let me know in the comments. 

This feature may contain SPOILERS to both the books AND the movies so read carefully (and in this case the TV Show)

Today's comparison is... 

Death Note
   

Image sources: Anime-Planet and Wikipedia     

THE TV SHOW Death Note Studio: Madhouse Run Dates: October 2016- June 2017

THE MOVIE Death Note Distributed by: Netflix Release Date: August 25, 2017

 SPOILERS AHEAD! Loads of them!
 

So just a note right off - I have NOT read the Death Note manga series (I need to and would love to). There was a time in my life when I watched A LOT of anime though and Death Note was one of those series. I recently started re-watching it when it arrived on Netflix, completely forgetting that they were going to do a 'movie' adaptation. It is a great anime and it is one that you can watch a few times and still pick up on new things.

So when the new Netflix movie was available I watched it that weekend and while it was ok it wasn't the best adaptation. I had a few issues ...

1. You almost never really see Ryuk in the movie - why? He is so much fun to look at and he is a very entertaining part of the tv series. He is terrifying and they put a lot of work into generating him for the movie so why not show him off more.?!!?! That being said, Willem DaFoe lending his voice was pretty amazing and I loved that aspect.

2. Obviously there was whitewashing, it is an Asian series with Asian characters being recast in Seattle with a predominantly white cast. From what I understand this takes away from a lot of the cultural references and background that is needed for the story to really work. Granted, I have seen the series and so maybe I already have the background needed to watch the movie without feeling like I am missing that. Even still, I was surprised there weren't many Asian/Asian-Americans in the cast.

3. Light - this character, oh my gosh so frustrating. In the movie he is an outcast trying to do good things with the Note. In the series he is kind of crazy-pants. He is a kid that thinks he knows what is best for the world and has the superiority to implement it. So instead we are supposed to feel for the new Light? - no, sorry, that is weird.

4. Misa is replaced with Mia - Misa is famous in the series which lends to other issues with helping Light. In the movie, Mia is a popular teen... This is fine, I understand they had to cut down certain aspects to have a decent length movie but I don''t understand why this girl would fall for Light even after bring shown the Note in action. Why she wants to help is never really explained...

5. AND THAT'S ANOTHER THING - He shows it to her right off the movie was barely a half hour in, WHAT?! Light, you idiot!!

6. L and the game - the TV series was this incredible game of back and forth between L and Light, it was creative and like a game of chess almost, the movie really cuts into that and goes for a more to-the-point case and I think that it bastardized the whole thing for me.

All in all, I am glad I watched it but it is not worth watching again. I wanted more Ryuk and more of the cunning maneuvers you got in the show between L and Light. I am a little sad about it but I will happily keep re-watching the series. 

Movie Monday: Review of Beauty and the Beast

This movie Monday is going to be a bit different because instead of comparing the book-to-movie adaptation I would like to talk about the New live-action Beauty and the Beast and compare to Disney's animated version, which is one of my absolute favorites. And mostly this will be a review of the new movie.

Source

Beauty and the Beast
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Released: March 14, 2017



Rating:
 


  



Review: 
I have been looking forward to this movie forever and I am so excited that it is finally out. I have to admit that Beauty and the Beast (the animated version) is one of my favorite movies... I think it is the reading/library/quirky Belle that always had me. She was strong and determined and she liked to read - she was everything I wanted to be and I already had the reading thing down.  So when I learned about the live-action version of this movie, I was SO afraid that everything would be ruined. I was in tears watching  this movie because I was so excited about it. 

I think that Emma Watson as Belle was a wonderful choice. I think that she is a strong woman who took this role and ran with it but only in the best of ways. I loved the story and how they portrayed it AND I absolutely loved that they kept the songs! (Side-note: I  watched the Jungle Book re-do and was very sad that the singing was mostly gone... I wanted the singing!!!).

The movie overall is enchanting; Watson was the heroine we all remember; Luke who plays Gaston was just as obnoxious as the animated character, if not more, and I wanted to punch him in the throat... However what might be the most fun part of this movie was LeFou. Josh Gad did a wonderful job playing the part, and whereas in the animated version he was a follower, in this rendition he was at times logical and hesitant with Gaston, even to the point of making fun of him and I really liked that spin on it. 

Overall, I highly recommend seeing this remake if you have not already. I saw it in 2D and still need to go see the 3D version. If you saw the 3D one, let me know your thoughts... was it worth it?

Movie Monday: Frantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Source

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Warner Bros. Pictures
Released: November 18, 2016

Rating:  
  

  


Review:  
I saw this movie the weekend that is came out but I have been debating writing a review for it because it wasn't my favorite thing and I hate that when it comes to the Harry Potter universe.

In the movie, we follow Newt Scamander and a trip to New York City. Bad things are happening and his beasts are starting to be blamed for some evil in the city. The plot was pretty good, all things considered, but that is really there are supposed to be a total of five movies and they needed it to lead somewhere. However I did find some faults, but firs lets talk about the good...

I LOVED the beasts! Everything about them was fun and adorable and if I could have a Niffler I would. He is hilarious. The creators did a wonderful job imagining these animals, they are close enough to realistic to make me believe that they could exist. I also really enjoyed the Muggle (No-Mag)/ Wizard interactions in the movie and very sad when it ended. I liked how Newt felt about the animals. He was a advocate for them and I love seeing that for ANY animals (even fantastical ones). Lastly, I loved the nostalgic feel of it all - wizards and magic and evil and the Harry potter world again and the music that makes me all tingly when I hear it because of the joy that HP brought me. I really loved all that...

But, I did have a very big issue with the movie overall. There was almost no character development and I don't know if that is because the beasts were supposed to be what we cared about or if the ending was supposed to pull it together and note that a different story is actually going to be told but I was just disappointed.  I liked Newt because he liked animals, but is that enough... not really I wanted to know his place in everything. I wanted more of Tina's back story as an Auror and what happened there. I wanted to love them and feel for them and what they wanted/needed but there was none of that. 

I assume that in the coming movies we may not be following Newt as the lead character so maybe they felt no need to dive into him as a character more, but a movie should be able to stand on its own and lack of character development on this one made it fall very short for me. I gave it 3 stars because of the nostalgia and the cute-pie beasties, not really anything else.

I do hope that you enjoyed it though :)  

Movie Monday: Review of Suicide Squad

Source

Suicide Squad
Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Entertainment
Released: August 5, 2016

Rating:  
  

  


Review:  Oh this movie. I have been both loving and hating previews and snippets and all of the craziness that has been going on with it. It really is a love/hate relationship but I did enjoy the movie. Was it the best adaption they could have done? - No, but it was entertaining and I needed that.

Suicide Squad, for those of you who don't already know, is a Villain movie. It is about a bunch of villains that are forced to be a swat team of sorts and help solve the cities supernatural/ metahuman problems. 

I love Harley Quinn, if you read my blog you may have noticed that - I am reading/reviewing her New 52 Comic series. So she is really the reason I went to see this movie. I was not super impressed with the casting choice of Margot Robbie but I was surprised at how well she did in the movie. I think her portrayal of Harley was not bad, granted I think that I could have used less booty short shots. 

I liked how they did the movie overall but I think that a lot of the other characters in the Squad were under-explained and left out quite a bit. The movie really focuses on Harley and Deadshot. I like both of their backstories and would love to see them developed more, but I would also like to see other characters share that spotlight.

 I would also like to note that a lot of people were really upset by Leto's portrayal of the Joker and also the lack of Joker in the movie. I do agree that 'pimp' Joker as I have been calling him was a bit off-putting. I did not really like it. He was not what I expect of the Joker and he seemed to really love Harley, but throughout their history I feel like their relationship isn't that loving. He is mean and abusive and she is crazy in love anyway but he is not, he uses Harley. In this movie he actually loves her, and I don't remember any Joker version have the compassion to love like that.
As far as 'lack' of Joker goes, I think that the marketing of the movie was so off, there was so much focus on Joker... but as I like to point out, even though Harley and Joker have history, Joker is not part of the Suicide Squad, so while he is in the movie I think that his presence was pointless and the character was used to pull people in to see it.

And I feel like I am ranting now, so back to the positives. I really enjoyed the action and the violence of the movie, I think that an R rating would have suited it all better but you win some you lose some, so for a PG-13 movie it was not bad. I lived the characters, I like the opening for more movies, and I really enjoyed Harley Quinn, I think she is a strong female in the DC universe even though she is a bit of a nutter. Overall it was entertaining and I needed that. The absolute best part of this movie is the soundtrack ... SO GOOD.