Death Note 2: The Last Name unspectacular, declares OG21

Death Note 2 revolves around the characters Light, Misa and L, the eccentric detective. Light [also known as Kira] wants to kill L, L wants to catch Kira and Misa Amane is nothing but a lovesick fan of Kira who somehow squeezes her way into the story. And the rest of the story is about the use and misuse of the two black books of death, owned by the rubbery looking Shinigami (Death Gods).

Personally, I found the entire show a waste of my time, money and concentration. But it sure was cheaper and more effective for insomnia than a bottle of sleeping pills. The attempt to create too many climactic points in the movie became a series of anti-climaxes instead. There was a scene in the beginning of the movie where young Misa meets the Shinigami, Rem. Now the normal human reaction when we see a skeleton with blue hair is to either turn deathly pale or to scream our lungs out, but that doesn’t happen here. Instead, sweet Misa gazes adoringly at the Shinigami and simpers, ‘Cool’. Now I won’t spoil the movie already, but I must warn you that there are scenes that are just unrealistic when the actors are trying to express raw human emotions of grief, anger and distrust.

Thankfully, the only actor who managed to jolt me awake from slumber was the eccentric L, wonderfully characterized by Ken'ichi Matsuyama.His peculiar way of sitting as he doles out sweets and syrupy goodies had me and my girl friends in fits of giggles during the show. I would certainly love to meet the dentist he must work for.

But I’m not alone in my cynicism. Meet the movie buffs from OG 21 who accompanied me at a movie that made our wallets lighter and our eyelids heavier:

Yeo Wee Siong found it very “draggy” and felt disapointed that it was not a horror movie as he expected. It was difficult to understand the plot as he did not the watch the first Death Note, nor had prior knowledge from the anime series.

Royston Look and Chong Tze Hin, shared similar views. Royston found the storyline poorly organised, with a weak plot that was unable to capture the audience’s interest. Although he initally had a better opinion of the cast, it was soon forgotten when the actors began repeating their antics until they became unamusing. Tze Hin felt that “the effects were absent but the twisted storyline added a surprise element to the movie. However, the movie paled in comparison to the anime series.”

Chen Jun of 0728 found the storyline intriguing although she felt that the concept of the ‘Death Note’ stretched credibility. But she also felt that the characterization of L and Misa Amane was excellent enough to make up for the average performance of the rest of the cast.

For us movie buffs of OG 21, on the whole we think that though Death Note 2 had its moments, in general we feel it was a disappointment.

By Danielle Su

Pix from http://movies.ohgenki.com