Death Note: The Last Name (2008)

After first film's unexpected finale, this one continues adopting the manga storyline while adding some minor original twists, leading to a completely changed and, in my opinion, improved ending.Although bad visual effects and mediocre acting might turn some people off. If you can look past that, and if you weren't satisfied with the original manga ending, this might be just what you are looking for.

What happened?! Admittedly I did like this one better than the first one but not by much. WHERE WERE NEAR AND MELLO???!!! YOU CAN'T JUST GO AND IGNORE TWO FANTASTIC CHARACTERS LIKE THAT!!!!! Not to mention people like Higuchi and Mikami! They totally missed out brilliant characters and plot points just so they could squeeze it into 2 movies. They didn't even do justice to the ones they were nice enough not to cut out. Takada was terrible, I love her plot point in the anime and to change her into an even more annoying version of Higuchi was an awful decision. All they did with the ending was add in the 'skye you didn't kill me lolzor' to the original and give all of Nears lines to L. Ugh! People say that the plot is confusing but as long as you've seen the anime or watch it with someone who has you should be fine as they barely change the main idea. I still have the problem of them dumbing down the characters and making them idiots even when they are meant to be a super genius. No character development and you don't care about anyone. Overall a terrible movie.

If you haven't seen the first 'Death Note' film then don't watch this until you do as it is the second part of the same story; no time is wasted introducing the characters or explaining what is going on. In the first story the police with the help of the mysterious L were hunting a killer they had dubbed Kira but the viewer knows to be Light Yagama; son of the police chief, as this starts a new Death Note appears at the feet of beautiful TV presenter Misa Amane just as the man trying to kill her dies of a heart attack. She decides to become 'Kira II' and sets about killing more criminals as well as anybody who is openly critical of Light. She engineers a meeting with Light and offers to help him kill L, however things don't go according to plan and she is captured. In a strange twist Light turns himself in claiming that he doesn't know for certain that he isn't Kira. While the two of them are in custody they give up their memories of what they did and the Death Note is passed on to another TV presenter. She quickly sets about killing and it looks as if Light and Misa are in the clear… or are they? This film was a good conclusion to the story with some nice twists that I failed to see coming. Erika Toda made a welcome addition to the main cast as Misa and Tatsuya Fujiwara and Takeshi Kaga continued to perform well as Light and L respectively. Along with another Death Note another god of death is introduced; Rem like Rauk he is a CGI creation but also looks pretty good. If you saw the first film you really should see this as you'll only have seen half the story if you don't.

This movie and it's predecessor are THE Anime-to-movie adaptations. Simply said, it's awesome. All of the actors gave great performances, especially the three main characters. Fujiwara was terrific as Raito, despite initially being skeptical (truthfuly, he doesn't look the part), I found myself completely buying his performance. He made the scene of Raito's death (which was horrible, and anti-climatic in both the anime and manga) heart-wrenching... Pun intended. Matsuyama... I don't care what anyone says, Kenichi Matsuyama IS L. Erika Toda... I usually don't like Asian girls that much, but she... aaahh... Cute as hell, and she gave Misa's character a maturity she didn't posses in the manga adaptation. I'm glad they decided to keep her hair black, it's much more believable like that.As for the movie itself, it starts where the last movie ends, and ends in such a way that it will leave you breathless. It's paced quite nicely, and doesn't let you get bored for a second. The cinematography is quite good as well.All in all, 8/10. Great movie.