although this was a decent attempt at recreating the story from the original manga content despite its detractions from the original source it doesn't really work as a film, even in 2 two hour movies it still isn't long enough, the anime series is currently at 15 half hour episodes and needs every second of it to build the characters, although they were fairly well cast, especially the part of L, but the cut in time left the characters feeling wrong, for example light seems to be troubled by emotions and such whereas in the anime he came across as cold, calculating and emotionless, if he needed to kill his own family he would do so without a second thought if he saw it neccecary for his cause, it also seemed as if they had attempted to make him likable or at least have the viewer sympathise with him in some way instead of the true demon he really is and by doing all this he doesn't come across as intelligent as his original manga counterpart. taken on its own it is not a bad set of films but compared to the source material it pails in insignificance, if you can invest the time in watching the series or reading the manga and you'll find it one of the most well thought out and gripping things you've seen in years
Review of Death Note: The Last Name
