The Hollywood remake of “Death Note” is a shockingly terrible film that misses the point of the story. I really liked the Japanese live-action “Death Note” because I thought was an intelligent thriller with supernatural elements. I have now seen some of the anime series and that seems very good too. However, the American version is just awful from beginning to end.

American schoolboy Light Turner (Nat Wolff “Paper Towns”) discovers the ‘Death Note’, a notebook that has the power to kill anybody whose name is written inside it. Light and his new girlfriend Mia (Margaret Qualley “The Nice Guys”) decide to rid the world of criminals but it is not long before the authorities are on their tail.

The versions of Light in the Japanese film and anime series are smart and interesting but the American version is just a whiny brat. Also, the whole thing of him teaming up with his girlfriend was just really lame and it just indicates that the filmmakers did not get the point of the story. It’s not meant to be some Bonnie and Clyde style romance, it’s meant to be a more intellectual piece about having god-like power at your fingertips. Willem Dafoe (“Spider-Man”, “Platoon”) provides the voice of the demonic Ryuk. The acting from pretty everybody in this movie is quite frankly awful.

The American “Death Note” tries to make this a tale of lovers on the run and thus completely fails to capture the spirit of what I feel “Death Note” is about. It also contains some unneeded gory deaths and almost every single aspect was done better in the Japanese movie or in the anime series. Perhaps the only thing this version does better is that Ryuk did not look as synthetic as he did in the Japanese film. I hated this movie and I think you should avoid it. Even if you are not familiar with the Japanese “Death Note” stuff, this is still a really awful film.