Netflix tries its hand at creating a western adaptation of a popular Japanese manga series in the form of their weak adaptation of Death Note. Good directing, acting and an overall solid soundtrack fail to save the film and its poor writing.

In the Netflix adaptation of popular manga series Death Note, Light Turner (Nat Wolff) is a supposedly intelligent teenager who sees injustice around him in the form of bullying and the death of his mother where the killer has walked away free. One day the Death Note, a book that has the power to end the life of whoever’s name is written in the book, falls from the sky to be picked up by Light, who is then visited by Ryuk (Willem Dafoe) who urges him to try out the Death Note on a well-known bully, to which Light complies. The next day Light tells Mia Sutton (Margaret Qualley), a fellow student and his love interest, about the book, proving its power to her before they decide to use this power to cleanse the world of criminals under the codename Kira. Mysterious detective L (Lakeith Stanfield) works with his assistant Watari (Paul Nakauchi) and Light’s father James Turner (Shea Whigham) to uncover the identity of Kira and end his killing sprees.

For this review, I’ll talk about the film as a standalone and not as an adaptation but I will comment on how it has been adapted in the final part of the review. The reason being is that while the Death Note manga fanbase is part of the film’s target audience, the film itself has been made with a western target audience in mind and so to make this adaptation work changes had to be made to accommodate this fact. For this reason, I’ll leave my thoughts on the adaptation side of the film until the end and in the meantime, I’ll discuss whether the film works on its own.

To get straight to the point, the film was surprisingly better than I had anticipated, however still falls short of being considered ‘good’ due to the poor writing seen throughout the film. The pacing of the narrative feels off for much of the film, for example L’s thinking and deduction takes him incredibly close to solving the Kira mystery within about 10-15 minutes after his first appearance in the film. We aren’t shown much of how he gets to his conclusions, L just tells everyone his reasoning, a lot of which is just guessing, which can especially be seen when making his public appearance to determine how Kira’s power works. The plan has many flaws yet he somehow correctly determines how the power works, while not considering all the other factors that could be present. Also, the romance between Light and Mia seems very forced, even their first proper interaction seems silly; he tells her about his magical killing book and that he killed the bully with it to impress her because, you know, aren’t all girls attracted to people who kill other people? And then less than 5 minutes later they’re making out in Light’s room. We don’t see how they’re relationship develops, no build up, it just happens. The film is also riddled with plot holes, as occasionally the rules of the Death Note are broken for the sake of the narrative. Constant tonal shifts also didn’t help much, making some scenes feel quite jarring. This kind of writing pops up in the film time and time again and ruins the potential it had to work well, although the shabby writing could also be down to the limited time the film allows to tell this story, especially since the original story was long enough to warrant a TV series. I feel as though this project would have been better off as a 3-4 hour-long episode miniseries rather than a film.

Everything else about the film was solid, the directing by Adam Wingard portrayed the mood in each scene quite well and his constant use of Dutch tilts, while some may find excessive at times, gave it the teen crime-horror vibe they were going for. The soundtrack was also very good, again creating the right kind of atmosphere for each scene although the song playing over the Ferris wheel scene later in the film was a questionable choice. The sound design was excellent, there was one moment where the beat of the music matched the dripping of water on screen raising the tension quite well, moments like this can be seen throughout the film. The actors did a brilliant job considering the scripts they were working with, Lakeith Stanfield’s portrayal of L early in the film was spot on, before the writing took the character on a different path than it should have. Willem Dafoe as Ryuk turned out as expected, simply excellent.

Now onto my thoughts on the film as an adaptation. If you’re looking for an adaptation with a similar feel to the original series than this film isn’t for you. The mind games between Light and L are nowhere near as thrilling, Light and Mia (called Misa in the original work) have seemingly swapped personalities in this version, with Light not willing to kill those who are not criminals to preserve Kira while Mia seems more obsessed than Light in creating the new world. Light Turner is also nowhere near as smart as he was in the original, often making stupid decisions like telling Mia he killed someone with the Death Note the day after doing it with no worry about being given away to the police. This light is empathetic, a far cry from the cold, calculating and manipulative Light Yagami fans are so fond of. L is accurate up to the point where he makes his public appearance, which is completely unlike him to do. Only Ryuk seems to have been left largely untouched. The big questions of ideologies regarding what true justice is that were a big part of the original series have been dumbed down a lot as well, but are at least still present in some sort of form.

In summary, the Netflix adaptation of Death Note struggles a lot due to its poor writing, which could be due to the lack of runtime to properly flesh out the narrative. Unfortunately, the solid directing, music and acting isn’t enough to save the film, as while it is watchable, it’s very far from the excellent adaptation that it could have been, as Western production companies continue to struggle to successfully adapt popular Japanese manga and animated series.

Daniel Craig is the high point in the warm-hearted yet insipid and uninspiring Logan Lucky.

Logan Lucky, Steven Soderbergh’s first film in four years, is a crime-comedy caper following two brothers, Jimmy (Channing Tatum) and Clyde Logan (Adam Driver) in North Carolina. Jimmy loses his construction job due to a disability with his leg, whilst Clyde is an amputee who fought and lost part of his arm in the Iraq War. The brothers are on a quest to pull off one last heist together in order for Jimmy to be able to afford to live closer to his daughter. The heist is at a NASCAR event where Jimmy’s previous job was based. Later, the brothers realise they’ll need specialists for the job and recruit expert safecracker and convict Joe Bang (Daniel Craig). Craig’s brilliant portrayal of the wacky Joe Bang is the standout performance throughout, and it is refreshing to see a reminder of the fantastic character acting that he possesses away from his roles as James Bond. To complete the line-up, Joe’s brothers Fish (Jack Quaid) and Sam (Brian Gleeson) come along for a wacky and enjoyable ride too.

However, Rebecca Blunt’s screenplay starts to crumble. Before I get into this, if you aren’t aware, credited screenwriter Rebecca Blunt, supposedly does not exist according to The Hollywood Reporter. Whilst Sodebergh has a history of pseudonyms on his individual projects, we have no idea who really is the writer at current, but I’ll refer to whomever the writer is as ‘Blunt’ The story begins to slowly drag by and it lacks any real obstacles, following the initial set-up, for our protagonists to overcome, resulting in the inevitable “How are they managing to get away with it all so easily?” screaming in the back of your head. Your willing and sustained suspension of disbelief is about as likely as this film taking home an Oscar for best picture. The biggest challenge we see the characters embark on is mostly the race being brought forward a day, and forcing them to time their plan of action accordingly. To simplify, they get in and get out with minimal hassle that is not fitting of a dangerous summer action blockbuster with such good filmmaking potential.

Although, it is enjoyable to embark on this journey with our protagonists. Despite Craig’s limelight stealing performance, Tatum (particularly) and Driver manage to uphold the fun-loving, close knit relationship of two loyal blue collar brothers. We empathise with each and are rooting for them to do succeed the entire time. The film just simply makes it too predictable and at times mundane, and we know that it will all be okay. As the plot thickens, FBI agent Sarah Grayson (Hilary Swank) eventually arrives in as one of the FBI agents investigating the heist, just for her character’s threat within the film to fizzle out into nothingness almost immediately. It is almost as if her character serves next to no purpose. Similarly, with NASCAR driver Max Chilblain (Seth MacFarlane), who’s attempt at an English accent leave you in a permanent state of cringe even when you are out of the cinema. It felt like both of the two were there for profit, rather than artistic reasoning, and that Soderbergh had little idea how to round-off their character arcs.

The frustration with Soderbergh’s film majorly derives from the continued sense of lingering that the film gives off, with you always anticipating that the next sequence will be the really exciting part. Ultimately, it never arrives and the resolution leaves you disappointed and wondering what could’ve been. The film doesn’t meet the filmmaking standards of the Oceans trilogy, nor the excitement. But if you’re after a trademark Soderbergh film, it is definitely that, with the only major difference being the setting and quirkier relationships.

Logan Lucky is to not be taken too seriously, and if you can forgive the poor writing and lack of excitement, then you are in for an enjoyable and casual film featuring a weird and wonderful Daniel Craig.

Netflix proves that they are completely tuned into the complex nature of today’s generation, as well as their relationship with technology and how it is ruling the lives of the everyday person.

Emma Watson stars as Mae Holland, a woman who feels she is wasting away in her current job. She is then contacted by her friend Annie Allerton (Karen Gillan) who offers her a job at The Circle, an incredibly influential and powerful technology company, an obvious reference to the current position that Apple holds in the real world. After accepting this position, we see Mae go about her everyday life in The Circle, it seems inviting, relaxed, almost like a university campus. In a full company-wide meeting we meet Eamon Bailey (Tom Hanks), the head of The Circle who goes on to introduce a new camera technology called SeeChange; pinball sized cameras that can be placed/hidden anywhere in the world. This introduces us to the ongoing mission of The Circle, to make the world more “transparent”. At a company party, Mae meets Ty (John Boyega), who reveals himself to be Ty Lafitte, the creator of True You; a massively popular product produced by The Circle. Along with his introduction, Ty takes Mae to an underground, restricted area of The Circle and warns her of the potentially dark direction that The Circle is taking, hence why someone as famous as he is decided to work in from shadows. After a traumatic experience whilst out kayaking displays Mae’s face to the world through SeeChange, Mae decides to become the first person to become “Fully transparent”; she will wear a webcam at all available times, giving the world access to her life. She goes on to praise transparency as the way forward for the world. Whilst she views The Circle and “Transparency” as an overall good, Mae makes strides with the company, eventually resulting in her being pushed away by her parents, her friends and Annie. A new project, headed up by Mae, is presented at another company meeting; She says that through the SeeChange cameras, The Circle can find anyone in under 20 minutes, which she then tests on an escaped criminal. After the criminal is caught in just 10 minutes and 21 seconds, the crowds demand that Mae uses it to find Mercer (Ellar Coltrane), a childhood friend who earlier in the film was ridiculed and threatened for making chandeliers from Antlers, despite having defended himself. The hunt for Mercer ends in him driving off a bridge after a drone blocks his view of the road. Mae then secludes herself from the world after witnessing this, using the time to reconnect with her parents and Annie. Mae then returns to The Circle but now she has a mission, she contacts Ty and tricks Eamon and Tom Stenton (Patton Oswald) another company head, into letting her go out on stage in front of the entire company. Mae then proceeds to invite Eamon and Tom to go fully transparent with her, which leads to secret accounts and information being distributed to the world, exactly what Mae had planned. At the end of the film, we see Mae embracing transparency, openly welcoming some drones that are following her kayaking.

As soon as I was introduced to The Circle, I found my views on cyber-privacy being constantly questioned. My moral and ethical views about sharing my personal life online were repeatedly flipping back and forth from “I’d be perfectly comfortable with this” to “I’d never expose myself like that”. Any film that can make me re-evaluate my own views is obviously a powerful piece of cinema.

With technology companies like Apple being as influential as they are in the current generation, The Circle provides a completely transparent view of how the average person’s life can be controlled and monitored through a misguided dedication to the latest technology trends. I believe it also touches on the leaking of information by Edward Snowden in 2013, with characters like Eamon and Tom representing what a spying government could look like if they’d combined themselves with the popularity of a technology company, thus fooling the masses into abandoning privacy for the sake of being part of a hive-mind demographic. Also, the character of Ty Lafitte being quite a close draw from Snowden himself, but this time deciding to reveal the truth through the Mae due to his position in the company.

The performances greatly benefit this controversial story, with Emma Watson leading the pack with an easily relatable Mae, who provides a perfect window for the audience whilst also posing a position that is the perfect debate point. Tom Hanks once again knocks it out of the park with the loveable company head, constantly making jokes and being a lovable father figure for the whole company but he perfectly incorporates the smallest amount of mistrust that feeds that all important “little voice in the back of your head” that we hear about so much

No matter how many people may fear that Netflix is taking over from the world of the cinema-goer, I thoroughly believe that they’ve tapped into the same appeal that Black Mirror had in 2011; the dark realism that the audience know is real but never want to admit it, it almost borders on a guilty pleasure. The proof? Black mirror series 3 & 4, Okja and now The Circle

To summarise, The Circle is yet another powerful step that Netflix has taken towards being the visual medium to represent a whole new phase in political, technological and social evolution.