Death Note: The Last Name - Satisfactory

Cinematic Doctrine

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MOVIE DISCUSSION:

Shirleon joins Melvin to discuss Death Note: The Last Name, a sequel to 2006's Japanese live-action adaptation, Death Note, that released 3-months later. The two look at the film as a unit with its predecessor, its successes as a stand-alone sequel, and compare it to the anime (as well as the Western Netflix adaptation).

Topics:

• (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 26-minutes discussing "Evil AI is Boring Now - Which is Kind of Scary", a think piece from James Hibberd on The Hollywood Reporter, and wondering what makes AI/AGI movies interesting, or not, in 2025. (PATREON EXCLUSIVE)
• How Death Note: The Last Name truncates the the latter-half of the source material, reordering some things and altering others outright, works pretty well.
• Shirleon enjoyed seeing the Death Note story unfold in a new, better-handled manner. It helped her better understand what she likes about the overall narrative.
• If these adaptations are missing anything, it's the monologues.
• Melvin wonders why a "Set in the world of Death Note" anthology movie or series hasn't been created, and he elevator-pitches five ideas that could be explored.
• Talking about the recurrent line "Sacrifices are necessary.".
• Melvin felt the ending satisfied the main thematic beats of its source material. Shirleon feels different.

Recommendations:

• Alien: Earth (2025) (TV Series)
• Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) (Movie)

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