I saw the 2015 remake of Death Note, and I was so disappointed. :(
The goal of the remake was probably to make the conflict of two highly intelligent opponents more accessible to an audience of normies. Not a bad idea per se; I actually liked some of the changes.
The problem is that while making the changes, they introduced a few obvious logical errors, probably as a side effect of trying to make some scenes more dramatic. Which matters a lot in a story based on the premise that two highly intelligent opponents are fighting by exploiting each other’s smallest mistakes; and then something completely stupid happens and no one notices, most likely because the author of the remake didn’t notice it.
I’ll try to avoid being unnecessarily specific; but here is the general pattern: In the story universe, it is possible to cast magical spells on other people. If certain preconditions are met, the magic makes people follow a script specified by the caster. If the preconditions are not met, nothing happens. (There is no such thing as partially meeting the preconditions; it’s either yes or no.)
However, at least twice in the series the following happens: The mage casts the spell with a sequence of unlikely actions on someone. The victim does the unlikely action A, then does the unlikely action B, and then… as a big surprise… at last moment it turns out they don’t do the remaining unlikely action C! How is that possible? Turns out someone else outsmarted the mage and made some of the preconditions fail, so the magic spell didn’t work.
I guess at this moment the audience is supposed to cheer for the smart opponent, but I am left scratching my head: so, if the preconditions of the spell were not met, how was it possible in the first place that the victim did the unlikely actions A and B? The magic spell was cast in privacy; the victim had no chance to know the values of A, B, C. The victim didn’t expect the spell to be cast; in one case the victim’s unusual behavior was a new information for the opponent. It wasn’t a coincidence; in one case the victim went to a specified abandoned place and pretended to be dead.
I generally don’t mind something slightly illogical here and then, if the plot requires it. But in this specific case, it ruined the essence of the story. After this, “intelligent opponents cleverly gaining information by exploiting each other’s small mistakes” became merely an applause light without substance.
I saw the 2015 remake of Death Note, and I was so disappointed. :(
The goal of the remake was probably to make the conflict of two highly intelligent opponents more accessible to an audience of normies. Not a bad idea per se; I actually liked some of the changes.
The problem is that while making the changes, they introduced a few obvious logical errors, probably as a side effect of trying to make some scenes more dramatic. Which matters a lot in a story based on the premise that two highly intelligent opponents are fighting by exploiting each other’s smallest mistakes; and then something completely stupid happens and no one notices, most likely because the author of the remake didn’t notice it.
I’ll try to avoid being unnecessarily specific; but here is the general pattern: In the story universe, it is possible to cast magical spells on other people. If certain preconditions are met, the magic makes people follow a script specified by the caster. If the preconditions are not met, nothing happens. (There is no such thing as partially meeting the preconditions; it’s either yes or no.)
However, at least twice in the series the following happens: The mage casts the spell with a sequence of unlikely actions on someone. The victim does the unlikely action A, then does the unlikely action B, and then… as a big surprise… at last moment it turns out they don’t do the remaining unlikely action C! How is that possible? Turns out someone else outsmarted the mage and made some of the preconditions fail, so the magic spell didn’t work.
I guess at this moment the audience is supposed to cheer for the smart opponent, but I am left scratching my head: so, if the preconditions of the spell were not met, how was it possible in the first place that the victim did the unlikely actions A and B? The magic spell was cast in privacy; the victim had no chance to know the values of A, B, C. The victim didn’t expect the spell to be cast; in one case the victim’s unusual behavior was a new information for the opponent. It wasn’t a coincidence; in one case the victim went to a specified abandoned place and pretended to be dead.
I generally don’t mind something slightly illogical here and then, if the plot requires it. But in this specific case, it ruined the essence of the story. After this, “intelligent opponents cleverly gaining information by exploiting each other’s small mistakes” became merely an applause light without substance.