L: Change the World

B-

Directed by Hideo Nakata

"L: Change the World" is the sequel to last year's "Death Note" which was the first film to be produced based on the popular manga of the same name. Being totally unfamiliar with both the manga and the previous "Death Note" film, I decided to check it out nonetheless to see what all the fuss was about.

Needless to say, the "Death Note" series enjoys cult status which was readily apparent when surveying the lineup outside the Hall Building before the filsm screening. I arrived forty minutes before the movie started only to find out that the lineup already reached the corner of Sherbrooke and McKay.

I felt like somewhat of a fraud since I was standing in the midst of hardcore "Death Note" fans yet did not even know what the premise of the series was. My Japanese friend Mutsumi tried to give me a quick rundown of the main plot points ("You see...there is a book...a notebook...a "Death Note-Book"...and people die...") but I wasn't exactly sure what the story was actually about so I just ventured into the cinema hoping that the plot wouldn't be too confusing for a noob such as myself.

The storyline of "L: Change the World" was mercifully quite straightforward although I am sure I got much less out of it than the "Death Note" junkies who would often gasp or scream as some major plot point, the importance of which I was unaware of, unfolded on screen. "L" is a reculsive genius who is in the posession of a "Death Note" which contains the names of people who will die within 23 days. He writes his own name in the book at the beginning of the film for some reason, but the main plot of the movie revolves around a group of bio-terrorists who plan on eradicating most of the world's population with the help of a super germ evil Dr. Kujo has concocted in her lab. The rest of the film is dedicated to seeing if "L" will be able to stop the terrorists on time and in the process save a variety of other bit characters who need his help.

As far as I could tell, "L: Change the World" is standard super-hero fare in the sense that "L," although frail and emo looking, is nonetheless blessed with incredible intellectual talents that, like all other super heroes, he can either use for good or for evil. He, of course, chooses to use them for good but he nonetheless has to battle internal demons and his own weaknesses in doing so. The film itself, though hardly groundbreaking, is one of the rare few that actually got significantly better as it wore on. At the beginning of the movie I thought the action was too slow paced and the "L" character annoyed me. However, as the film progressed, the pace of the film began to pick up and I began to enjoy the "L" character's quirks (he only eats sweets, walks with a considerable slouch, and only uses his thumb and index finger to pick up objects and type, ect.).
Although I have no idea how satisfied "Death Note" fans were with this latest installment in the franchise, as a "Death Note" newcomer I can say that the film suffers from no serious flaws and is a fine piece of entertainment even if it is quickly forgotten.