the audience applauded

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

After first film's unexpected finale, this one continues adopting the manga storyline while adding some minor original twists, leading to a completely changed and, in my opinion, improved ending.Although bad visual effects and mediocre acting might turn some people off. If you can look past that, and if you weren't satisfied with the original manga ending, this might be just what you are looking for.

If you haven't seen the first 'Death Note' film then don't watch this until you do as it is the second part of the same story; no time is wasted introducing the characters or explaining what is going on. In the first story the police with the help of the mysterious L were hunting a killer they had dubbed Kira but the viewer knows to be Light Yagama; son of the police chief, as this starts a new Death Note appears at the feet of beautiful TV presenter Misa Amane just as the man trying to kill her dies of a heart attack. She decides to become 'Kira II' and sets about killing more criminals as well as anybody who is openly critical of Light. She engineers a meeting with Light and offers to help him kill L, however things don't go according to plan and she is captured. In a strange twist Light turns himself in claiming that he doesn't know for certain that he isn't Kira. While the two of them are in custody they give up their memories of what they did and the Death Note is passed on to another TV presenter. She quickly sets about killing and it looks as if Light and Misa are in the clear… or are they? This film was a good conclusion to the story with some nice twists that I failed to see coming. Erika Toda made a welcome addition to the main cast as Misa and Tatsuya Fujiwara and Takeshi Kaga continued to perform well as Light and L respectively. Along with another Death Note another god of death is introduced; Rem like Rauk he is a CGI creation but also looks pretty good. If you saw the first film you really should see this as you'll only have seen half the story if you don't.

1st watched 7/5/2009, 4 out of 10 (Dir-Shisuke Kaneko): Complicated, slow and overly dramatic second episode to the Deathnote series based on a popular manga. In this one the main character, Light, is given a second person who carries his godlike ability to make people die with a 2nd Death Note book. The basic storyline, if you haven't seen the first, is the carrier of the Death Note book is able to write names in it and they die. Light was the initial character that held the book, and killed a lot of people who in most people's eyes deserved death anyone – and he was kind of looked at like a hero. Each person that has a book, also sees a God of death who kind of overseas them and is their companion. The second holder of a book is a TV star named Misa who worships Light. Light is also working with the cops and a detective called "L" in this one, to find out who's making these deaths happen(although no-one knows he carries the book and is causing it). Misa turns over her book to Light and things get really complicated. At this point in the movie I lost interest because of the many twists that the movie introduces and the way they try to explain everything in 2 hours. I think, personally, they tried to cram too much into this one and this is why it fails. Detective "L" is definitely a quirky and very interesting character and he's introduced more here but the massive overload kills the story. Also, the morality question is lost and also the humor that was in the first movie. All in all, this movie is a long experience that isn't as new or as interesting as the first one.

This movie and it's predecessor are THE Anime-to-movie adaptations. Simply said, it's awesome. All of the actors gave great performances, especially the three main characters. Fujiwara was terrific as Raito, despite initially being skeptical (truthfuly, he doesn't look the part), I found myself completely buying his performance. He made the scene of Raito's death (which was horrible, and anti-climatic in both the anime and manga) heart-wrenching... Pun intended. Matsuyama... I don't care what anyone says, Kenichi Matsuyama IS L. Erika Toda... I usually don't like Asian girls that much, but she... aaahh... Cute as hell, and she gave Misa's character a maturity she didn't posses in the manga adaptation. I'm glad they decided to keep her hair black, it's much more believable like that.As for the movie itself, it starts where the last movie ends, and ends in such a way that it will leave you breathless. It's paced quite nicely, and doesn't let you get bored for a second. The cinematography is quite good as well.All in all, 8/10. Great movie.