First off: Wheee! Second, massive spoilers for both the movies and the manga (and, since the anime is following the manga, the anime as well). Third, my Japanese has definately improved since the last movie. Thank god.
Interestingly enough, this movie had less humour in it than the first one. I only sniggered a few times. (I personally find it hilarious, but I have no idea if the audience is supposed to take things like a ten year old boy begging for Kira to kill his sister's murderer as a birthday present seriously. It's little things like that that remind me that I'm watching a live version of a shonen jump manga.) Most of the humour was completely abandoned in favour of the plot, and other than an over reliance on pulse pounding drum beats to ratchet the tension up, it really did work. I suspect that having to cram the rest of the plot of the first half of the manga in there also helped (movie two starts off just after Light and L meet for the first time).
Other than a dismissal of a few extraneous plots, the movie did do a pretty good job of following the main (and decidedly twisty) story. I can't speak for how understandable it was if you had never read the manga, but considering I was watching it in a foreign language I barely understand and I was able to follow it quite easily, I think they did a good job.
The plot changed dramatically after the supposed death scene for L. One of my student's had spoilered me (*sigh*) so I knew the movie was going to end with both Light and L's deaths, but I definately wasn't expecting Light to go first. It was kinda plot hole-ish near the end in order to make that work, but they might possibly have said something I missed in Japanese that filled in the flaws I could see and I'm not quite certain what effects the slight differences in information L recieved would have made on everything. Even in the manga, L was minutes away from figuring everything out when he died.
To be honest though, I really really liked the confrontation scene at the end (this should come as no surprise to anyone who knows of my love of revelation scenes). The drama of having everyone in the same room, of having Light face his father and L and even Ryuuk was brilliant. It truly was chilling when Light and Ryuuk shared a laugh at the end there because in the end, it was Light who was the more disturbing of the two. Fantastic.
The last minutes or so were kinda strange. L's death was strangely unmoving, which is weird since I was completely shocked when he died in the manga and I feel like Light was robbed in the movie. It's not that I think Light should win or that he was smarter than L (they were both an even match but L was operating under the blinders of limited information), but the point of L dying in the manga was that evil does win often, and perhaps always (keeping in mind I know how the manga ends, but I haven't actually read it yet). L's death in the movie is a noble sacrifice. His death in the manga is a tragedy. The writer in me prefers the tragedy.
I have no idea why we were shown everybody at Light's birthday a year later after that, but I did expect the laughing Ryuuk to be the last thing we saw, and I was right.
A few observations -
It was obvious they're paying the actor who played Light's father a lot of extra money because there was an extra focus on him they only give to highly respected, highly paid actors.
Everybody in the movie had far too much makeup on and some of the camera angles were really weird and not in a good way. Kudos to the director for starting the film with a funeral and basically ending it with one as well. I would have been disappointed with less.
I'm pretty sure L actually managed to eat every single Japanese sweet in existence in one movie *L* It got to the point where I tried to figure out how much his dental bills were. Also, he sort of doomed himself by eating the food for Mori-san (or whatever the dead police guy's name was).
Misa Misa was excellently portrayed, as was the Sakura TV lady. She was really creepy , while Misa was kinda redemned which I both liked, and didn't.
Light's father was pretty cool when he rode that van in and rescued everyone while wearing a helmut.
Rem's face was beautifully done and acted, but his body looked kinda crappy. Oh well.
I really liked the way Tatsuya Fujiwara delievered his lines in the last scene, especially after he was shot and his comments about becoming a god etc. It came off as slightly over the top in the first movie but was note perfect here.
That scene where Light remembers everything and then makes sure Misa has an apple to give to Ryuuk? Brilliant, because here we have a mass murderer, but he still remembers to send his "friend" an apple.
Also, Light was just as much of an asshole to Misa in the movie as he was in the manga. Heh.
The music was the same as the first movie (Red Hot Chili Peppers and Suga Shikao) but it still worked. There wasn't much actual music in the film this time.
L's mask and acting while under it were great and I loved the scene at the university. Pity they never chained themselves together in the movie *L*
And that's that. Quite an enjoyable film which I wouldn't mind owning.
Interestingly enough, this movie had less humour in it than the first one. I only sniggered a few times. (I personally find it hilarious, but I have no idea if the audience is supposed to take things like a ten year old boy begging for Kira to kill his sister's murderer as a birthday present seriously. It's little things like that that remind me that I'm watching a live version of a shonen jump manga.) Most of the humour was completely abandoned in favour of the plot, and other than an over reliance on pulse pounding drum beats to ratchet the tension up, it really did work. I suspect that having to cram the rest of the plot of the first half of the manga in there also helped (movie two starts off just after Light and L meet for the first time).
Other than a dismissal of a few extraneous plots, the movie did do a pretty good job of following the main (and decidedly twisty) story. I can't speak for how understandable it was if you had never read the manga, but considering I was watching it in a foreign language I barely understand and I was able to follow it quite easily, I think they did a good job.
The plot changed dramatically after the supposed death scene for L. One of my student's had spoilered me (*sigh*) so I knew the movie was going to end with both Light and L's deaths, but I definately wasn't expecting Light to go first. It was kinda plot hole-ish near the end in order to make that work, but they might possibly have said something I missed in Japanese that filled in the flaws I could see and I'm not quite certain what effects the slight differences in information L recieved would have made on everything. Even in the manga, L was minutes away from figuring everything out when he died.
To be honest though, I really really liked the confrontation scene at the end (this should come as no surprise to anyone who knows of my love of revelation scenes). The drama of having everyone in the same room, of having Light face his father and L and even Ryuuk was brilliant. It truly was chilling when Light and Ryuuk shared a laugh at the end there because in the end, it was Light who was the more disturbing of the two. Fantastic.
The last minutes or so were kinda strange. L's death was strangely unmoving, which is weird since I was completely shocked when he died in the manga and I feel like Light was robbed in the movie. It's not that I think Light should win or that he was smarter than L (they were both an even match but L was operating under the blinders of limited information), but the point of L dying in the manga was that evil does win often, and perhaps always (keeping in mind I know how the manga ends, but I haven't actually read it yet). L's death in the movie is a noble sacrifice. His death in the manga is a tragedy. The writer in me prefers the tragedy.
I have no idea why we were shown everybody at Light's birthday a year later after that, but I did expect the laughing Ryuuk to be the last thing we saw, and I was right.
A few observations -
It was obvious they're paying the actor who played Light's father a lot of extra money because there was an extra focus on him they only give to highly respected, highly paid actors.
Everybody in the movie had far too much makeup on and some of the camera angles were really weird and not in a good way. Kudos to the director for starting the film with a funeral and basically ending it with one as well. I would have been disappointed with less.
I'm pretty sure L actually managed to eat every single Japanese sweet in existence in one movie *L* It got to the point where I tried to figure out how much his dental bills were. Also, he sort of doomed himself by eating the food for Mori-san (or whatever the dead police guy's name was).
Misa Misa was excellently portrayed, as was the Sakura TV lady. She was really creepy , while Misa was kinda redemned which I both liked, and didn't.
Light's father was pretty cool when he rode that van in and rescued everyone while wearing a helmut.
Rem's face was beautifully done and acted, but his body looked kinda crappy. Oh well.
I really liked the way Tatsuya Fujiwara delievered his lines in the last scene, especially after he was shot and his comments about becoming a god etc. It came off as slightly over the top in the first movie but was note perfect here.
That scene where Light remembers everything and then makes sure Misa has an apple to give to Ryuuk? Brilliant, because here we have a mass murderer, but he still remembers to send his "friend" an apple.
Also, Light was just as much of an asshole to Misa in the movie as he was in the manga. Heh.
The music was the same as the first movie (Red Hot Chili Peppers and Suga Shikao) but it still worked. There wasn't much actual music in the film this time.
L's mask and acting while under it were great and I loved the scene at the university. Pity they never chained themselves together in the movie *L*
And that's that. Quite an enjoyable film which I wouldn't mind owning.