I haven't read the manga series, but I really enjoyed the two Death Note movies. L for me, was an interesting character, however, I was very skeptic to how this movie could possibly work, since a super-weird character like him usually only work in smaller roles, and the mysteriousness was the underlying charm of L in those two movies. I had an extremely low expectation in this film, and to my surprise, it was even worse than what I had imagined.<br /><br />First of all... the story is absolutely worthless. It's something you would expect from a Hollywood B-movie or a low budget made-for-TV movie. The original series had been an exciting cat-and-mouse game of wits and deception. Even if they didn't want to re-use the Death Note, battle of wits is vital to the success of a movie like this, and for a character like L to reach full potential. This on the other hand, was L in a MIB ripoff organization in a cheesy biohazard plot with really dumb villains. As if that alone wasn't enough, they also added typical Japanese corniness: psychotic killers with environmental nonsense ideology and how the entire human race should be purged.<br /><br />Horrible overacting by the supporting cast and poor direction didn't help. This was not a movie meant to be directed by a horror movie director. That "death in the lab" scene was totally corny, and the director kept trying to make Maki, the little girl, seem like a child psycho killer you would see in horror movies, and it was totally unconvincing and stupid. Fukuda Mayuko, who played Maki is an extremely talented up-and-coming actress, and I am very upset this director put her through a crap role like this.<br /><br />I loved the final scene where L attempts to stand up straight since he found a new hope in life and wanted to live longer, and I can tell Matsuyama Kenichi tried really hard in this movie. He did great job. But "no matter how gifted, one cannot change the world alone", he couldn't save this movie alone.