"No one would be complaining about them trying to show Light in a more sympathetic light, because he's not Light, he's Jeff!"
Favourite sentence of the day

One line from Ryuk could have saved this movie. Upon seeing Light freak out: "Once a boy named Light in Japan got the Death Note, and things got interesting. I thought if I found another boy named Light and gave him the Death Note, things might get interesting again. So Far I'm not impressed."

That end where you talked about how the Death Note American film could've been better was top notch and sounded more compelling than the product we got.

"That just doesn't physics" This is now my favorite sentence

"[sniff] They made L into a hipster!"
- The Dom, 2017

In one of the most chilling scenes in the entire series, Light manipulates and then kills the still grieving widow of an investigator he also murdered. Right before the Death Note takes over her will and she disappears forever, Light taunts her by revealing his identity.
"Ok, but how can we make Light #relatable for a western audience?"

I think the problem with the movie Light/Kira is that they tried to make him too 'relateable'. The fact that Kira was unrelateable was almost the main premise of Death Note. He's believable and empathetic, but he's not us or someone we know. He never acts the way any other person would in a given situation. Part of the fun of the show was seeing how far his superhuman genius could take him as events spiral out of control because we know we could or would never do what he does. The movie seems like it's trying to make him into an everyman protagonist to make him more relateable, which completely misses the point of his existence.

May I also say, another bizarre decision they made:
L: I hate guns.
Later:-
L: Watari is dead. Welp, I better use a gun.

"Also, yes I do own a Death Note."
"The very first note I wrote down while watching this was 'That had better not be Misa!'"

Elsewhere, some young lady who looks kind of like that actress and whose legal name is Misa suddenly dies of a heart attack...

And worst of all, he didnt even grab a potatochip.. AND EAT IT!!!

If I was creating a DN Adaptation, I would have it play out similarly to the manga except Light has't got the DN and the series is almost completely from his perspective. He becomes increasingly aware that Kira has similar thought patterns to him, and that all the evidence is starting to incriminate him, and he becomes more and more paranoid. There's also the undercurrent that he's worried he might actually be Kira since he doesn't know how Kira kills.

He's working hard on the case to prove his innocence while trying not to incriminate himself. His intelligence is both saving him from incriminating himself while also incriminating him further.

The audience is sympathetic to him as they can see a witch hunt, and L looks increasingly focused on Light being Kira to the point that he actively wants him to be Kira.

Then Light picks up the DN in the helicopter, and we find out that the whole movie was Yotsuba Arc Light's false memories. Light becomes Kira again, and the movie finishes with L's Death.

It'd need some clever continuity editing and maybe streamline some of the plot to cut it into a movie runtime, but it's be a new way to tell the story while still keeping the essence of the original.

They could've easily Americanized Light's name by renaming him Luke. Or any variation of Luke. It literally means "light".

I honestly do think an American flip on the Death Note could be an interesting physiological study. Just the differences between the cultures alone could create an interesting series.
Maybe Jeff could be a kid that wants to do good, but is reluctant to kill because he saw the shit that went down in Japan, and Tammy could act as the angel or devil on the shoulder. Maybe the Shinigami could be revealed to be Light himself, wanting to pass on his legacy. Heck, maybe it was just another Shinigami who wanted to see why Ryuk did what he did.

Don't know why but the line "because he's not Light, he's Jeff" made me laugh pretty hard

Actually, instead of having Near be on Jeff's trail, he could take a look and be like "Nah, this guy's not nearly as smart as the real Kira and I've got another case with a larger death toll, you can handle this on your own" leading to them using a local detective prodigy instead of the genius Near. If you want to have a sequel, you could have it turn out that Near is chasing ANOTHER death note user.

This adaptation lost me at the very beginning when Light saw Ryuk for the first time and proceeded to run around the classroom screaming like a Looney Tunes character on fire.

"That just doesn't physics" - Dom, 2017

There is a DeathNote Musical too.  Let that sink in.  And then find it.  It's... fascinating.

having him still be named "Light" will always be hilarious to me because, like...the name Luke exists. Just have him be Luke. It's FINE, lol.