Didn't really like the movie

I like the movies overall but I agree with some of your criticisms.

Regarding Ryuk not chatting much with Light, i'd put it down to time constraints. They were squeezing a rather long anime/manga series into two movies. In consequence, I thought it felt rather rushed at times, but it was understandable. I also liked the Shinigami; this was one of my bigger concerns about a live-action film, how they would represent the Shinigami. I felt they actually did a spectacular job with it. Great CGI.

I wish they had used the music from the anime; it was really good, and I found the music they used in the movies to be... out of place. It felt like it didn't really belong. The anime music was better. It had a lot of atmosphere to it and added to the feel of the show.

I thought the acting wasn't always very good. Some of it was ridiculous. Like some of the early heart attack scenes. They were really over-acted. But overall the acting wasn't too bad.

My biggest criticism of the films is Light's personality. Murdering his own girlfriend just to win sympathy and get on the investigation team? I mean that is extraordinarily f-cked up and I can't imagine anime Light doing it. I haven't read the manga (yet; I will though!), so I don't know if that fits with Light's manga personality, but I rather doubt it. It seemed a rather extreme departure from the Light of the anime series. Then trying to kill his own dad too. Though that one I found somewhat more understandable because his dad was on the investigation team, knew about the death note, was taking it abroad and was trying to catch Kira. It could be argued that Light didn't actually want to do it but was forced to by the circumstances. But if so, they could have had him show some remorse about it. Maybe he didn't have any. Again, his film personality, it's like he had no feelings, he just went full psycho sometimes.

However, the thing I LOVED about the live-action movies is: no Near and Mello! I liked the ending so much better. My biggest criticism of the anime series by far is the way it ended. You can see my posts all over the anime series imdb board talking about it. I found the ending a crushing disappointment. I hated Near and Mello, I felt that they just strolled into the show and casually won against Kira by standing on L's shoulders, on what L had already achieved. I actually wanted Kira to win, but I would have been ok with L winning because he at least earned it. So I liked the movie ending. L won, no Near and no Mello, and he won in a better way than Near and Mello did. I felt that Kira's death was a little better handled in the film than in the anime too.

Overall, though I have some criticisms, I like the live-action movies. They were actually more well-done than I expected them to be, especially since they had to cram so much into such a small space of time. And the ending was a big relief; I quite liked how they handled it. I'd give both of the movies 7/10.

"The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor."
- Voltaire