Reviews for Naruto Shippuden the Movie 2: Bonds

[Note: this is a not-so-serious review, because really, the movie doesn't take itself very seriously.] I went to the theater to see Naruto with very low expectations, in part because I've seen all the Naruto movies so far, and in part because the average age of the audience in the movie theater was 10 years old. Yes, in Japan Naruto caters to the "tween" audience, and I felt like an old lady sitting in the theater, waiting for the movie to start. I expected the movie to be "The Sasuke Movie" but...actually...I'm surprised to say, Naruto was the cool one in this movie. This instantly madeit the top Naruto movie, in my humble opinion, and had the best fights of any Naruto movie so far. (I'm pretty sure next summer we'll be treated to another one.)

Story --Naruto movies are not known for their great scripts, but this one actually had some nice twists to it. Since one of the first scenes was of a smoldering Sasuke with no shirt on, I expected most of the action to be from him, but lo and behold, Naruto came through pulled some great moves during the course of the story. As there isn't much plot that the summary left out, I'll leave it at that.

Art --Also standard Naruto film style, some 3D, but not as out of place as the last movie (I thought). Mostly done on the ships, and the villain's hideout, which I hereby dub "The Castle in the Sky." The leaf ninja village seemed like it was trying to be Renaissance Italy for some reason though...

Sound --Nothing very impressive, but not at all bad. The voice acting of the movie-only characters was well done, as I normally get annoyed with the movie-only character voices.

Character --Ah, characters. Let's see, we have Sasuke as a less emo version of himself (yay), Sakura and Hinata as the still-useless-in-fights Naruto backups/fanservice objects, cameos by Kakashi, playing the role of a voice-over explanatory narrator, and Orochimaru, playing the bedridden grandmother (Sai, Neji, Shino, and Shikamaru play cameos of themselves). There's also the movie-only character Doctor and his apprentice Amaru, who gets to be the one befriended by Naruto (poor Amaru). Then then there's Naruto, slightly more mature than usual, still getting slapped around as usual, and showing tantalizing hints of becoming more hentai with each passing day...

Enjoyment --This could be high because my expectations were so low, but actually, I maintain that the awesomeness of this anime comes from when Naruto has to face, and/or use, the chakra of the nine-tails. And use it he does in this movie. It was like the Sasuke rescue-arc battle at the waterfall redone, which to me was the high point of the series. Sadly, there was also the Sasuke lipsticked-winged-monstrosity to be seen (I won't even mention the villain's cheesy "released" [to borrow a Bleach term] form), but I could take that when Naruto's busting out multiple rasengan from his clones and destroying everything in sight.

Overall, a good movie--by Naruto standards.

I went into this expecting it to be bad. And wow did this movie far exceed my expectations of how bad it could be. *Minor spoilers ahead* Storywise, the whole thing makes no sense. What was even the purpose of the ninja subordinates from Land of the Sky? There was no depth, not even 1 good fight scene. I laughed at so many scenes because it literally was ridiculous. Like they're all highly trained shinobi but are useless for more than 3/4 of the move? Nothing about the writing moved me and felt very cheesy and subpar most of the time. Characters are terrible and fallback on meaningless and flat tropes. All of them are skilled shinobi but they rarely show that they are useful in battle at all. The women were there for nothing other than to be Naruto's love interests and all they do is get punched once, get knocked out, kidnapped, or cry. The characters have no depth and show no character development throughout the whole movie. Truly quite sad to see the characters reduced to such shallow figures of themselves.

The art was decent but I feel like the studio ran out of their budget mid-way through because the art was getting pretty lazy by the end.

The sound was probably a more palatable aspect of the movie. I liked the soundtrack but often it would enter abruptly and didn't feel consistent.

The only reason I gave this a 2 was because I got a good laugh out of the movie. And because I was entertained for all the wrong reasons, this gets a 2.

Okay. So initially, I didn't want to watch this movie because anything with Sasuke and Naruto in that doesn't follow the manga is going to get people's hopes up that they're going to be best buds in the end of the series. But if you are a terrifying Naruto fan to the point of salivating at movie trailers, you need to watch this movie. In all honesty the story is incredibly patchy - it's the average someone trying to destroy the ninja nations plotline with Naruto befriending a movie character along the way - and if you miss a single minute of it, the story willtake a crazy direction you won't understand because you missed a character saying one explanatory line.

Yet do not be disheartened, fellows.

As it goes, about halfway into the usual things we expect from a Naruto movie, things suddenly get extremely kickass. I was actually shocked. It all probably kicks off when Sai shows his moves against the enemy ninjas, then Shino (do not underestimate the bugs), then Naruto in undoubtedly his best fight in any of the movies, then...Sasuke. Like most people, I thought this was going to be a crazy fanservice spotlighted Sasuke movie. It isn't.

Sasuke and Naruto actually end up working together to fight the big scary plot, even if it's for different reasons, and the best thing about the movie is that they retain their personalities from the manga faithfully. Sasuke's arrogance and Naruto's...Narutoness is still the same even in each other's company when they've supposedly just met again after the little Orochimaru hideout incident. In fact, their interaction is so plausible, heart-wrenching and at times amusing in the situation they're in that SasuNaru fans will have a field day complete with picnic and hot air balloon ride.

The sound is good, synchronous with the action and the character themes (Sasuke has a new one that's annoyingly cool and makes you wish he would just trip over a shoelace and ruin his equally cool entrances) are exciting and fit perfectly. The art is comic at times, standard or cringeworthy at others, and so beautiful in some scenes that it makes you want to pause and stare for a second.

So. Despite the initial rubbish story line and flitting between the different aspects of it so fast that you think you're watching an AMV, I have nothing but praise for this movie. I unashamedly re-watched the second half of it two more times. I might go for my third.

9/10 and I recommend, I recommend, I recommend.

As being hyped up as the movie where Naruto and Sasuke team up once again to fight a villain, it's rather played down more than you think it would be, and is just another plot messy Naruto movie. STORY: The leaf village is under attack! ...Again... I swear, it's like everyone despises the leaf village in every filler or non-filler arc, and this movie is just another example of that. The plot of this movie is exactly this: Just make up as we go along, because nothing is fleshed out well, events and fights literally come out of no where, and only Naruto does anything ofimportance to the plot.

But I'll try my best to draw lines to the imaginary dots, the movie starts out with made up movie village, the sky village, attacking the leaf village by air (Which... They came from the sea) with chakra powered gliders and kunai firing machine guns that may as well have been stolen from the kunai firing train from the first Naruto movie (Or may as well have been actual bullet firing guns, but the technology in the Naruto universe never made any sense in the first place).

And during the weird onslaught, Naruto comes across a little girl and a doctor, who importance to the plot is never made clear until the unexplained events occur. Afterwards, two random groups of the main cast go on to do something, one group goes to escort the girl and doctor to somewhere, and the other goes to where the sky ninjas retreated, which is the sea by the way.

First random group consists of Naruto, Sakura, and Hinata (Which, spoiler, she does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in this movie) while the other group is Kakashi (He does next to nothing in this movie), Shikamaru, and Sai (Who does a lot, but his efforts come up to nothing), and Shino who does the most in this movie next to Naruto, but who's efforts comes up to nothing as well.

Now, I can say without a doubt, if the story isn't why you're watching the movie, then more power to you because the action scenes are great, the animation is a grade up from the tv series, and it has Sasuke, who doesn't really do much and the reason why he's there and his motives is a bit lazy, but fans are definitely going to appreciate his inclusion to the movie.

The humor of the movie is classic Naruto filler slapstick routines, from Naruto being a dumbass to him and the movie character arguing.

But, compared to the other movies, the story is very weak, and events and plot points literally do come out of no where, like if you would to guess what this movie is actually about, you would think it's about something happening to the leaf village that requires Naruto and Sasuke to team up, but no, it's about as deep as saying it's about people fighting each other.

Which is good enough of a reason to watch anyway, if you want to see Naruto tearing shit up then you're in luck, because he tears up a whole castle with several rasengans and the usual movie named rasengans.

But, when compared to the other movies, the plot is very messy or at least, lazy. The movie characters are fleshed out a good bit, but they have no purpose to the overall plot, except when the plot pulls something from out of no where (Like the confrontation with the zero tailed beast, but the plot isn't really about that, I think, the plot never really assures you of it).

It doesn't fall into EVERY trappings of the other movies at the very least, like the cast having to fight the main villains minions before the boss himself, that doesn't happen here, but the whole Naruto gets the shit beaten out of him by a super beefed up super saiyan-este villain who boasts about his new awesome power happens, and then Naruto precedes to the do the same still happens, though this time Sasuke comes in to help for his own reasons, but my guess would be that he was pretty bored just wanted to kill time. And Naruto and the movie character relationship improves as the plot goes along, which happens in every Naruto movie, so there's no real point to get invested in it when it's never going to be canon to the series.

The plot is about as cliched as it gets, but hey like I said earlier if you only want to watch the movie for it's fights, then you won't be totally disappointed.

ANIMATION: It's a grade up from the tv series, but nothing awe inspiring. the fights are cool, but the movie characters look a bit silly.

SOUND: Both English and Japanese voice overs are fine, and the background music is more stock Naruto music, it's as if you're watching a very short filler arc.

OVERALL:

The Good:

+ Cool fights for the naruto fans.

+ Animation is a step up from the tv series.

The Mixed:

+/- Sasuke is in a Naruto movie/ Sasuke doesn't really do anything.

The Bad:

- Messy and cliched plot with everything not as fleshed out as it should have been and everything being made up as it goes along.

- Side characters from the tv series do even less than what they normally do.

As a time waster for Naruto fans, it's a decent action romp at least, but you can do much better and if you missed Sasuke being in the movies, then you'll be almost satisfied with that department this movie.

There's a bit of action for Shikamaru and Sai when they fought some enemy soldiers while Shino managed to destroy warships with his insects. Other than that, the Konoha ninjas were practically doing nothing. Neji did saved some kids in Konoha during the initial stage of attacks though. As usual, Naruto saved the day, not that I'm complaining since my favourite character is Naruto. However, Naruto's rasengan was weak towards the enemy during the initial stage and he was being punched like a sandbag as he tried to reinstate confidence back to Amaru who was at her verge of committing suicide. Compared to the previousNaruto Shippuuden movie, I'll prefer the earlier one's sound track to the current one. I especially dislike the music when Sasuke made his 'cool' entrance with a jazz like music, it almost makes me laugh. Other than that, the other musics are more or less adopted from anime series, like 'Douten', etc. At least there's two music from the previous movie which caught my attention, namely 'Decisive battle' and 'God's Will'.

However, there's more Naruto goodies in this current movie. Naruto made many funny expression and imitation when Amaru's teacher commented he looked like a cat and also when Naruto tried to show Amaru how Iruka, Kakashi and Jiraiya were like. There's also some scenes which make my yaoi blood boils when the Amaru-transformed demon slapped Sakura away to grab Naruto. During Naruto's part when he fought the enemy in the initial stage, there's also parts when the enemy crept up close behind Naruto, slammed him to the throne like chair (see picture) and also pulled Naruto close by grabbing his arm.

Plot-wise, it is as empty as the previous Shippuuden movie when Naruto fights as the only main character, being the only friend to the main female characters in the movies while other Konoha ninjas slutted around, doing little or practically nothing. The absorption of dark emotion of the villagers to transform them into power reminds me of some Inuyasha manga plotlines. The importance of the stolen scroll has also been diminished in the movie, making it more like a vague excuse for the invasion of Konoha which lasts less than 5 minutes.

Don't be mislead by the trailer onlines. Initially, I thought Naruto and Sakura were upset over the absence of Sasuke during the invasion of their village. After watching the movie, it turns out that Naruto and Sakura did not even bother whether Sasuke was involved in the battle at all. In fact, ONLY Naruto and the main villain noticed Sasuke's appearance at the last quarter of the movie. It was after Naruto's meeting and fighting alongside with Sasuke that he told Sasuke he would one day take him back to Konoha (the part was a bit touching as Naruto was, like, prepared to sacrifice his own life to destroy the floating city until Amaru grabbed him in the air and Jiraiya saved them both with Bunta's tummy). Sasuke did not communicate much with Naruto who tried throughout the fighting process to talk to him. Orochimaru was like a sick old granny waiting for his grandchild's return while Kabuto was like his personal maid.

This is a terrible, TERRIBLE movie. Kishimoto just lost all my respect for allowing something like this to be done to his creation. Surely the worst anime I ever saw -- and this is coming from a devoted Naruto fan.

Great little burst of Naruto that was entertaining and well worth watching. The film begins with Sasuke Uchiha taking of his robe and wetting his hair in a waterfall, it does sound slightly tantalising but it caught my attention, so I can hardly complain. After making a lot of fangirls swoon, the film sets up a simple plot of enemies attacking Konoha. Yes, very generic, however if you give the film time to develop, the story actually has content, not very complex content but content nonetheless! The Sky country is not the only threat, we have Orochimaru and that weird spirit thing; which is more thanI expected from the usual one-dimensional Naruto plot. Saying this, I was still disappointed during the end of film because it finished so abruptly, I was unsatisfied with how rushed it all felt.

The art was of a very good quality, a repeating pattern with the new Naruto movies. The background imagery was breathtaking at times and really excelled over the shoddy art of the anime series. It really shows that they are capable of producing good stuff, if only they could bothered to do so on a long term basis e.g the Shippuden series.

Normally, I find it quite difficult to care for newly introduced characters, but I must say that Amaru and her sensei intrigued me, though I didn't have that emotional attachment due to their lack in depth. The whole reason, I gave the characters a score of 9 was because I felt the pre-existing characters saved the movie and gave it it's charm. Little things like; Sai's exciting fight scene, Kakashi's presence, Hinata blushing violently and Naruto getting nervous around girls, all added up to a really enjoyable film.

Even Sasuke was there, which I thought was great since he pertains a lot of mystery, especially if you watch this in correlation to the anime series. This is like gold dust if you are a SasuNaru fangirl because the determination (on Naruto's part) and friendship between them is still very evident. Their bond is undeniably strong and their fighting style's compliment eachother perfectly. The movie is a reminder of something I'd once forgotten, that they were once best friends which is why I personally hold this film as special.

STORY- 6

ART- 8

SOUND- 6

CHARACTER- 9

ENJOYMENT- 9

OVERALL- 38/50 - 76% - (VeryGood-8)

**THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN A FEW SPOILERS** As my journey continues through reviewing all the Naruto movies it so far is going at steady pace in quality with both of the Shippuuden movies I have seen. Hopefully it stays this way and doesn't change dramatically like the piece of trash that was Naruto Movie 3. Story: (4/10) The story of Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 2 - Kizuna begins with a mysterious group of ninjas bombing Konoha which leaves everybody awestruck at all the destruction and suffering that these ninjas have caused. Now, Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, a man named Shinnou and his pupil who is named Amaru must go anddiscover what these ninja are planning. One of my main problems with the story is how many things that the characters seem to do just ends up to be meaningless because of how something just comes out of nowhere and disposes of the conflict instantly. All this time that was used for these scenes could have been put to much better use. This movie finally brung back the past trend that the first 3 Naruto movies did and that is to incorporate modern things into the story which for example are gigantic battleships, weird mechanical air gliders, guns, and a giant fortress that can go all the way up to the sky. The way that the story explains how there is a gigantic fortress that can go all the way to the sky that is hidden underground is by saying that there was a race back then that was able to make this which doesn't make any sense because how did they get all the material to make it if this is during the ninja era! The rest of the things I mentioned don't get answered at all.

Art and Animation: (6/10)

The art in this movie is good. The character designs are interesting and stay consistent, the backgrounds are good, and all the special attack visuals shown were good. The animation was equally as good as the art and the best of it can be seen during battles.

Sound: (5/10)

The soundtrack in this movie was pretty forgettable with the ending song being the best song. The voice actors did a good job with the characters and the sound effects were average.

Characters: (3/10)

The characters in this movie are all over the place. Naruto is still the same character that is the only one that does anything that affects the plot, is always giving inspirational speeches to the main characters, and always uses his nakama power. Sakura and Hinata don't do anything throughout the whole movie to the point that they could have just been not in the movie and there would be no change! and Hinata is in the movie even less than Sakura was which is terrible. I'm sure that many people were hyped up to finally see Sasuke come back and fight along side Naruto against a villain like in the old anime but all I can do is feel sorry for them because Sasuke is barely in this movie at all. Throughout the movie we see very short scenes of what Sasuke is doing with no dialog from him and apart from these scenes we don't see anything else about him until the final part of the movie. In the final fight in the movie it doesn't even look like Naruto needed any help to defeat the main antagonist because he was the one that pretty much did all the work to defeat him which makes it seem that Sasuke didn't have to be in this movie since this is Sasuke's only role in the movie. There was also some other characters that were not necessary to be in due to how little they do and how their problem just disappears instantly in the later half of the movie and these characters are Kakashi, Sai, Shikamaru, and Shino. Amaru who is our main character in this movie was pretty well developed but I felt that she could had much more potential to become a good character if they just gave her more time in the movie. There isn't much to say about the villains due to how they do not change at all in character in these movies because every single time their motivation is to destroy things because destroying things is cool.

Enjoyment: (4/10)

The animation and art was well done.

Overall: (4/10)

Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 2 - Kizuna had its moments with the animation and art but other than that there isn't really much to say about it because everything else is a mess.

It wasn't that this movie was BAD... But as far as the Naruto movies go, I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the others. The problem with making a movie for a show like Naruto is that the stakes are already so high in the canon storyline, the writers have to try extra hard to get their audience to take these mini plotlines seriously. Frankly, I found a lot of it to be predictable and kind of cheap... Like the creation of the 0 Tails just for this movie. Or the doctor plot twist. And Sasuke felt like he was there kind ofjust because he had to be.

The attack on the village I found to be kind of interesting. Though it brings up the question again of just where this world falls in the realm of technology. They seem so advanced in some places, yet so surprised at the much less advanced kite things that allowed the opposing shinobi to fly...

All in all, it felt a little cheesy. I mean... cheesier than usual.

(Okay, I want to add in a short little EDIT note. I rarely find the Naruto movies through their trailers. I hear about them from other people on the internet, or just because it's a series I'm invested in anyway, so I'll get to the movies eventually. But I've recently been rewatching the series on DVD, and for a good chunk of episodes, each DVD is prefaced with the trailer for this movie. And I've got to say... What bullshit. I understand now why so many of the reviews for this movie were severely disappointed or outraged. It's not often that I see a trailer this out of touch with what's actually going on in the movie. It's made out to be a story centering on Naruto's bond with Sasuke... who is, like, a cameo appearance in this movie. At best.)

The short: So Konoho, home of the greatest ninjas (Legendary sanin, White wolf, Yellow Flash, 1st Hokage etc) proves that it isn't as safe as you'd think it is, dispite of it's reputation. The assault is led by "Sky ninjas" which apparently got destroyed during the second great war. During the attack, our heroes befriend a wandering doctor, whom they later help to escort him to a village in need of help. During this time, Orochimaru sends Sasuke to retrieve this wandering doctor, inorder to recieve a special healing jutsu... Overall: Let's face it, Naruto doesn't have the most interesting skill set nor the best jutsu,and any Naruto fan knows his fighting style (scream-> kage bunshin-> Rasengan -> done)

Verdict: So unlike the first movie, this movie was actually refreshing, thanks to the involvement of the other characters which brought some great combat into play and made it more enjoying.

7/10 = Good

So I am not much of an "extra" or "filler" person. This is probably the best Naruto movie to date. If you're going to watch any of the movies, this one fits the best without interrupting the main story. Sure it doesn't fit perfectly, but it's fun to watch, and it is exciting. It has good animation, good sound, well I guess "good" is a great way to describe this "extra" story. I wouldn't say it's a must see for naruto fans, but it's the movie you should avoid the least. There are some things that should not have happened in this story because they arenot in line with the manga story at all, but the anime series is filled with so much filler that the anime fans will enjoy this flick. That aside, it doesn't completely fit in line with the anime series either. However, if you're looking for some of your favorite characters in a peculiar story, then this will fit that bill.

This particular movie isn't solely for fans of the series. Anybody that hasn't seen Naruto or Naruto: Shippuuden will be able to follow this, and it does have some good repeat value. The synopsis doesn't tell you much, but basically there's a bad guy, he tries to get all powerful, the village gets attacked, and Naruto has to try and save the day. There's an appearance in the story by Sasuke (which is the biggest piece of this movie that was out of place) but really this story is about throwing the fans a bone since it was quite a while after this was released before Naruto and Sasuke saw each other again in the anime series.

Again, this is not a must watch, but not a must dodge either. A low 7 for me, even though (as I've said already) I am not a fan of extra material.

This is the fifth Naruto movie, made after the initial high spirited continuation was saturated and the show entered a state of slow pacing and full of fillers phase. Once again the excitement was over and the audience started to drop it for the second time. Even the directors seemed to have lost their will to make something exciting and just created this as basic as possible. The budget is still quite high but there was no work given on making interesting battle choreographies, while all the characters act rather bored and distant from the viewer. I must admit though that this movie has a verydifferent feel from the previous ones. There are no henchmen that need to be defeated fro example, just generic faceless mooks with fancy technology. And the main villain’s motives were left hidden for the most part, making the main objective of the film to be hidden from the audience. So in this regard the movie was much closer to a war drama or a mystery adventure than a bunch of teenagers kicking the crap out of each other. This made it feel more mature as an overall. The problem here is that Naruto was never mature and the target audience never expected it to be. They just wanted to see cool magical ninjas doing lots of exciting stuff and instead got a rather uneventful movie with some anti-war messages and a blurry sinister plan towards the end.

There was a major hook for the fans to see the movie though. The trailers mentioned that it will feature the return of Gaysuke, the real protagonist that is, who was absent since the first movie. They even tried to tie the events with the main series in a very subtle way by making Orochimaru to be in need of a scroll some doctor in this film has. It seemed like a good marketing trick and normally it should have worked. Yet to the most part it didn’t. Why?

EVERYONE IS SO WEAK AND STUPID! Seriously, all the elite super powerful ninjas you were watching for so many years doing all sorts of epic stuff, in this movie they feel like they are average people who can’t even move fast or fight properly.

- The invading ninjas are not using ninjutsu to the most part. They are using technology, which is so off with the rest of the setting. We are so used to see magic hand seals, gained after years of training or after a horrible experiment was done on them, that this is just stupid. They all look like mass-produced robots instead of specially trained stealth spies or assassins. Not that the evil underlings in the other movies were any better in terms of personality but at least they had a face and each one of them had a unique style of fighting. But these guys? They all look the same and fight the same and don’t even have a face. Hell, even the villains of the second film had faces and unique abilities, despite NOT being ninjas and STILL using technology. Thus they are completely generic and booooring from the first second.

- Konoha is invaded so easily by the aforementioned ninjas that is plain stupid. I mean you have this huge organization of spies, scattered throughout the world and NOBODY could see and inform the village that a dozen huge battleships are heading their way? In the previous movie for example a soldier informed the others with a messenger pigeon. They also have hounds, frogs, and a thousand other scouting animals that can even be summoned from afar. Hell, they have a magic barrier that senses the tiniest person entering and informs the rest of what has happened in seconds. So seeing Konoha being trashed so easily is not only lame but also contradicts what we have seen so far in terms of security.

- Seeing Konoha getting trashed stopped being dramatic after the tenth time they did it in a filler arc. It was dramatic when it was done in-story during the Chuunin exam or when Pain invaded but they used the same hook in so many fillers that it lost its dramatic tension. So what if thousands died from the attack? So did ten times so far and nobody seems to mind at all. Konoha must have a population of over one billion to excuse all the casualties going unnoticed.

- So our heroes go to the offense and go on a mission to find the enemy’s base and destroy it. Which is a reasonable thing to do… if they were doing it right. Instead of jumping from tree to tree, which is a trademark of the show and which allows them to cross huge distances in a matter of hours, they WALK towards the enemy or use riverboats. THIS IS COMPLETELY BS! Where are all the cool stuff they could do before?

- Another case of how weak and useless everybody is, is the scene where Naruto is poisoned by the bite of a fish. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? He has a mountain worth of chakra inside him that heals him in an instant and all of a sudden he can’t recover from a simple bite? Not only that but Hinata who can see and control chakra regulation, as well as Sakura who is a professional healer could do absolutely NOTHING to help him. THIS IS COMPLETE BS!

- And then a trap is triggered and someone gets killed with them standing right next to him. COMPLETE BS! We had seen them a hundred times having lightening-fast fast reflexes and saving people in a fraction of a second but now they can’t even run fast before it is too late.

What is even worse is when they really ARE using superpowers. It still looks completely crock.

- Although Sai’s fight with the flying ninjas was very cool, the way their ships were eventually defeated was completely anti-climactic. Somehow Shino’s bugs infiltrated them and destroyed them in a few seconds. LAAAAME!

- Gaysuke’s plan to defeat the main villain was also anti-climactic. All he did was throwing a few tiny sparks to cut his chakra circulation. LAAAAME!

- Then Naruto falls from a very high altitude and is saved by Jiraya who placed a frog to work as a trampoline that would stop him from crashing. Which would be cool if he was present in the film from the beginning and had foreseen and planned it to be as such. HE JUST CAME OUT OF NOWHERE!

What is even worse than even that is how all other characters besides Naruto (who is needed to provide his shallow idealism and final Rasengan on the enemy EVERY SINGLE TIME) are completely useless to the plot. They were useless before of course but now they CAN’T EVEN DO THE BASICS! They don’t even fight. They don’t even have a place in this whole mess.

- What is Sakura and Hinata doing in this film? They did absolutely nothing! They didn’t fight, they didn’t heal, they didn’t even offer some sort of service other than the tired jokes of Sakura hitting Naruto and Hinata blushing.

- What is Gaysuke doing in this film? Yes, he is looking for a scroll but was he important to the story? Hell no, he was there as fan service. Naruto did all the work as usual and Sasuke only managed to ruin the final battle with his cheap tricks.

- The main villain was a completely boring idiot and his plans made no sense at all.

- Zero-tails? Seriously? ZERO-TAILS? Not only it looks goddamn lame but it was so easy to defeat as well.

- That tomboy chick was also useless. Not to the story but because she felt like a sexualized and boring imitation of all the other emo kids Naruto was aiding in previous movies.

So in a few words the whole movie is anti-climactic and makes everybody to feel useless and stupid. It is completely unlikable and one of the worst additions to the franchise.

Boy, I was actually kind of interested in this movie. I mean, Sasuke. Without spoiling, I wanted to see a bit more of Sasuke and this movie should have had him. I supposed it would focus more on Naruto and Sasuke's relationship. What did I watch? A cliched and boring Naruto film. I was bored until the end where it became kinda eh. Let's start with the story. Without spoiling, we get another typical kid who is almost the same as Naruto in his backstory. Really, just... nothing happens most of the time or is just really boring. There is one plot twist I didn't expect.Congratulations! The Sasuke bits were kinda cool but he had so little screen time. Not very interesting there, hell, he felt forced in just so there would be something to peak interest in people. It's just a drag and a boring, pointless movie. Bad story and bad characters. I'd write more but there really isn't anything to write about. Just Sasuke's short screen time and lack of dialogue.

The art is good and the soundtrack too. Nothing too special but they are good. It's about all I can say.

Overall, the movie is poor. Boring and unengaging plot and characters ruin it. Having Sasuke advertised so much would suggest him playing a major role. They might as well have just removed him from the story. They might as well have removed a lot of characters from the story. I can't really recommend it, unless you are like me and have to watch these movies in which case I can't really stop you.

As I was watching it, I kept on hoping to see more of Sasuke on the movie. Honestly, I felt bored on the first part of it about Amaru and her master. But as the story progresses, the twist made me alive. It was like the climax serves right Then Sasuke appeared. In this, I really enjoyed the rest of the flick. Naruto and Sasuke fighting the same enemy made me happy. They were like team mates. The part when Sasuke helped the villagers escape was one of the best scenes for me. I thought that Sasuke has still goodness in his heart. The touchingpart is when Naruto saved Sasuke by letting him go as well. Naruto was really cool in this movie. As Naruto was falling in the sky with Amaru, Sasuke saw it and continued on his journey back to Orochimaru. At the last part when Kabuto pointed out that it was unlikely for Sasuke to fail a mission, Orochimaru asked if something good happeedn and that he felt that it did. Sasuke then remembered what Naruto had said. I was like overwhelmed that maybe Sasuke really want to go back to Konoha after all. Well, this movie really put my hopes up. :D

These Naruto films are making me sleepy. I've been binging the Naruto films and it's a shame how generic and lackluster they are. I feel this is my least favorite so far and that's partly due to the overabundance of films as a whole, It's wearing me down. Bonds kind of tells an alternate universe story of what it could have been like for Naruto if he was betrayed by his master. The master and apprentice relationship is explored through new characters, one even sharing the same long white locks as Jiraiya. I do appreciate this movie taking a different approach to the plot and not being anescort mission. It starts as a revenge from an old nation who have held a grudge for like 20 or 30 years. It's a bit out there, but realistic in my opinion. Lord knows politics can be long and ugly. I don't appreciate however, that what should have been a war between nations ends up hinging on a single man. Who even needs all the foot soldiers at that point?

The concept of the one tails was BS. If it posseses those with darkness in there hearts, it should have appeared and possessed Sasuke, or anyone else by now. There is no way no one hasn't felt despair until then. It just conveniently came into and out of existence within the span of this film.

The dude going super saiyan didn't even go all out. He said he could open all the gates of what you call it and didn't even open one. His combat was flashy, flailing Naruto around like a ragdoll, but he was either OP or powerless, there was no in-between.

Why did Sasuke come and go like a passerby? As a kid, as a fan of Naruto, I can be super excited to see this movie, of course the first movie as well, I would enjoy this movie completely. But if I can comment on this movie as a mature fan and grew up with the characters, this movie is a shame. The introduced Sasuke character is so important that he appears on the movie poster next to Naruto, but watch him in action in the movie, Sasuke is just simple an Orochimaru's puppet, and at the same time bait to attract fans, make money for thestudio. Wtf???

I watched this movie a few times, and after watching it, what left me was Dragon Ball Z, not the content of the movie. The characters in the movie are too boring, except for the doctor Shinou.

I could sit here all day just listing the silly things in this movie:

- Again, when Konoha was attacked, old lady Tsunade just stood at the window and looked, what the hell

- I'm tired of anyone going with Naruto always arguing with him.

- Despite a well-explained background story, it's hard for anyone not to realize that these villains' machines don't seem to belong in our Ninja world lol

- When Naruto was bitten on the leg by a poisonous fish, Amaru sucked from the wound with her mouth (another detail not in the Ninja world) and super talented doctor Sakura sat there and watched wtf

- The fact that Hinata followed Naruto's group and she acted so normal and boring proves that the characters in this movie are still not properly cared for and deserved.

- And I don't know if the character Shinou was good person or not at the time when he jumped out into the rain of knives to protect Amaru, but with the task of escorting and protecting the client, the Sakura-Hinata-Naruto group is full of Jounins and high level let the people they have to protect run into danger, and what did they do? they slowly come so calmly, wtf are these the responsible Ninja I knew from Garra rescue? I feel a bit disappointed.

- The appearance of the monster Reibi is quite boring (just appeared from nowhere and then fighted)

- Not to mention the fact that Naruto returned to human form from Kyuubi in a second without any injuries wtf remember that Kyuubi's 4-tailed state has skin covered with Naruto's blood

- Maybe the Naruto movie production team can't stop creating characters with the same characteristics as Naruto (with monsters in him, lonely, alienated...) and I'm starting to get bored with the combination these two with each other

- It's great to see Shino of Team 8 showing his strength, but he appears too few, and I don't believe that the number of insects on his body can eat a large ship in the sea

- Shinou suddenly revealed his identity as a villain made me quite uncomfortable, this character could have deceived Naruto and Amaru until the end, he loudly claimed to be a villain for no purpose, so remember him spent 13 years fooling people

- I have to admit Shinou is an interesting character, but in my opinion the battle between Sasuke, Naruto and Shinou is too silly, the dialogue is very low quality, and there is no denying the part where Shinou transforms has some contact Dragon Ball Z lol

- And I know a lot of people would love to see Sasuke and Naruto together, but for me this has crossed the line, now that Sasuke is in the dark, there's no reason for the two of them to be close. Did Sasuke even help the boat save the villagers? Wtf

- At the end, when Amaru panicked and rushed to save Naruto, their friends sitting below calmly laughed and had joke with each other even though Neji knew Naruto was above, too absurd and ridiculous.

I really like Sasuke's presence, but the fact that he's so boring in this movie and Naruto turns into a hero, this really pisses me off. It's not that I don't want Naruto to show off, but remember he's nothing compared to Sasuke at this point. And I'm not impressed with the animation or the music, compared to the previous movie.

You know, with all the other Naruto movies I at least found some semblance of enjoyment. Like, they aren't good by any stretch of the imagination, but they had a couple aspects that I could enjoy. Not so much with this one. Everything bad about every other Naruto movie is turned to the max here. And the script is a pain. The animation in these movies hasn't improved over the years either, which is disappointing. They could at least make this somewhat visually interesting. All these movies feel rushed, but then again what do you expect when they were pumping these out on a yearlybasis. Definitely won't watch again.

This is personally my first journey into the world of Naruto because as an old school anime fan I was often forced to watch things out of order due to the lack of availability of much anime in my area but I kind of prefer to go into the world of anime like that because it often teaches me if things can still be enjoyed or even better yet understood without any context into the world's backstory. What we have is a film that takes place after episode 71 of the Naruto Shippuuden series. The film is done competently enough but for a film inthe Naruto universe it is surprisingly lacking in the action department. Often in the world in anime you can vividly see the difference in animation quality or even the style of storytelling between an anime series and an anime film but with this film it often feels like a 3 to 4 episode arc because as a film I don't think it really does a lot to set itself apart or even be remotely memorable.

In this film's story the leaf village has been attacked by Ninja's from the Land of Sky and the leaf village endures heavy causalities because of this attack. During this attack Naruto wants to join the fight but is stopped by Shinnou (an acclaimed doctor/healer) so that they can focus on taking care of the victims of the attack instead of fighting off the Sky Ninja's. While Naruto and Shinnou are tending to the victims of the attack, they come across a spirited youngster by the name of Amaru who requests Shinnou's help for her village. So when the attack has been concluded, the ninja's of the leaf village are separated into two groups. Naruto, Sakura, and Hinata accompany Shinnou and Amaru to the village while Sai, Shikimaru Kara, and Kikashi try to discover where the attack is coming from and they try to stop the Sky Ninja's from their launching point.

While these two plots are taking place, Sasuke is asked by Orochimaru to find Shinnou who can help him perfect his reincarnation. So throughout this film we have two major plot points while another smaller subplot is taking place. The first half of the film is relatively boring with very little in the way of action. We get to see Amaru's dedication to follow in Shinnou's footsteps as they go on this journey together but it's not until they reach the village and some ancient ruins afterwards that we finally get to see some action. It also takes a while before we finally discover who is pulling the strings we regards to the final conflict in this anime and the majority of the action comes from both Naruto and Sasuke showcasing all their cool abilities while the rest of the ninja's and their abilities are severely underutilized. There are some really good fights when the action does happen in this animated movie especially with regards to the final fight scene and I do appreciate the fact that Naruto didn't have to use the full extent of his power in order to pull off this victory even though he gets beat up quite a lot during one of the battles throughout this anime. There was one battle however, and it wasn't even the concluding battle where he came pretty close to unleashing all of his power, but thankfully it didn't have to come to that.

The character development is not really the best either, but while Shinnou is a compelling character throughout this film and enforces some really good lessons throughout the journey, Amaru on the other hand is borderline annoying. I understand the story really centralizes on her and some of the ordeals she has had to go through, but her character is really aggravating because she is extremely stubborn, hotheaded and verbally banters with Naruto all the damn time. Despite her annoying nature she does have some redeemable traits and her importance in the concluding act of the story is actually quite heartfelt and really enjoyable. The rest of the Ninja's in the leaf village are pretty much the same as they always have been with regards to their personalities. The film has a few comical moments especially when Sakura gives Naruto a well timed slap to the face on multiple occasions, and there is a great bit of comedic banter when Naruto does what he does best and that is destroying something on a monumental level and the rest of the ninja's debate in a very monochrome and sarcastic way if they should move or not in order to not get hit with the debris.

The animation is fine for what it is, but even though I haven't watched a single episode of any Naruto anime I've seen enough clips of the series that there doesn't seem to be much of a difference in the animation quality between the mainline anime series and the actual anime film. I'm sure it exists though, but I personally never seen much of an increase in animation compared to other anime series that made a transition into a film where it can often times be incredibly easy to spot the difference in animation quality. Like I said before, it's serviceable but it's not really going to blow you away. As a fan of English dubbing, the voice talent is beyond solid with lots of pioneer mainstays in the English voice acting community lending their talents to this film. The music in the anime is borderline okay, it's utilized well enough but nothing about is overly memorable.

Overall, this Naruto film ticks off all the boxes on what you would expect out of a film dealing with Naruto. You get some really solid ninja action, a few comedic moments and a tiny bit of world building that expands on the world of Naruto but I often feel like this story was better suited as just three to four episode adventure of the main series instead of being told as a feature film. The film is definitely not bad, but it definitely could of been a lot better and a lot more intense then what it really was. I think that's the curse you have when you have a world with so many interesting characters - it's truly hard to know when to properly divide the time up with regards to so many characters which is why I think Naruto works better as a series then dwelling into the world of films from time to time.

Son of a bitch, the beginning of this one was actually threatening to be good. Spotlighting the side characters and letting them be effective? Creating a little bit of real tension and thematic depth with the doctor's death as a mirror for Naruto's relationship with Jiraya? The movie-original character designs are better than average for this movie series? Naruto ended up on an escort mission with movie original characters like the other ones, but I was willing to see where it was going to go. I could have forgiven the sin, especially since Hinata was part of the escort group. And then it pissed it awayby making that escort mission the focus of the movie and turning it into a bunch of friendship monologues. And the Jiraya analogue gained a romantic attachment element that was p creep. And then Sasuke showed up for little reason; he just hadn't been in the last several movies and they wanted him around. And the true villain showed up with a horrible design that was like a low-rent Super Saiyan 3. I was completely checked out by the end. Hinata didn't even get to do anything by the end.

Eh. As a general note, since I had lost interest in the series by the time Shippuden made it to the States, I like that Sakura's angry internal monologue got incorporated more into her overt personality. It added some spice to her character, although something makes me suspect that was the only hint of character development she ever received. I like her more than other people seem to, but it's disappointing that change came after a timeskip instead of during a storyline where she was allowed to grow up a bit.