Naruto Shippuuden Movie

Oh god, another Naruto movie! When will this madness stop?

At this point I would follow my opening sentence with five or so paragraphs on how they should spend the money they used on this movie to improve the TV series as a whole (animation, pacing, etc), but alas, not this time around! I am going to say it right now, this movie was good! Not once was I forced to fast-forward because of awkward clichés, stupid lines, or it got too boring. Nope, I sat down and saw this through uninterrupted, which is saying a lot since I don’t like to waste my time with Naruto movies. It doesn’t hurt either that the movie starts off with Naruto being impaled by a dragon and a funeral scene afterwards!

Story ….. story ….. alright, not the most engaging story in the world, but it did get the job done. Big bad evil guy named Mouryou has been resurrected once again and of course his presence means the end of the world. What else is new? However, before he can go on a world-ending-rampage, he must first reunite with his real body (he exists as a soul/spirit) and contend with a High Priestess in the Demon Country who is the only one alive that can stop all of his plans.

The Leaf Village is informed of his resurrection and immediately the Fifth sends Naruto, Sakura, Lee, and Neji, as team captain, off to play bodyguard to a self-centered and spoiled High Priestess Shion. What makes her so important? Well, she is the only one who can seal Mouryou back once again. So that’s pretty much the general story in a nutshell, play bodyguard as they transport the Priestess to Mouryou’s physical body and seal it away.

So, the story in general doesn’t seem too inviting. No, quite frankly it doesn’t, but it’s everything that happens in the middle that kept this movie afloat. The fight scenes first of all were very nicely done, and the movie was a really long chase scene once things started to roll as Neji and the team were actively doing their best to protect Shion as their pursuers gave them everything they got which made for some pretty kick-ass fighting choreography. The bit with Lee and the Super Ultra Death Situation chocolate bonbon was pretty funny.

The character interactions were really nice I might add. I thought Shion was going to be one of those silly characters I would just hate throughout the entire movie, since she is self-centered and tells people around her that they were going to die (she can foretell the future). However, as the movie progresses she becomes really likable, especially towards the end.