Reviews for Gekijouban Naruto Shippuuden (5.66)
sandip
Kamegaki Hajime
Sasaki Mamoru
This is the first Naruto movie in the Shippudden series (forth movie overall). Refer to my other reviews for comparisons. Visuals So the visuals in this movie are pretty much ...
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- Unrated
28.05.2008 23:46 - direct link
(rs6088)
This is the first Naruto movie in the Shippudden series (forth movie overall). Refer to my other reviews for comparisons.
Visuals
So the visuals in this movie are pretty much of an average Naruto quality throughout. For the majority of the time, they do not go above and beyond to signify any particular clue that this is a Movie, rather than a slightly more grander episode of the series. There are no extra details on the character modelling, and the fluidity of the animation is once again, mostly of the same standard.
There are however, a couple of slight exceptions. For one, there are much more atmospheric surrounding environments in the battle sequences. The climactic final scenes for example, are very detailed, with special effects flying off every crevice and great lighting. The CGI work is also very praiseworthy whenever it's presented - most noticeably the work on the Stone Soldier army - gives a very cool effect to the scenes and surprisingly doesn't feel out of place. CGI has been used carefully - only where it's needed, and where it won't detract from the overall style of the movie.
The fight scenes unfortunately do not showcase much new skill on behalf of the characters involved in them, and whilst somewhat entertaining to watch, won't have anything new to offer any Naruto fan who's familiar with the series or previous movies.
Sound
The sound in the movie is pretty spot on. It's hard to really find a fault with it, except that I wasn't really impressed with the end music theme, (not that it's particularly bad or anything).
The sound effects are the real stars here - when someone crashes into the ground you really feel the weight of it with the bass. All the effects are expertly placed and don't sound cheap at any point. The voice acting is what you'd expect from any Naruto based anime - using the same voices for relevant characters from the series where it can. The musical score is also played out well in the movie, using exciting melodies similar to the early action episodes in the series, but coupled with tones of maturity and a subtle eastern feel.
Story
There isn't anything new to see here from the main plot. Over the course of all the series, we have seen pretty much every type of story on offer in the Naruto world. And indeed, this forth movie even uses the same plot-type as 2 of the other movies - Naruto is involved in an escort mission. Again.
This time around, a demon is freed from it's sealed bonds and wants to essentially, destroy the world, because that's what demons like to do. The only person who can seal it back up again is a priestess, who coincidentally, its about the same age as Naruto. So inevitably, Naruto and his team have the responsibility to, (pretty much like the Fellowship of the Ring), escort the priestess to the demon's lair so she can vanquish him.
The only real thing to note about the Story in this movie, is that intriguingly, it opens with a vision that the priestess has, showing Naruto's violent death. This of course sucks in the viewer in wanting to find out just what on earth is going to befall our hero and if he'll actually die, or even, if he's already dead and we're just witnessing the events preceding his death.
The movie-specific plot is quite expendable and indeed, interchangeable with whatever anyone wanted to fit into it. The ending of the movie is a little odd - with the end credits being rolled whilst the climax is still only just being played out. It ended up having an abrupt feel that seemed a little cheap.
Character
The main characters in this movie from the Naruto world are: Naruto, Neji, Rock Lee and Sakura.
There is once again, nothing new to see in this department. Nobody uses any skill that hasn't already been showcased many times over, and there are no new character interactions or developments that also haven't already been played out. The main support character is the Priestess, who has a turbulent relationship with Naruto, and the two dislike each other from the get go. Of course, predictably, Naurto's ultimate super power of befriending anyone he meets eventually takes effect, but one wonders how often exactly are we going to be subjected to this same process?
I have only really been accepting of this typical Naruto character development when it was done in the first Naruto movie, where I genuinely felt it was pulled off nicely and still do. But having it happen over and over gets tired very quickly.
The fight scenes in this movie are somewhat dire in that there really is nothing extra special about them. Each of the established Naruto characters has had a more spectacular fight in either a previous movie or the series, and here there isn't really any instance where you're particularly excited for a fight, or feel exhilarated afterwards. The fights themselves have a half-decent standard, but it's the fact that we're really not seeing anything new that is the problem for me.
Value
I'd watch this movie again when I was rewatching the Shippudden series, just after around episode 54, where there is a sufficient enough break in the saga that the movie seems like a plausible distraction. But I wouldn't watch it without the series accompanying it though.
Enjoyment
There was a medium amount of enjoyment to be had from this movie, but it was nothing extra ordinary. I would have hoped that being the first movie of the new series would have reset the movies' calibre into being more polished and special, but alas no. Whilst being much better than the previous Naruto movie (the muck-filled Movie 3), it wasn't "better" enough to garner any substantial level of enjoyment from me.
Ultimately it doesn't further anyone's understanding of the Naruto world and it's concepts, and if anything, is just a semi-pleasant distraction to be had whilst waiting for the next proper episode in the series.
Visuals
So the visuals in this movie are pretty much of an average Naruto quality throughout. For the majority of the time, they do not go above and beyond to signify any particular clue that this is a Movie, rather than a slightly more grander episode of the series. There are no extra details on the character modelling, and the fluidity of the animation is once again, mostly of the same standard.
There are however, a couple of slight exceptions. For one, there are much more atmospheric surrounding environments in the battle sequences. The climactic final scenes for example, are very detailed, with special effects flying off every crevice and great lighting. The CGI work is also very praiseworthy whenever it's presented - most noticeably the work on the Stone Soldier army - gives a very cool effect to the scenes and surprisingly doesn't feel out of place. CGI has been used carefully - only where it's needed, and where it won't detract from the overall style of the movie.
The fight scenes unfortunately do not showcase much new skill on behalf of the characters involved in them, and whilst somewhat entertaining to watch, won't have anything new to offer any Naruto fan who's familiar with the series or previous movies.
Sound
The sound in the movie is pretty spot on. It's hard to really find a fault with it, except that I wasn't really impressed with the end music theme, (not that it's particularly bad or anything).
The sound effects are the real stars here - when someone crashes into the ground you really feel the weight of it with the bass. All the effects are expertly placed and don't sound cheap at any point. The voice acting is what you'd expect from any Naruto based anime - using the same voices for relevant characters from the series where it can. The musical score is also played out well in the movie, using exciting melodies similar to the early action episodes in the series, but coupled with tones of maturity and a subtle eastern feel.
Story
There isn't anything new to see here from the main plot. Over the course of all the series, we have seen pretty much every type of story on offer in the Naruto world. And indeed, this forth movie even uses the same plot-type as 2 of the other movies - Naruto is involved in an escort mission. Again.
This time around, a demon is freed from it's sealed bonds and wants to essentially, destroy the world, because that's what demons like to do. The only person who can seal it back up again is a priestess, who coincidentally, its about the same age as Naruto. So inevitably, Naruto and his team have the responsibility to, (pretty much like the Fellowship of the Ring), escort the priestess to the demon's lair so she can vanquish him.
The only real thing to note about the Story in this movie, is that intriguingly, it opens with a vision that the priestess has, showing Naruto's violent death. This of course sucks in the viewer in wanting to find out just what on earth is going to befall our hero and if he'll actually die, or even, if he's already dead and we're just witnessing the events preceding his death.
The movie-specific plot is quite expendable and indeed, interchangeable with whatever anyone wanted to fit into it. The ending of the movie is a little odd - with the end credits being rolled whilst the climax is still only just being played out. It ended up having an abrupt feel that seemed a little cheap.
Character
The main characters in this movie from the Naruto world are: Naruto, Neji, Rock Lee and Sakura.
There is once again, nothing new to see in this department. Nobody uses any skill that hasn't already been showcased many times over, and there are no new character interactions or developments that also haven't already been played out. The main support character is the Priestess, who has a turbulent relationship with Naruto, and the two dislike each other from the get go. Of course, predictably, Naurto's ultimate super power of befriending anyone he meets eventually takes effect, but one wonders how often exactly are we going to be subjected to this same process?
I have only really been accepting of this typical Naruto character development when it was done in the first Naruto movie, where I genuinely felt it was pulled off nicely and still do. But having it happen over and over gets tired very quickly.
The fight scenes in this movie are somewhat dire in that there really is nothing extra special about them. Each of the established Naruto characters has had a more spectacular fight in either a previous movie or the series, and here there isn't really any instance where you're particularly excited for a fight, or feel exhilarated afterwards. The fights themselves have a half-decent standard, but it's the fact that we're really not seeing anything new that is the problem for me.
Value
I'd watch this movie again when I was rewatching the Shippudden series, just after around episode 54, where there is a sufficient enough break in the saga that the movie seems like a plausible distraction. But I wouldn't watch it without the series accompanying it though.
Enjoyment
There was a medium amount of enjoyment to be had from this movie, but it was nothing extra ordinary. I would have hoped that being the first movie of the new series would have reset the movies' calibre into being more polished and special, but alas no. Whilst being much better than the previous Naruto movie (the muck-filled Movie 3), it wasn't "better" enough to garner any substantial level of enjoyment from me.
Ultimately it doesn't further anyone's understanding of the Naruto world and it's concepts, and if anything, is just a semi-pleasant distraction to be had whilst waiting for the next proper episode in the series.
