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 of importance 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 real poimt 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.
