Naruto Shippuden: The Movie - Bonds (2008) User Reviews

Sasuke would take center stage

[Mysterygeneration · 6/10 · 13 January 2024]

Although the writing for Naruto movies aren't usually the best, this one had some interesting turns. I thought Sasuke would take center stage in much of the action since he was smoldering and shirtless in one of the opening sequences. However, Naruto surprised me by pulling off some amazing stunts throughout the narrative. I'll stop there because there isn't much plot that the synopsis omitted.

Oh, the characters. Looks like we have less emo Sasuke, Sakura and Hinata as the fanservice objects and backups that are still useless in battle, cameos from Kakashi as the voice-over narrator, and Orochimaru as 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 (sad Amaru).

Theme is Bonds

[kadiotatsuryu · 28 April 2014]

Naruto Shippūden The Movie: Bonds was a very hyped up movie because of the rogue ninja himself, Sasuke. To be honest, it was an enjoyable film, but not one I can necessarily rave that much about, so this won't be long.

All chaos breaks loose at Naruto's home village, Konoha at the hands of the Sky Ninja. The movie is basically about a mini war between Leaf and Sky. Also, Naruto, Sakura and Hinata are sent on a mission to a village and meat a girl and her sensei. So that's the main plot. The title of the film generally matches the central theme of the film, hence why Sasuke himself makes an appearance, despite having "severed" his bonds" with Naruto, Sakura and Konoha. Just in case, hat's not a spoiler by the way, Sasuke is in the film. He plays the typical role of an anti-hero; not on the good side but having a common purpose with it, on Orochimaru's orders.

At the same time, this girl Amaru works on her bond with her sensei, who encourages her dream to become a good doctor, despite her gender. She admires him a lot, as is further shown after countless battles and trials, though she has a tomboyish punk personality and lashes out at Naruto a lot. But as with I think pretty much all Naruto movies, Naruto makes it his personal mission to try and change someone's attitude. Plus, some weird biology seems to keep going on with Amaru and they've gotta find a way to stop or suppress some strange demon called the Reibi, or Zero-Tails. Another issue to add is how Konoha can deal with the airborne attacks of the Sky Ninja.

Animations are decent in this movie, similar to those used in the previous Shippūden film. Action is okay of the most part. This movie also has one of the longest end battles among Naruto movies, possibly depending on weather you count the end as one big fight or two. Mine is not the latter. You get to see some awesome fighting, mostly taijutsu and what Naruto can do against such a dangerous opponent with his own power and will. He emphasizes on the significance of love and bonds. He's pretty rouged up at the end just in appearance as he keeps fighting. I suppose Amaru is in a way an encouragement to young girls who want to be doctors. Jiraiya is a huge influence on all of Naruto's actions in this movie. And we get to see a nostalgic duo that most Naruto fans have been dying to see fight side by side.

So overall, action was okay I guess but got really awesome at the end, animations were decent, plot was well done but not phenomenal. If you exclude the central themes that is, every Naruto movie has a theme...still unsure about Blood Prison's theme, but I'll figure it out and you'll see when I review it!. Here, it is bonds, which is also a fairly big theme in the canon plot of Naruto. I wish I could give my score in decimals, not sure how to yet, but whatever. I give this film a review of 9/10...more or less!

Best

[manaralay · 10/10 · 27 July 2021]

One of the best Naruto movies I've ever watched !!!!!!!

A Rather Uninspired Effort with Very Little New to Offer

[carologletree · 5/10 · 30 September 2018]

I was pretty disappointed in this one, to be honest. The "Naruto" movies are getting pretty formulaic at this point, which isn't necessarily a bad thing as long as it's executed well and brings SOME new stuff to the table. This film didn't really do that. Most of it is stuff we have seen before, and a lot of the newer things about it weren't executed all that well.

There isn't much to complain about on a technical level. The animation is consistently good for most of the film, and there are some pretty well done battle scenes, particularly the explosive opening with the sky ninjas attacking The Leaf Village. They have even gotten better with their use of CGI. It was a bit eyesorish in a few places, but for the most part, the CGI is much better integrated than it was in the last film. The music was also pretty solid.

In terms of story and character, though, this one left a lot to be desired. I was actually kind of invested in this movie for about the first half of it and it seemed like it was going somewhere interesting, but a lot of it played out in a pedestrian fashion and generally felt like stuff we have already seen before in the previous films.

The big twist with Shinno being a bad guy and that he was deceiving Amaru the whole time wasn't terribly executed, but I just couldn't shake away the feeling that it was all too similar to what we had seen with Master Haido and Temujin in "Legend of the Stone of Gelel." Shinno wasn't even that great of a villain, either. His motivations were pretty muddled and the superpowers that he introduced were too strange to be all that interesting.

There are other things about this film that feel off. The attack on The Leaf Village at the beginning felt less and less important as the movie progressed and ended up feeling like a plot device, the sky ninjas' battleships were destroyed when Shino took care of them after appearing out of absolutely nowhere, and Sakura and Hinata end up being completely useless in the plot.

Even Sasuke's involvement, the movie's big selling point, didn't have much to offer. He had almost no involvement in the story at all apart from showing up in the final 20 minutes to help Naruto fight Shinno. I love Sasuke as much as the next guy, but they honestly could have left him out of this movie entirely and they wouldn't have had to change much. He felt shoehorned in here just for the purpose of fanservice.

This film is filled with so much wasted potential and mostly felt like it was just going through the motions. It isn't terrible by any means, but it isn't really one I'd want to watch again. This one is recommended mainly to die-hard "Naruto" fans who don't want to miss a single adventure.

RATING: C

Sasuke came and went like a passerby

[dakuchonekobing · 3/10 · 18 July 2022]

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 the studio. 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.

Like a filler episode with a bigger budget and preachy moral

[eddax · 5/10 · 16 February 2010]

I looked forward to the first two Naruto movies when the series was still fresh to me but now, the movies seem like a string of fillers with a bigger budget, with largely unremarkable stories and always a preachy moral. Typically, the only scenes I enjoy in the movies are when more of Konoha's cast of shinobis are used in battle. Honestly, the show might be named "Naruto" but enough of him already. Enough of the unrequited bromance between him and Sasuke too. And I would like to see the women be more useful. On the rare occasion they get to kick butt, they're not even good at it.

Hmm, this has turned into a QQ post about the Naruto series. I don't have much else to say about the movie though. The Leaf Village gets attacked and we do get to see some of its defenders do their thing, but those scenes are woefully sparse and short. Mostly, it's more of Naruto's emo-ness and life lessons. Zzz. They really need to learn from Pixar and adult up their stories a bit.

#Movie Review

[Stefan_Loves_Movies · 5/10 · 2 June 2021]

Lame generic villain..no depth in character + Weak plot close to no more than a filler, no complexity, no twists...way too predictable you just know that Naruto is gonna win because he's Naruto..no tension the movie fails to keep me hooked and invested in the action.

A Very Basic Film

[gbarrett-39941 · 4/10 · 14 July 2021]

If you like Naruto, then this film is worth watching as a long filler episode. If you are not a fan of the series, then this movie is just fluff. The plot is very basic and the villain has no serious motivations. They don't explain where the Sky Village ninjas have been hiding all of these years before the attack and they don't say where they've gone afterwards. The Zero-tailed beast was just a one off for the movie, but actually was a complete let down.

The animation is solid and the fight scenes are entertaining, but nothing new is revealed. All in all this movie is not nearly as interesting as most of the regular Naruto Shippuden tv episodes.

Not so good.

[sofialtamsh · 9 December 2022]

This one is not as good to watch it. Trust me, you will waste time. What I expected from this Movie as of Naruto, it doesn't give it and I literally wasted my Time. I like Naruto but this movie is not good whether it is pacing, plots, storyline, Action. All it did was focused on some fights and its scenes like hell we want this without a good story it's not OK for me atleast. Any anime guy would agree Here without a story it sucks and this is what Naruto is doing right now and Boruto literally sucks man. I liked Naruto once but other anime are getting it's place in my top anime List. Too bad..