Hey guys!
Today I’ll be reviewing Boruto: Naruto the Movie, which I watched in the cinemas last Friday (which was once again the last day of its showing. HOW does this happen to me AGAIN???). My apologies that it took a while but here it is!
Boruto: Naruto the Movie takes place a few years after The Last: Naruto the Movie and it focuses on Uzumaki Boruto, Naruto and Hinata’s brattish yet prodigious son. In the background of the story stirs an impending threat with relation to Otsutsuki Kaguya that threatens to destroy the current era of peace.
THE STORY:
Now a Genin, Boruto is put in a team with Uchiha Sarada, Sasuke and Sakura’s daughter and the mysterious Mitsuki, under the guidance of their team leader, Konohamaru. Smart and adept at picking up skills (just like Sasuke), Boruto has already mastered the Shadow Clone Jutsu and has already started to use nature transformations (three, in fact). After single-handedly subduing a bear for their mission, Team Konohamaru is introduced to a new gadget called a Kote, which stores and releases jutsu and can be used by anyone, including non-jutsu users.
Later in the Hokage’s office, Katasuke, the developer of the Kote pitches his idea to Naruto to allow its use in the Chunin Exams. However, Naruto immediately refuses, saying that allowing the use of the Kote would not showcase a shinobi’s true abilities.
As the story progresses, we see the strained relationship between Naruto and Boruto, who finds it hard to accept and connect with a father who is rarely around. When Naruto fails to show up personally at Himawari’s birthday celebration, Boruto snaps and bursts out angrily at Hinata, saying that Naruto must have been lucky to have experienced the joy of having no parents and goes into Naruto’s study. There, he sees Naruto’s old, tattered orange jacket and in a fit of rage, throws it out of the window.
When the doorbell rings, he immediately gets up and runs to the door. Upon opening it, he throws a punch at the person at the door, who turns out to be Sasuke. When he realises that Sasuke is Sarada’s dad and his dad’s only equal and rival, he stalks Sasuke to seize an opportunity to talk to him.
At the Hokage’s office, Sasuke throws a scroll from Kaguya’s castle to Naruto and tells him of the impending threat and that he needs help deciphering it. The two also discuss Boruto and have a bet on whether the nature of shinobi has changed. While Naruto says that it has, Sasuke bets that it hasn’t.
On the way home, Sasuke is ambushed and attacked by Boruto, who fails miserably and is tripped over instead. Amazed at Sasuke’s abilities, Boruto asks him to take him on as his disciple. Unimpressed, Sasuke asks him if he can make a Rasengan and tells him to find him again only when he can.
This pushes Boruto to quickly master the Rasengan from Konohamaru and not long after, he returns to Sasuke and shows him his tiny Rasengan. Noting that it is way smaller than what it’s supposed to be, Boruto gets frustrated and flings it at a tree, dismayed at how pathetic it is. He then runs off and Sarada, who had been watching the whole time, approaches her father and speaks on Boruto’s behalf to get him to accept him as his disciple. To which, Sasuke replies that he never said he wouldn’t take on Boruto.
And so Sasuke begins to train Boruto for the Chunin Exams and tells him a little about Naruto back when he was he was a kid when Boruto asks him about Naruto’s weaknesses. Team Konohamaru successfully makes it through Rounds One and Two of the exams (with a little cheating from Boruto) and proud of his son, Naruto visits Boruto in his room and personally congratulates him.
In Round Three of the Chunin Exams, the Genins are randomly paired off for a face-off and it eventually boils down to Boruto vs Shikamaru and Temari’s son, Shikadai. An exciting battle ensues but Shikadai manages to get the upper hand and corners Boruto into giving up. Unwilling to lose while his father is watching, Boruto makes use of his Kote once again, making Shikadai surrender and him the winner. (Notice in the GIF that Boruto uses the Gentle Fist technique inherited from his mother)
Suspecting something is amiss, Naruto does a check on Boruto’s wrist and discovers the Kote hidden there. Immediately, he disqualifies his own son from the exams and declares Shikadai the winner instead. The family drama isn’t over yet but it doesn’t last long due to the sudden appearance of Otsutsuki Momoshiki and Kinshiki, the greater threat who intend to gather Kaguya’s scattered chakra and cultivate them into pills so that upon consumption, they would be granted eternal youth and enhanced powers.
A battle ensues, causing wreckage to the amphitheatre and forcing the spectators to evacuate. Realising that their target is himself, Naruto asks Sasuke to protect Sarada and Boruto while he stops their attacks and is ultimately captured.
Boruto wakes up in hospital and suddenly it hits him that his father is gone. In despair, he flees to the Hokage’s office and looks at the various portraits of the various Hokage. There, he finds the old and tattered jacket of Naruto’s and puts it on. Looking at himself in the mirror, he declares himself to be uncool. Appearing behind him, Sasuke agrees and asks him what he’s going to do about it. He tells Boruto that Naruto is still alive and together with the four other Kage, they travel to the dimension that Naruto is held captive in.
The four Kage manage to immobilise Kinshiki and with the combined strength of Naruto and Sasuke, manage to subdue Momoshiki in an epic battle. However, the battle becomes far from over when Katasuke appears, having jumped through the portal at the last minute and shoots Momoshiki with ninjutsu in an attempt to capture him. In an instant, the villain absorbs the ninjutsu, uses the shadow jutsu to trap the four Kage and impales Naruto with chakra rods.
All hope is seemingly lost, until Momoshiki is hit with Boruto’s Rasengan as instructed by Sasuke, which throws him off-guard and releases the four Kage from the shadow jutsu. To perform the final blow, Naruto asks Boruto to make a Rasengan and surprises him by adding enormous power and size to it. With help from Sasuke as a diversion, Boruto manages to hit Momoshiki with the Rasengan, effectively destroying him.
With the threat finally over and obliterated, Sasuke and Naruto sit next to each other, with Sasuke commenting that he’d won the bet. The shinobi world is at peace once again and the old generation looks to the new generation for them to pave a future for themselves.
As usual, that recap took FOREVER. Let’s get straight down to my opinion on it:
I absolutely LOVED Boruto: Naruto the Movie. There was just so much to it that could be expanded and explored but I guess not everything is meant to be fleshed out and revealed in a mere 95 mins huh.
Storyline-wise, this movie was a lot better than The Last and it probably had to do with the introduction of the new generation of shinobi. Kishimoto just had to make it such that Boruto was different from Naruto in almost every aspect apart from his looks – smart, possesses considerable prodigious skill, has a family, yet takes them for granted.
BUT that’s exactly where the interest is drawn to. If Boruto was a good boy and dumb but likeable as the Hokage’s son, things wouldn’t be so interesting and there wouldn’t be a story at all. Boruto: Naruto the Movie shows us that despite the many strong differences between Naruto and his son, both are still ultimately the same in that they both longed for attention and recognition from the people they wanted it most from. In Naruto’s case, it is the villagers and in Boruto’s case, because his father outshines him and is the Hokage whom everyone looks up to, it is from Naruto.
The focus on Naruto and Boruto’s relationship from strained, to even more strained, to reparation and reconciliation was wonderfully delivered as we saw how Boruto was suddenly hit with the realisation that he could very easily end up like Naruto himself without a father when Naruto put himself on the frontline and told Sasuke to look after him and Sarada. His transition from not being understanding and appreciative comes like a slap to his face and right after that when he is told that Naruto was still alive, he resolves to set things right and bring him back. I’ll admit that I nearly teared up when Naruto added more power and size to Boruto’s tiny Rasengan and this montage of the Rasengan’s history came onto the screen.
The fight scenes were amazing, as usual. I can never get tired of watching the Naruto and Sasuke combination fights with all its extremely badass background music and sound effects kicking up my adrenaline a hundred miles per hour. The scene whereby the two stood side by side again to fight Momoshiki particularly struck a chord within me and I remembered the time back when they stood together in the exact same way before they fought with Madara. Anyone else remembers that particular scene when looking at this screenshot above?
Also, I’m really glad that they brought Sasuke back into action because everyone really missed him in The Last. Here in this movie, we got to see Sasuke’s softer side, which he shows to Sarada, Boruto and Naruto. I absolutely adored the way Sarada addressed Sasuke, calling him “Papa”, watching him protect her and training Boruto as though he was his own son. We never could’ve imagined that our cold-blooded world criminal could become such a softie, could we?
It totally warmed my heart to see the new generation of shinobi and I was completely riveted by Shikadai, who seems to have almost all the same characteristics as Shikamaru but has his mother’s eyes and blunt way of speech. This kid is definitely one freaking genius because both Shikamaru and Temari are brilliant analysts and strategists.
Lastly, I’m glad that the movie ended with still some questions left unanswered. THIS MEANS THAT THE NARUTO SERIES ISN’T OVER YET. With that questionable post-credits scene begging the question of who Mitsuki’s mother is and Sasuke and Sakura’s love story still in the dark (yes, we still want to know exactly HOW Sakura managed to snag Sasuke in the end), the series is far from over.
As usual, my overall rating for the show: 10/10
And rewatchability: 9/10