After 3 steady in quality Naruto: Shippuuden movies the creators finally dropped the ball with this one.
Story: (4/10)
The story of Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 4 - The Lost Tower begins with Naruto, Sai, Sakura, and Yamato going on mission to stop a rogue ninja named Mukade from removing a seal in the ruins of Ouran. When he successfully removes the seal a large amount of energy devours Naruto and Yamato. When Naruto wakes up he soon finds out that he had been sent to the past and into the new city of Ouran. I found this story to be very predictable with nothing making it any different from any other Naruto movie. The story moved in the same way as the first Naruto: Shippuuden movie. The chakra blade that they introduced in the beginning of the movie that could cut chakra strings ended up to be very gimmicky and unnecessary because it was only used in the end of the movie. A thing I didn't get from the movie is how they way Naruto and Yamato were sent back in time through a "space-time jutsu" which didn't make any sense because of how they didn't go further into detail in how a jutsu can send you back in time but the jutsus in the anime didn't make any sense anyway because of how there are no boundaries to them. Another thing that I found in the movie to be very disappointing were the fight scenes. The fight scenes were not even close to as good as the fight scenes from the third Shippuuden movie because of how each character would recycle their jutsus over and over again especially with Naruto. The ending for the movie was terrible.
Art and Animation: (5/10)
I found the art in the movie to be very average because there was nothing visually appealing to it. The animation in the movie was good even though the action scenes were boring.
Sound: (4/10)
The soundtrack wasn't very interesting with nothing really adding to the scenes and just overall very forgettable.
Characters: (4/10)
Many characters were pushed to the side in this movie. Sakura and Sai were only in the beginning and end of the movie, so they couldn't have been easily not in the movie. Yamato only comes up at the very end of the movie with young Kakashi who also only came up in the end of the movie. Chouza and Shibi only came up in one fight scene. One of the most disappointing things about this movie is how this movie seemed to be hyping up the reason on how Minato was going to be in it but the truth is that he was rarely in the movie. This was the exact same situation as the one in the second Shippuuden movie with the inclusion of Sasuke into the story. Minato's most important scene was in the ending which was very underwhelming. Saara who is the main character of the movie was just like every other underdeveloped main characters from the other Naruto movies. The villain in this movie is also very underdeveloped.
Enjoyment: (3/10)
It was at least well animated during the fight scenes.
Overall: (4/10)
Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 4 - The Lost Tower that wasn't very interesting and just felt like a big waste of time. This movie is the worst Naruto: Shippuuden movie so far.
