We are introduced to a new character who supposedly were a friend of Jiraiya & co, although never mentioned or seen in the main series. This character and his story is basically a copy-paste of Orochimaru's, though we are not told what happened to him after certain events. Suddenly, he appears with his new over-powered abilities which he got using a technique that up to this point has been unheard of. Being a mediocre shinobi back in the day, it is unclear how this man managed to obtain the sources of these powers and nothing is shown to explain this. Hiruko, as his name is, wants to declare a 4th great war once he gets a hold of some more strength. This is the main plot but again, the film simply will not explain why he wants to do this. One would think this guy has moved on to another village after all those years ...but apparently not. Since this guy is from Konohagakure and probably was banished, Tsunade was aware of his abilities and should therefore be wary of what he is up to. However, for some reason the guys in green decide to not give a shit and claim that he is too strong to be dealt with when he shows up. Even though they could've prevented the problem in the first place. Hiruko is now said to be impossible to beat, but if he's so dangerous, how come we've never heard anything about him before? I'll tell you why. Because rushed and forced story.
The characters are mostly poor in this movie. Apart from Naruto, who does the same thing wherever we see him, there's the bad guys, Naruto's friends, Tsunade and Kakashi. The main villain and Kakashi had the key roles in this film but for me the spotlight was shining on Shikamaru as his mind was conflicted by duty and the words of Obito. Sakura didn't do much to make herself shine except for comic relief (not that that's unusual) however the film set up a neat little reference to the "loss" of Sasuke once she reacts to Naruto's promise about bringing back Kakashi. Both Gaara and Tsunade felt out of character and considering the forced story it's pretty safe to say that the writers did not take their character behaviors into account. Tsunade is a wise woman, there is absolutely no reason why she would sacrifice Kakashi to Hiruko when he clearly stated that obtaining Kakashi will make him immortal. Actually, there's no way she'd sacrifice him in the first place 'cause she's a softie. Yes, I know. They had a plan, but there's a chance of it being unsuccessful and it's totally unnecessary when they could just kill the guy and be over with it. Couldn't they have locked up Kakashi instead? Would have made more sense. Hiruko, Mr. Reptile Mouth, had an odd but interesting character design which I actually did not mind. The same thing can not be said about his accomplices, especially not the female. Without revealing too much, all of their abilities were stupid and one of them even looked like something straight out of Digimon. It is odd to me why close to every bad guy in these movies have people helping them as they're hardly likeable characters. A quick flashback on how Hiruko made these friends would clear things up.
Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 3 has animation that is superior to what's in the main series. Although not as good as in the 2nd film, the fighting scenes has good looking effects that fly by smoothly and look very cool. The quality of the artwork itself has only improved by a bit and things such as background images could be given a bit more detail as with all other Naruto films up to this point. The music in this film is not bad, it works well with the scenes if you pay attention to it, but that is what you will have to do to notice it since it does not stand out in any way. I did not pay much attention to be honest but my grade for the sound effects would be a 5. They are average.
When it comes down to a conclusion, it has to be said that Inheritors of Will of Fire is a pretty good media-production that fails to deliver in terms of story and depth because it forces out a rushed plot as an excuse for including lots of action.
