I've been meaning to watch the Boruto movie for years, but never got around it until I had an hour and half to kill yesterday. The Naruto franchise and I have a strong love-hate relationship, as I have severely disliked almost everything that came after the Pain arc. It turned from a perfectly good shounen fantasy with interesting worldbuilding and great characters to a cheap Dragonball knock-off. As many have said before me, Naruto and Sasuke becoming literal gods completely defeats the original message behind the tale and also lead to a pretty boring story that seemingly only diehard fans found much enjoyment in.
Boruto picks up many years after the end of the Naruto manga/Shippuuden anime. Peace has settled in the ninja world. Our characters have achieved their goals and formed families. As such, we follow their children, most of the focus being on Boruto himself of course. And his dad. This is what the film truly succeeded in presenting - family issues. One of the main themes in the story is parental absence and child angst, which are presented in a rather uncomfortable manner. As they should be. I assume this is quite representative of contemporary Japanese society, where a strict work ethic often leaves children to grow up on their own. I do think the conflicts could have been created a little bit better, as I found Naruto's weird obsession with documentation unfitting to his character. I think it's also worth mentioning that Hinata did not serve any other role besides a loyal housewife, only serving to demonstrate further how poorly this relationship was handled. I wish there was more focus on her, as she absolutely deserves it.
As weird as I felt coming back to the Naruto world after a few years, I ended up enjoying myself quite a lot by the movie's mid-point. I grew attached to the characters, specifically Boruto. As inconsistent a character as Sasuke is, I loved the role he played in the main character's development. Boruto's team were rather interesting as well, even if they didn't get as much screentime as I think they ought to have gotten. Nonetheless, I appreciate how they stood as their own selves, while also having certain characteristics of their parents. Another aspect I really liked was the return to the more grounded and tactical battles of old-school Naruto. Characters actually had to make do with their limited skill set, finding ways to outsmart their enemies. Boruto spend a decent chunk of time learning jutsu, yet he also was a vessel for one of the main conflicts in the film. Technology has vastly evolved in the world over a dozen years, and we see how it has changed the future for shinobi. While these thematics aren't exposed in some great depth, they serve a decent role in showing how the land has changed.
As I said, I enjoyed about half the movie, until it disappointed me by having to resort to the old shenaningans of godmode battles, with huge balls of chakra flying around in place of the classic strategic approach (except for one part at the end). The main antagonist is completely forced and unnecessary. I don't see why they had to bring back these huge epic battles. The movie was really enjoyable with its more mundane events. I wanted to see more of Boruto and his team interacting. What about him dealing with his personal issues in more detail? Instead, I got to see this supposedly great friendship of Naruto and Sasuke's reiterated, even though everyone knows Shikamaru is Naruto's true homie. I just don't buy it. Sasuke spent several years being angsty because it was plot-convenient, and now they're best buds with Naruto because they got to be teammates while they were kids. I swear, it's those two that should have married since they can't stop being overly sentimental with each other.
The art and animation would be good if this were an TV series, but we're talking about a full-length anime movie. It's rather mediocre, about as good as the last few episodes of Shippuuden. Just unimpressive. Audio-wise, I wish the mixing was better. The speech was too silent, while the music and sound effects turned up several decibels. The music was good, though I couldn't help cringing at how much it was used to force the film's epicness. Because forget any sort of moderation, the movie has to be emotionally manipulative beyond the realm of thought possibilities. It's why I liked the family matters, which reminded of the more relatable topics of old Naruto. It never had to force me to feel a certain way, it was simply natural for the story. But of course, big blue balls need big epic music to accompany them.
Speaking of, the movie knows damn well how to utilise nostalgia as bait. There was a point at which it practically presented a slideshow of iconic Naruto scenes for some poor attempt at refllection on the past. That was a bit too much. I don't mind looking back at the past, but maybe that's one of Naruto's big issues. Kishimoto was going in a direction he had not planned, so instead of continuing along with the story's natural development, he reverted back to tropes of old and stayed in this weird place where adult characters were idolising their childhood memories, never quite growing as proper adults.
I went in the movie with fair expectations. Most importantly, I wanted to close this chapter of my life. As silly as it sounds, I devoted a lot of time to watching Naruto, waaaaay more than I should have. I watched all the movies and have even reviewed a few (though those are old reviews and they are kind of bad). I don't plan on continuing with the next generation of shinobi, but I am glad that I at least got to see the overall direction. This could have honestly been a fresh start for the world, but it spends half its runtime fetishising its past. It was an entertaining watch, I'll give it that, but I'm ultimately left with mixed feelings. I only recommend it for people who either loved Naruto up until the end or those who want a bit of an epilogue. Otherwise, there is indeed no point in watching this one.
