Story: Naruto Shippuuden 3: Inheritors of Will of Fire would see Hiruko, an Ex-Hidden Leaf ninja, who was essentially exiled due to the experiments he was performing in order to create the perfect body - which should sound familiar to some older Naruto fans. In order to do so, he found that he could attain a desirable body by absorbing the bodies of five ninjas with Bloodline Limits, also known as Kekkei Genkai. When they were younger, Hiruko put a curse on Kakashi that would forcibly draw him to Haruko's location. He finally decides to use this to try and obtain Kakashi's Sharingan, which would complete his fifth Kekkei Genkai. Kakashi gives into this curse, but Naruto can't believe his ears when he gets word of this. This is due to the belif that Kakashi instilling in him years ago: Those who abandon their teammates are worse than scum. So Naruto tries to drag Kakashi back to the Hidden Leaf, even though his opinion in doing so sit in the minority.
The story itself is pretty straight forward, but I need to be honest, much of the fun in this movie is the fact that you get to see basically Naruto's entire gang engage the enemy at the same time. There are multiple villains, even though the early ones kind of only act as a body in the way. The storytelling from Kakashi's viewpoint was well told though, and there were points that involved his old friend Obito Uchiha. This gave the story more meaning.
It wasn't flawless though. There were story elements surrounding Hiruko that causes the Hidden Leaf and Sand Villages to almost engage in a large scale fight, and I really thought the entire thing was completely overblown. It's not terribly laid out to us, and it almost feels like it was done just to give certain characters more screen time. They could have done away with the entire thing and audiences wouldn't have felt like anything was missing. It just feels overdramatic. (7/10)
Characters: They really do push Naruto's belief's in this movie, supporting that he cares about his friends so much. Many of the other chuunin from his year also get brought into this ordeal, and Naruto acts as the beacon of hope when some of them don't believe in what he does. Hiruko is a fine character, but will likely remind audiences of Orochimaru a little too much. Regardless, I loved the abilities they introduced into this character, and that's one of the key reasons I enjoyed this movie - they're just so much fun to watch. His followers Ichi, Ni and San don't have any background story to them so it would have been nice if they both they gave them more story, and involvement into what was going on here. I liked their abilities in general, but considering how much thought gets put into other villains in the series, I would have liked to see more from them, and with slightly longer fights. (7/10)
Art: Naruto Shippuuden has a long history of very lazy animations, especially late in the long series. That shows up much less here, which is good to see. Fights in the series are always really fun to watch and match some of the best in history, if you can ignore the fact that some of them drag on forever. The movie obviously doesn't have this limitation, and the result is one reason I liked this movie so much, especially when Hiruko gets involved. It's not stunning, top of the line animation, no, but there's something that makes me love these fights that make them special. (9/10)
Sound: The OST has typical Naruto music, though the ED, Dareka Ga by Puffy wasn't one to my liking. I have had problems with the casting for Naruto for years, but that's obviously not something meant for this review. Instead, somehow, they got all of Todd Haberkorn (Hiruko), Patrick Seitz (Ichi), Laura Bailey (Ni) and Matthew Mercer (San) voicing the villains. All four of these are top notch VOs with long histories of outstanding performances. It's just a shame that the latter three didn't have a ton of voice lines. (9/10)
Overall Enjoyment: Despite some weird things going on with the story in the middle, Naruto Shippuuden 3: Inheritors of Will of Fire is a ton of fun to watch. I'll be honest, much of my enjoyment comes from the fights in this movie, and that brings it above the previous movies, for me. You won't find any deep storytelling here, but fans of the series should give this a try. (8/10)
