I agree. Everyone having a better participation in the battle against an OP opponent makes the movie much more thrilling, considering the fact that movies interest much more than manga and are better for action stuff. More abilities and cooperative efforts. It should have been a new idea. Toneri's affection for Hinata was a bad way to drive a villainous role. Plus, Kishi already admitted he sucks on pairings and romance. So yeah, pairings have ruined Naruto's actual theme. Even The Last's potential was wasted. Boruto the movie is seemingly better. I hope...
Exactly. It was interesting at the the time that Hinata was given a role to shine as a character (previously whose only relevance to the story was being Naruto's love interest/vice versa), but was reduced to damsel in distress. She, like most females in the series, had potential to be great characters for female archetypes, and could take them into a new level without being maidens. Big fail that was. Boruto is really my only hope for the Naruto movies, I for one can proudly say that some of them weren't terrible. The worst one's I've seen are Blood Prison, and RtN. The good movies happened back in Part 1 when the era was normal and Naruto's strongest technique was a Movie Rasengan, the good ol' times.
For Boruto's sake, since he reminds us of Part 1 Naruto with a different drive, and he is way more talented, I can definitely see him leading the MC role for a Part 1 style movie. Especially with Sasuke as his sensei, leads to an amazing dynamic. It's basically Part 1 Naruto/Sasuke all together again, just in a new form. As much as I love Sarada, I think their dynamics will be more family oriented but with Boruto it will be straight training and action. Which is why I like the Bolto/Sasuke and Naruto/Sarada dynamics more than I like Sasuke/Sarada and Boruto/Naruto one's.
Gaiden was a half baked spin off. Kishi didn't really know what he wanted with that. I mean Shippuden after the War Arc was already quite rushed. And the villains were nerfed, it lost all thrill and dynamism in the fights. And then it lacked information and explanation about characters, clans and back stories, jutsus and various powers which were potentially relevant. Gaiden should have addressed those missed and unanswered bits of information in addition to the actual incoming plot. But it really did not show any development in that regard. Instead, it went in a vague direction. Some noteworthy things were Sarada's ambition to become Hokage and admiration of Naruto, and a lesson about genes and relationships. In fact, if Kishi wanted this to go that direction, then he should've simply focused on developing SS since Gaiden had more potential for SS development, and even that went void. Disappointed...
Right. Kishimoto's story before the Pain Arc was top notch, it definitely wasn't as great as his previous arcs such as (Wave, Chunin, Sand, etc.,) which introduced dynamic, interesting characters filled with depth, it still had exceeded exceptions by showcasing the Akatsuki, Itachi's backstory, Sasuke's development, Minato/Kushina/Kurama/Obito's connection, Ame Oprhans, Jiraiya's death, and my favorite the Pain Arc. I feel as if Naruto's development was at an all time high there, and Kishimoto ruined it by making him worry too much about Sasuke, but enough of that.
My biggest qualm of his representation of SS is that Kishimoto begins to tell the story of Sasuke being on this secretly important mission that he can't tell anyone aside from those who met with him on the day it was assigned. I don't know if Kishimoto knew this, but if Naruto was the Hokage, that meant Sarada was already born and old enough to at least walk/talk. Boruto was in the Last, and I can only assume it takes place somewhere between 700 and before that. Somehow they never made contact once, and even through the story Kishimoto expresses that Sasuke has forms of communication such as; electronic, summoning, and teleportation. Despite him being incredibly busy looking for answers, he isn't fighting ANYONE, and apparently the Gadien never put depth into what he actually FOUND/LEARNED on his travels.
