Frankly, I think this was a brilliant chapter. The action had the same pared-down slickness of Kishi's best issues - he excels at never drawing a frame too many, a skill the anime has decided to take and completely ignore.
And what a beautiful ending! I can't believe people are complaining about it. Think about what, traditionally, a soul is. It's something that is affected by other things through meaningful relatonships, not a mindless puppet. There was no chance of Deidara or Sasori being defeated in this way, because they've broken off all their meaningful relationships, but the others they've resurrected . . . Kakashi could fight Zabuza and remind him of their final conversation; Dan and Tsunade; Asuma and Shikamaru; Sakura and Chiyo; Neji and Hizashi.
Kishi's smarter than we give him credit for: this comes back to Orochimaru and Madara and Kabuto's lack of respect for other humans. The independence of souls is never something they'd consider because they don't care enough for what a soul represents. They'll never understand the extent to which humans can love and want to help one another, which is the precise reason why Nagato and Konan switched their alliegance to Naruto. Could Edo Tensei be a symbol of Naruto's healing of the ninja world? Wouldn't that be wonderful.
Two final points: one, I'm glad to see the ambush team is composed of competent ninjas. It wasn't a case of Kabuto, Omoi and Sai racing to protect everyone else; Ittan, in particular, reacted with impressive speed to first protect everyone from Deidara's first bomb, and then to derail Deidara's attack plan. Good show.
And two, Sai is awesome.