Disclaimer
This is a constructed review based on how well the plot and characters are written, how emotionally pleasing the media is, the scene or animation quality, and how well the creativity was used and constructed. Any personal feelings toward said media will be ignored as much as humanly possible. I will also not compare this media to its original source during this review, if the original anime or two previous movies were better or not is not what I'm looking into during this review, rather how well done this media is by the standards I mentioned earlier. With that, let's begin.
WARNING possible spoilers WARNING
So the plot of the movie focuses on the three swords that a large dog demon, Inuyasha's father, had in his life. Giving his life to save his half demon son, Inuyasha's dad passes on one sword, the sword of the heavens to his eldest son Sesshomaru, his most powerful blade, the blade of the earth to Inuyasha, and gives no instructions on the blade of hell. The blade, possessed by a spirit, returns in the present, and Inuyasha tries to wield it, however he is possessed by the blade and ends up back in the past trying to not slaughter an entire village. Eventually Kagome saves Inuyasha of the sword and of Sesshomaru who was trying to take the sword for himself. The sword then possesses a dead body heavily related to Inuyasha and of their father, and attacks the boys trying to open up the underworld bringing this world's version of Hell to Earth. The only way to destroy the blade is if the brothers use the blades they were given to destroy the cursed blade.
So this story isn't all that bad. It actually feels more like an elongated episode or small arc of the original anime, though while this may seem like a bland thing, it allowed the movie to focus on Inuyasha and his brother, and featured the plot around them and their father heavily which actually bettered some of the other categories that I review, like characterization and emotional pull.
Inuyasha and Sesshomaru grow a lot in this movie. Both of them feel the wisdom of their father in this movie, and both are trying to better themselves to surpass him. Their father is characterized well here and the movie very quickly introduces us to the main cast in a nice way, excluding Sesshomaru's group of followers though you gain a sense of who they are as well eventually. None of the characters in this movie are pointless which is nice, and most of them build as characters or are really well portrayed.
Action? Check! Guilt and termoil due to Inuyasha being possessed and nearly killing children? Check. Inuyasha trying to live up to his father? Check. Sesshomaru protecting Inuyasha then pretending that isn't what he was doing? Check. Seriously though, the humor was funny, though there wasn't much to be had of it. The action scenes were pretty good though not the greatest fights ever, but it was pretty good. The best parts though were the moments during Inuyasha's birth, the pull of the dead body possessed by the evil sword, and of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru thinking and talking about their father. Pretty well written stuff.
None of the scenes or animation is really bad, the animation is bright and well done and the scenes flowed nicely, though there was some trouble with how long it seemed to take reanimating the dead corpse and then convincing said corpse to work for him. It didn't seem like such a scene should take as long as it did. Still, outside of that issue which is minor, there wasn't too many problems.
The design of said corpse going demonic, and the design of the sword in general are pluses, but the design of the castle the sword creates as well as the design the sword takes when it possesses a hunk of armor are not as stellar. The sword takes on a form of its own to fight the brothers by the end of the movie, which seemed silly, and the design seemed to look like something Gurran Lagann coughed up, not really fitting into the overall design of feudal Japan or in any of the series itself. Also, having a fight with the blade itself and the brothers having to work together to kill it seemed a little cliche honestly. Not having a sacred jewel shard was a nice touch however I'll give it that.
Once again, if you are an Inuyasha fan I highly recommend this movie. It adds to the existing lore and is a great story for both Inuyasha and Sesshomaru. it also shows us the moments of Inuyasha's birth and his father's passing. If you don't know about Inuyasha and want to jump into the series, this isn't a bad place to start, even if it is a bit silly to begin at movie 3.
If you know anything or like anything about Inuyasha this movie will not disappoint in anyway except maybe some of the lackluster creative elements. If you like the characters of Inuyasha, this movie is great, the plot is good, the characterization is good, and the emotional pull of the two brothers will keep Inuyasha fans loving the movie.