I watched the movie partly without subtitles. It was pretty decent, considering how bad the fillers were back then. The new character was rather good.
As for flying: They don't fly in Soul Society, you know. Most of the recent arc, and indeed all flying, has happened in Karakura town(real world) and you could venture a guess that stuff like the pull of gravity doesn't really bother most of these dudes, being walking spiritual tesla coils and all. Ichigo needed special equipment in Soul Society, because it is where the Death God "bodies" are real, not borrowed or artificial(like when Urahara made a gikai for Rukia and she had to keep it healthy in the first arc) as in corporeal world. In the real world they are spirits unbound from laws of reality, but in Soul Society and(as my assumption goes) Hueco Mundo they are just like any people, well, any people in an anime about superpowers.
Though they don't have to eat or sleep apparently. Purgatory(because that what it is) has it's pros.