Ben 10: Alien Force

I just recently completed the Ben 10 alien force show and all I can say is that man of action unpredictably put on a splendid performance.

This is because, the only hit man of action made was the original Ben 10 so lot of people including I myself thought a sequel which takes place 5 years later might lack its originality. But it seems I was wrong. This is even better and much more maturity making me feel like I'm the character himself. On top, I also like the new aliens as well.

Ben 10:Alien Force premiered a few weeks ago here in Australia and I'm really enjoying it. As a fan of Ben 10 from the beginning, I think it's a natural progression in the story. Unlike say Rugrats All Grown Up, for example, that simply made the characters older for the sake of it.

They wrote ten-year-olds rather accurately (and I would know,I have a brother that age). But now that the characters are my age I can relate to them and they're more interesting. Plus they are all drawn rather attractively. They can do things with the characters that they couldn't do before, such as the relationship between Gwen and Kevin (I especially love Ben's disapproval of it all). Plus they're on their own now, making their own decisions without Grampa Max helping them out.

I miss the old aliens, all of them had such interesting and unique designs. My favorites being Ghostfreak, Heatblast and XLR8 (don't you just love how they sound like they were named by a little boy?). Although I do like Big Chill, the rest of the aliens are unimpressive. But I think this new series is driven much more by plot than by the look of the creatures. Which reflects how Ben probably feels about having an Omnitrix at this stage. He's grown accustomed to it, the novelty of playing superhero has worn off and now he has responsibilities.

I hope this show runs for a long time yet, I hear there's even a live-action movie in the works.

Not that Ben 10 was a bad show, because it isn't, as a matter of fact it is actually pretty decent even if some of the stories and characters were lacking at times. The thing is Ben 10: Alien Force is more mature and somewhat cleverer too.

The animation I think is more detailed this time around. The character designs are eye-popping and pretty unique. The music is also an improvement, it is funkier and more memorable, the theme song in Ben 10 was good but it is the sort of theme song you love or hate, this one was more to my taste. The writing is strong, the story lines are more complex and surprisingly clever and I agree that the characters are much more mature here, especially Ben who is more likable than he was in Ben 10. The villains are also more interesting and the voice acting is very well done and dare I say more consistent.

Overall, an improvement and a solid show overall. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Not hating on the original series which I really liked as a kid. But as a teen it seemed a bit too childish and immature. This show takes a bigger step and was more mature and made more sense than the original.

This show has less flaws and more solid writing but lacked a bit of energy. Characters are more interesting in this one instead of being cardboard pieces. The visuals have improved. Ben, Gwen, and Kevin's artsyle was cool. The voice acting was pretty good. Better pacing consistency. Positive messages. Ben's development is solid, he doesnt have the same swag or energy compared to the original. Kevin is such a funny character, you dunno whats going to come out of his mouth in the next line. The aliens are as good as the original if not better. The intro is great even without any opening song the excellent music makes up for it.

Overall a semi enjoyable show and was consistent throughout though not perfect since stories lacked in creativity and good writing.

Memorable:No Rewatchable: Very Unlikely...

I fell in love with the original one for it's sheer inventiveness and goofy characters. But Alien Force switches that up with even more inventiveness, but with mature characters now. It was a welcome change and did the series much good; it made room for new, somewhat darker ideas. Some episodes were, I felt, particularly ground breaking, such as Professor Paradox and The Vengeance of Vilgax, Part 2. Also, how could I not mention this, Alien X was amazing.