Ben 10 (New Series)

Just found this forum and thought that I want to check it out. In regards to the mention of the toy line for the Ben 10 reboot, I recall reading that the toy line won't be released till Fall 2017, which if that's right I find to be pretty strange. The Ben 10 reboot won't air till Spring 2017, which I find to be stupid because I recall the reason that Cartoon Network did this was because Ben 10 was more successful internationally (no duh considering that this is the rest of the world compared to the US) and I'm guessing Cartoon Network doesn't want the US viewers to impact the show in a negative way yet, of course, episodes of the Ben 10 reboot are being posted up online for anyone anywhere to watch.

What's everyone's overall views on the Ben 10 reboot right now? To me, it just really sucks. The writing and storytelling is some of the worst that I've seen and I really don't like how the characters are being treated as in this reboot. There's so much inconsistency in this reboot as well. Those are the worst parts for me. Everything else has been just ranging from average to mediocre. There's so so few things that I find to be good.

Mind explaining exactly in which area it's inconsistant? Just curious.

The Omnitrix is likely the most prominent example of this. The way that the Omnitrix is supposed to work is that Ben can stay in an alien form for 10-15 minutes and then when the Omnitrix goes into recharge, that would usually last for 10-15 minutes before Ben can use the Omnitrix again. It wasn't completely consistent but it was mostly consistent in the Original Series. In the reboot, however, there are just moments where Ben can transform into one of his aliens and either he's in that form for either a good while or a mere 30 seconds while the Omnitrix ends up going into recharge mode for either a while (like it's supposed to) or just mere seconds. At times, the Omnitrix would just recharge instantly. There are also moments where the Omnitrix's core would pop up without Ben even touching it. Growing Pains had Nanny Nightmare (who by the way is very similar to and likely based off of the villain Nanny from X-Men, who is considered as one of the worst villains in the X-Men universe) use a de-aging dust to consistently turn everyone into babies yet for some reason Ben and Gwen are exceptions to this where they get blasted by the very same dust in the same amount and yet not only are they turned into toddlers, somehow their clothes shrink to properly fit them and somehow the Omnitrix shrinks as well.

Although, thinking about it now, I didn't actually mean to say that the reboot show is filled with inconsistencies. What I actually meant was that there's a lot about the Ben 10 reboot that doesn't make sense. The example from Growing Pains that I mentioned. In Waterfilter, the Hydromanders grab Heatblast and pull him into the water. Last time I checked, Heatblast is living, breathing fire and molten rock so why did the Hodromanders not recoil in pain the moment they touched him. In The Ring Leader, Ben and Gwen playing a video game causes the entire Rustbucket to rock back and forth to near tilting on its side? In Something I Ate, when Slurpstick vomits, he vomits out gold and stomach acid, which was capable of breaking apart gold and it hurt Max when it dripped on his hand. There's a scene showing Gwen being covered in said stomach acid and yet she's not affected at all. Do I even have to mention the part in Clown College where Max used a human-made racket to fling Cannonbolt across a football field? And so on. That's what I really meant. Not that the show was really inconsistent but just a lot about it that really doesn't make sense. Yes, Ben 10 is a cartoon series but the previous shows, most especially the Original Series, gave a more realistic approach to the world of Ben 10 and how things worked in said world.

Well, to be fair, it's clear this is supposed to be a different take on Ben 10 with a more cartoonish approach, kinda like Teen Titans Go for Titans (I hate Teen Titans Go mind you, but that's for entirely different reason). And objectively there is nothing wrong with that. It's not my thing, but I won't say the show sucks just for it.

I know. It's just my opinion after all. To me, however, this just doesn't feel a lot like Ben 10. I watch the Rebel Taxi podcast where one of the members of the podcast discussed the problems with the Ben 10 reboot, even making comparisons to Teen Titans Go! and I have to agree with that. There's a lot about the Ben 10 reboot that does make it quite similar to Teen Titans Go!. That's another problem with this reboot. It has really bad direction to it. Is it a different take on Ben 10? Yes. Is it the right direction to go though? Clearly no because this show sucks and has so many flaws and problems to it and as far as I can tell, the majority of fans and viewers are pretty much on the same page on that. There is objectively nothing wrong with taking a new direction to the series if it's done in the right way that benefits the show.

This is just my take on things though.

edited 16th Nov '16 9:51:45 AM by TacticalOchoa

Oh hey, I seem to recall you. You're active on some small Ben 10 forum and post reviews of reboot on Deviantart.

I can't say I fully agree with some of your opinions - many of your complains seem just be that it's not like the classic, (makes me wonder what you think of sequels Alien Force-Ultimate Alien-Omniverse) particularly the fact that show now uses Cartoon Physics rather then realistic. Take Steam Smythe◊ for example. I know that realistically flames behind him make no sense, but they make cool visual - and that's what matters in cartoon like this.

But at the same time show is boring and completely unremarkable at best, and lazy and stupid at best, that I hardly care to really defend it. I don't care if its different (though I do want more elements from previous shows) in tone or characterization or anything, as long as it's good. And it's not.

Still, to acnowledge some of you above comments. - I highly doubt Nanny Nightmare is based on Marvel villain. All her traits are stereotypical and exactly what one would expect from bad guy named "Nanny" or just generic villain traits ("They mocked my genius" part). - Stuff like human racket or shrinking clothes are just more cartoonish style, but as for why Ben and Gwen were turned into young kids and not babies, Nanny did notice it was odd and that she should work on her formula. Hooowever, it was clearly just lazy writing excuse. This episode was extra full of lazy writing. See what I mean? Show's not really worth defending.

Yeah, one thing that I can understand is if people think I'm being too harsh in my reviews. I do make a lot of comparisons to the Original Series but then again this is a reboot of the Original Series so, at least to me, that should be very much expected of anyone to do. That's just how I approach doing my reviews.

Alien Force is alright and can be arguably good. There's just all sorts of things about it that holds it back significantly such as the retcons and how they were implemented. The third season also felt unnecessary to me. I consider Ultimate Alien to be the worst in the franchise before this reboot came out. The first season had some good things going for it but then just fell apart at the end with the whole Kevin being mutated thing and how they went about ending it. The Rebel Taxi podcast that had the Ben 10 reboot rant also sums up most of what I mean about that. After the first season, Ultimate Alien just fell apart after that. A lot of bad writing, so many filler episodes, got so bland and boring, the ending was so terribly done, etc. Alien Force and Ultimate Alien felt really generic to me as well like both shows were trying to be like a DC show instead of a Ben 10 show. Omniverse was better, though. It had potential and there were plenty of good moments in Omniverse. There was just also a lot of moments of bad writing and plot holes and all that stuff that held that show back greatly.

Yeah, the biggest problem is that the writing is just so lazy and bad. So often it just feels as if there was little to no care, effort, and respect put into it. Yeah the Ben 10 reboot has a more cartoonish style and feel to it. To me, it just doesn't work for Ben 10. It feels out of place and unfitting for a Ben 10 show. That's why I discuss a lot about realism in my reviews. To me, Ben 10 is just better off having that more anime-esque approach to it with a more realistic world to it that has its lighter and darker moments in it. The world in the Ben 10 reboot just feels too colorful and cheery too often.

It's not that hard to go back to the original style and feel of Ben 10 either. Doom 2016 went back to what made Doom Doom. Resident Evil 7 is taking the series back to survival horror. There's a lot of praise over that. Yes, I know these are Mature rated games but still. If they want to take a new direction for Ben 10, go ahead but don't take away what defined Ben 10 the most and replace it with something that's out of place for the series. There's a lot more about Ben 10 than just Ben transforming into aliens and fighting bad guys while whipping out one-liners. What made the Original Series such a popular success and a great quality show were the stories, the characters and their relationships with each other, the lore, the action and tension, etc. That overall it was a great, well-made show that had a lot of care, effort, and respect put into it. The Ben 10 reboot doesn't seem to follow most, if not any, of that and instead often enough takes the wrong direction in it.

"You're active on some small Ben 10 forum"

Which forum is that?

You know, I realize something. The writing errors, mistakes and plotholes were... well, maybe not excusable, but more understandable in UA and Omniverse. I mean, by this point the show had gone through so many different arcs, retcons, that it was really becoming hard to keep tracks of everything.The Reboot, on the other hand, start again from scraps, so they have no excuse. It was their opportunity to have simple basis again, and they still went for lazy writing.

http://ben10club.org/category/2/general-discussion

You know original also had parts that made little sense. Remember when Ben got inside video game? And Omniverse got even weirder.

Besides tonal shifts happen in reboot all the time. Turtles went from goofy to serious to between. Transformers got sillier in Animated to point of having cartoony villains like Angry Archer or Professor Princess. And Scooby doo went from more or less surreal comedy to occasional horror or complicated stories in Mystery Incorporated. I don't recall people complaining.

And I understand that. Reboots are reboots after all and I would be fine with the more cartoonish approach in the Ben 10 reboot if they manage to make it work well for the show. They just didn't manage to do that. I mentioned the example with the Doom series. Doom 3 took a more horror approach to it and it was still a good game.

Ok, I see. I wouldn't say that the Ben 10 Club is a small forum site. It grew to being one of the largest Ben 10 fan community websites out there. Then again, we have a lot of users that sign up for the website but just aren't active in the discussions, which is such a shame because it would be really nice if more and more people participated in the discussions.

There's other things that I forgot to mention in my previous post. Yeah I want the reboot to be more like the Original Series and I compare it to the Original Series so much because this is a reboot of the Original Series that's reusing so much from the Original Series. In my eyes, this reboot seems more like a remake. If that's what they're going to do, then make sure to improve on what the Original Series did. Make it better than the Original Series. Not worse. Also, I'm aspiring to be a video game designer and as such I see entertainment media as an art form. Therefore, I guess that because of this, I'm less forgiving on anything that is of poor quality. The Ben 10 reboot just feels as if the team working on the show had the mindset of "we're making this show for kids and kids are stupid and don't know any better so let's just make garbage." Regardless as to whether or not that's the case, I hate that mindset so much. Kids deserve better than that and so do the fans and viewers of this series.

Ben used Upgrade to screw with Gwen in the video game. A lightning strike causes a chain reaction with Upgrade's abilities. Doesn't make complete sense but it's good enough to me. And yeah, I know not everything in the Original Series made sense. It's still a show about aliens and magic and whatsoever. I think some better examples would be when after the Tick was killed, the forest just magically goes back to normal and in A Change of Face, the security at juvie didn't bother to search Gwen (in Charmcaster's body) like they're supposed to as well as letting her keep Charmcaster's clothes instead of replacing them with what the other prisoners were given. The Original Series wasn't perfect. There are plenty of moments that do need improving.

The 16th episode, Adventures in Babysitting, is up online. It's an ok and average episode. More of the same, really. Bad and lazy writing, annoying characters, reused plot elements and whatsoever from the Original Series, etc. The usual.

edited 20th Nov '16 10:03:59 PM by TacticalOchoa

Pretty sure you're not supposed to link to those sites.

I'm not? My apologies if that's the case. I'm new on here so I didn't know. I'll fix that when I get home from work.

I didn't found any re-uses from all old, but I did found this episode to be atrocious. Annoying kid is tired that people ignore him and used his backpack-robot-armor to smash everything even when Ben tries to be nice to him and we're suppose to be feel sorry for him and see him as some kind of Not So Different to Ben.

Yeah, kid has robot suit in backpack. It's never explained beyond the fact that it has Billions logo on it.

BTW, show it terrible at covering it's plot holes. Scenario: Hex holds Merlin's Wand and he's sure it's the real deal, even saying he feels magic. Gwen bluffs that he she has it. Excuse: After making tent fall on him (she pulled rope with her leg) and smashing column with kick (there was heavy monster on it weakening it) Hex decided that's the real deal and drops other wand without thought.

Scenario: Nanny Nightmare has serum that turn people in babies, but Ben and Gwen are only turned into 5-year olds. Excuse: She admits her formula needs work. It never works badly again and Nanny still goes forward with her plan to de-age everyone.

Scenario: Kid has backup-robot that he's implied to use to go on rampages. Excuse: He mentions that his grandma sometimes hides batteries. Apparently she's too terrible caretaker to keep them to herself, take his backpack away or ger rid of batteries (which is what Ben does).

Wow... just wow. I feel bad for complaining about previous Ben 10 shows not bothering with origin stories now.

So should I just remove the link to the episode or is it fine the way it is? Just wanted to check on that.

Yeah, you should get rid of it.

Done.

The episode, Steam is the Word, is online now.

edited 26th Nov '16 9:16:44 PM by TacticalOchoa

Well, the twist was terrible. I am not even going to use the spoiler tags, here's it is Steam Smythe steals Time Capsule that contain something of Nicolai Tesla, rumors are its some kind of power source, it's turns out to be his teddy bear. That's the whole twist, whole story, whole shebang.

I don't even have anything to report about rest of episode. It's just eh.

.... Wow. And I thought the Mandarin twist in Iron Man 3 was underwhelming.

Yeah, the twist was really stupid and I expected something like that to happen too. Of course they'll make such a terrible twist just to set up another freakin joke. Any reason why Steam Smythe wanted to destroy...what was the place, Silicon Valley?

Sad when they create a villain who actually has potential and ruin it for the sake of a joke.

Granted though, at least Steam Smythe is less annoying than in The Clocktopus. I don't like his robots though. I find that Steam Smythe's robots breaks the theme of his character. Plus, he does some pretty stupid things such as revealing his evil plan. So yeah, they still pretty much screwed up on him.

...You know you really have high standards. Villains ranting their plans tick you off?

...Did you ever watched Teen Titans, or were too put off how unrealistic it is that Robin keeps wearing mask or that tower is shaped like giant T?

edited 27th Nov '16 6:50:45 AM by Sunchet