Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens
Studio: Cartoon Network
Publisher: Madman
Format: DvD
Release Date: June 30, 2012
Price: $24.99 (Buy Here)

Overview

Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens is the latest movie in the Ben 10 franchise of animated cartoons. The story follows the adventures of a 10 year old Ben Tennyson as he travels around the USA with his grandpa fighting off Alien menaces and capturing them in his Omnitrix device. The Omnitrix is a device that allows Ben to transform into various captured Aliens and grants him access to their abilities.

As a fan of the series, I practically volunteered for the job of taking this film for review. Does it compare to the series? Read on to find out.

Story

Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens follows one of the many adventures of Ben, his cousin Gwen and his Grandfather. This particular adventure has taken the traditional Ben 10 formula and stretched it out to fit a full length movie. Does it work? Maybe. I shall elaborate on this below.

So the story starts with the Ben 10 crew finishing up on some kind of Alien threat which has threatened the city. However, during this battle the Omnitrix (which is the device Ben uses to turn into various Aliens to harness their powers) becomes damaged, the repercussions of which we see later on in the film.

I actually really didn’t like the story in this film at all. I’m not entirely sure why, but it feels like they had this set up for an amazing story near the start of the film and then instead went down a completely safer route. And really, that’s what this movie is, a safe movie that does nothing to move the franchise forward, but also fills the need to be entertained.

It also seemed like the movie was incredibly rushed. The film itself runs for around an hour and five minutes, so I can see why they didn’t spend too much time in some scenes, but the whole story just felt like it was in speedrun mode. For instance, there is a part later in the movie where the team is moving from area to area, and instead of expanding on this and making it interesting, it’s just rushed through so that the characters can get to the next big battle scene.

Overall the story is a very plain affair that purely exists to push the fight scenes. This will be entertaining for people in the age-range of the show and casual fans like myself. But for anyone looking at jumping into the series, I’d recommend doing it from the animated series.

Visuals

Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens is a CGI movie set in the Ben 10 universe. The story is about the younger Ben Tennyson and as a result the visuals carry along the flair that this particular era of Ben’s life presents. However, as this is some rather simple CGI work, I feel that it has devalued the series’ art style, as opposed to improving on it.

A really good example of poor CGI work is Ben Tennyson himself. As the main character of the show and the one with the most screen time, you would assume that the most care would have been taken in creating this particular characters model and skin. However, this is not the case and he just came out atrocious, even creepy at some angles. Good work at giving kids nightmares Cartoon Network.

Even though most of the models in this film are incredibly plain (and by most, I mean everything except these few exceptions), there are some exceptions. For example, there are two really modeled characters in this film and they are as follows: Ben’s Grandfather and that blue Alien that looks like a robot. That is all. Gwen is a neutral model, but she comes off as creepy sometimes too.

I’d have to say that overall, the visuals in this movie are atrocious. It would have been much more beneficial to the film to have had everything simply animated in 2D like the rest of the series.

Audio

Okay so this movie obviously features an audio element, as is the standard in movies since the end of the silent era and as such should be judged partially on this. The audio is a neccessary inclusion for this film and I shall judge it on it merits below.

First of all, I really found that the sound effects in the film were pretty okay sounding. They seemed to carry the Ben 10 aesthetic, which is something that a film from a certain franchise should be doing. I also quite enjoyed how all of the characters voice actors returned to reprise their roles for the film, so there are no discrepancies in voice work, especially considering that in the main series the characters are now almost adults.

However, the background score was quite dull and I found that some of the jokes being told were quite forced and often removed from the action sequences. However, this is common in the Ben-10 animated series, so it is actually staying true to it’s source. This is just a personal opinion on this matter, the intended audience will probably love it.

Extras

Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens comes with a few extras in the form of Special Features. These special features are few in number but at least one of them is worth looking at. The Specials Features are as follows:

• Teaser Trailer
• Sneak Peeks

That is all of the Special Features that I could find on the disc. The sneaks peeks are kind of interesting though, so anyone looking into what’s to come from the franchise should take a look at those.

Overall

Overall Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens is a fairly decent package that will entertain a younger audience whilst still remaining a little entertaining to older ones. This is definitely a must have item for a Ben 10 fan and anyone who has children that may also be fans of the series. I don’t think anyone will go to bed grumpy after seeing this.