Ben 10: Alien Force

Episode(s): Series Premiere
Premiere Air Date: Fri., April 18th, 2008 at 8:00pm (ET)
Regular Air Date(s): Saturdays thereafter at 10:00am

A.I. News Link: Ben 10: Alien Force Animation on CN
A.I. News Link: Bandai America Toy Fair 2008: 'Ben 10'

Images: Click to Enlarge [all].

The last we saw of the spritely Ben Tennyson--which was only a few weeks ago--he was slightly preoccupied with taking down a rogue but exiled Plummer agent whose high rank within the Forever Knights posed the slight problem of galactic annihilation to our ten-year-old hero and his family.

Oh how time flies.... I suppose.

Ben 10: Alien Force fast-forwards five years into the future and pretty much starts from scratch. Ben, now a teenager, keeps his now detached Omnitrix in a shoebox in his closet, plays as an MVP goalie for his soccer team, occasionally visits his grandpa Max's camper down the street, and if I do say so myself, young Tennyson is quite the ladies man as well. Ben's not the precocious brat that he used to be and has developed a pretty good sense of what it means to be part of a team. This last bit is important because in Ben 10: Alien Force, it is camaraderie and teamwork that's going to get him through his toughest challenges, not "going hero" and going it alone.

But the story here kicks off with the noted absence of grandpa Max Tennyson. When Ben goes to his grandfather's camper to chat, he finds the RV in disarray, with no sign of old man Max in sight. What Ben does find however, is a fierce alien who is looking to tear him apart. A slime-spitting, exposed brain cyclopes with retractable tentacles that extend from its face, this thing means business.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the alien doesn't find who he's looking for in the RV (Max), and ends up chasing around a rather nimble Ben until he gets a face full of fire extinguisher.

No stranger to aliens rummaging for something of his own property, Ben is curious as to why grandpa Max is on the shortlist of a strange new alien threat.... and curious as to just where in the heck grandpa Max is to begin with. Ben 10: Alien Force subsequently follows Ben, Gwen and some additional characters as they begin a whole new journey. Grandpa Max "was on to something big," as an attache Plummer agent narrates, before the grandfather disappeared.

Now, the only thing Ben has to use in his search for the truth is the classic Omnitrix and an eerie transmission left behind by his grandfather, which the teen finds to be contradictory on many levels. (But if you want an indulgence, I've got a nifty [s p o i l e r] ready for you right hereďż˝ courtesy of slow-motion.)

Nervous as hell and more than a bit anxious about what happened to his beloved grandfather, Ben seeks the wisdom and help of his cousin Gwen, and what follows is the start of yet another search for understanding against intergalactic foes of a rather mean sort.

The most interesting thing about Ben 10: Alien Force that I've found while watching the premiere--for all of its new alien monsters, cool new villains and sharply dressed teens--lies in how the series' structure has completely evolved from its former self, and rightfully so. Because Ben and Gwen [of Ben 10] were mind numbingly exasperating as guiltless kids, the greater story never had any desire, or need, to integrate a recurring dramatic angle. The story neither had any reason to enhance the musical score, nor diversify its cast of human characters, nor slow down its pacing to accommodate any perceivable shift from the equation of alien equals action.