Ben 10: Evolutions

Discussion in 'Movies and Television' started by Sage o' G-fruit, Apr 11, 2009.

  1. Voiceroy

    Voiceroy Trans-fo-mahs!

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    The live-action movie is titled "Ben 10: Alien Swarm."

    I was actually on the movie set for 3 days as an extra, playing a zombie factory worker (a huge chunk of the movie was filmed at the old GM plant in Atlanta). I'm generally anti- live-action commercializations of animated fare, but from what I witnessed it might turn out to be an entertaining flick. And the girl who plays Elena in it (Alyssa Diaz) is pretty freaking hott.

    And they did a fair job of casting too -- the main cast very much resembles their animated counterparts. Nice costume work as well.

    But I'm not at liberty to say any more about the production until it airs.
     
  2. Smasher

    Smasher HUNKY BEATS

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    I like Ben 10 as a whole.
    Alien Force is good, except where it breaks the original's continuity.

    That's one of the breaks. It seems there's not really magic in Alien Force but Aliens (and part-aliens like Gwen) who can manipulate Mana.

    Of course, Mana itself is magic so that is a big "whatever".
    It also has the unfortunate effect of reducing Gwen's powers to the uninteresting bolts and discs she uses.

    It also renders her powers from the original show as well as the characters of Charmcaster and Jinx obsolete.

    Awesomesauce! Good for you, man.
     
  3. Opticron Primal

    Opticron Primal Comin' up OOOs!

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    I agree. I liked Ben 10 and I liked Ben 10: Alien Force. One of the CN's better original works, IMO.

    Except for the live-action, poorly-acted, continuity-confusing abomination that was "Race Against Time".
     
  4. Ziero

    Ziero TFW2005 Supporter

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    Actually it's really just the opposite. The original series, while being a bit childish at times...which was intentional since it's a kid show about a kid...had far better writing and story lines. The villians were more interesting and unique, his transformations were much better done, especially since he didn't have to call out each alien's name when he did so, the writing felt much more natural and all the story pieces just seemed to fit better. While everything in Alien Force just seemed, well, forced. They were making things to try and be cool, and telling you that they're cool, when in the end they just weren't that cool. They also retcon punch'd a LOT of plot points from the original series, and did it fairly bad at that. And the big finale of Alien Force was just bad, from start to finish it was pure, unadulterad cheese in the worst way. And the whole "fix the bad guys to make them good!" bit was just weak. These things were supposedly the worst threat the universe ever faced...because they were inbred hicks? The original show's villains were far more of a threat and far more interesting to watch.

    I'm hoping the third series will be done a bit better, and that the new show being made by these guys turns out good as well.
     
  5. Opticron Primal

    Opticron Primal Comin' up OOOs!

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    The ending was cliche, you right.

    I also don't really like that the omnitrix basically became a Deus Ex Machina. It can restore an entire alien race?......really?
     
  6. Smasher

    Smasher HUNKY BEATS

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    Also, considering how the Omnitrix was in the first series (especially when Ben figured it out), I wonder how the Omnitrix in Alien Force was an "upgrade".
     
  7. Dinobot Nuva

    Dinobot Nuva Johnny 3 Tears Veteran

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    Don't understand the massive hate towards the franchise in general happening in this thread. Compared to most of what Cartoon Network offers Ben 10 is a pretty solid show.
     
  8. Eric

    Eric VOTE.

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    Well, I don't really hate it. I thought Ben 10 was a good show. Ben 10 Alien Force...felt weak.
     
  9. McBradders

    McBradders James Franco Club! Veteran

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    I love the way our fandom likes to shit on things claiming it's "milking" and begging it to end.

    Listen to yourselves, really, just for 10 minutes :lol 
     
  10. Ziero

    Ziero TFW2005 Supporter

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    Well, I'll give it that last part. Because it's supposed to be programed with DNA from millions of aliens across the galaxies, it's potentially a way to restore a lost race as their genes will always survive in some fashion. It's sorta like how in the first season when he first transformed into Cannonbolt a week after the space tick destroyed the Cannonbolt race's home planet. Despite the entire race being wiped out...the data of what makes that race was still there.

    Retcon Punch'd!

    Just one of many many many things Alien Force changed for no reason at all. Though I can almost swallow the "10 alien's per set" excuse, if it weren't for the fact that he could be 13-14+ different aliens in the first series. But the bad retconning of story info from the first series is just one of the things that made AF that much worse.
     
  11. Sage o' G-fruit

    Sage o' G-fruit Critics gonna critique

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    Well, Transformers knows how to continue being interesting, with nice storylines. Ben 10 was good, but when the second came up, it wasn't as good. I think that a franchise that as it continues is as good as when it started, if not miles better, remains a good franchise.
     
  12. McBradders

    McBradders James Franco Club! Veteran

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    I rest my case :lol 
     
  13. Sage o' G-fruit

    Sage o' G-fruit Critics gonna critique

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    I don't get it. :confused: 

    And I really don't mind that this franchise has been going on so long. It's something that has been shown to work, but there isn't enough fresh air in Alien Force.

    Compared to Transformers; We had Headmasters, Targetmasters, Pretenders, Action Masters. Those didn't work as well, so then we had Transformers that turned into Animals. Then we had Transformers that had Cybertronian alt modes and Cybertronian Animals in the same series. We got a 10-changer, littler robots that could attach to bigger robots and the devil of the Transformers. Robots that could combine or had Hyper Modes, Transformers with realistic alt modes. Then we had robots that had the creator of the Transformers that turned into CYBERTRON for God's sake! We then got a live-action movie, and now we have drastically different Transformers that have an art-type that hasn't been seen in TFs ever.
     
  14. Spiderus Prime

    Spiderus Prime TFW SpongeBob and TTV's MS 2.0

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    Ben is not Optimus Prime because Ben don't wore a mouthplate on his face. (Is not counting as spam.)
     
    Last edited: Apr 17, 2009
  15. Smasher

    Smasher HUNKY BEATS

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    I got as far as 3 minutes and I couldn't stand it.
    How does my wife put up with me? :( 

    I think they all need to be good at least, but there will be variances.
    For instance, not every James Bond movie is going to be a big hit.
    Alien Force is pretty good -at least to me.

    And This! I'm also pretty sure Ben is not Soundwave.
     
  16. Ziero

    Ziero TFW2005 Supporter

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    The point he was trying to make is that Transformers milks things just as much, if not more then most shows currently do. As you yourself pointed out, Transformers keep coming out with these new, oddball ideas to try and extend it's lifespan. And while some concepts work great, there were many many many flops over the past 25 years. Ben 10 has had two different series so far, the first one was great while the second one was kinda meh. Two series in less then five years isn't milking anything, especially since it's still a popular franchise with kids. The show and story are still going strong and they have plenty of tales to tell and literally millions of aliens they can come up with to keep things new and interesting. While Alien Force had it's problems, they came more from the execution and not the concept itself.
     
  17. night-skyward

    night-skyward Collects animated, mainly

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    the original was awesome, then alien force forgot everything. Or at least i thought it did...
    the last two eps proved me wrong. And anyway i only watched watched 1-13 and the last 4 episodes of the second season. Alien force failed on so many levels for me but meh, i have a little bit of hope for the next season... actually i'm just curious to see his new aliens :) 
     
  18. McBradders

    McBradders James Franco Club! Veteran

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    Thanks! I forgot about the thread until now! And yeah, that was kinda my point. Transformers have milked the hell out of itself over the years and continues to do so. It's really easy to not notice it being as invested as we are in the franchise. Continual reboots of the surrounding fiction circumnavigates this issue to a certain extent, but look at your collection and count up all the different versions of each character, of each mold you have.

    Milk :) 

    It's a decent business model, I mean just look at Power Rangers. Isn't that a yearly reboot now? MILK!