Ben 10 2016 Reboot Episode Review: Villain Time

[Tactical Ochoa]

Oh boy, a new episode has finally aired. This is going to be wonderful. This review is going to be short. There's not a lot to talk about here.

So in this episode, Ben feels as if he should be rewarded for his heroism. So basically, it's the Original Series episode, Washington B.C., except there's no Dr. Animo and the location is different. Ben uses Cannonbolt to splash water on a tour boat to extinguish a fire on it and then we meet the villain of this episode, Tim, or as what he refers to himself as Timbuktu. Tim is trying to play off as a hero and shenanigans ensue as Ben and Tim compete to see who is a better hero. It then turned out that Tim creates disasters so that he can play hero and be rewarded for it. Yeah, I know, what a twist. Ben defeats Tim and repairs a dam that Tim unintentionally damaged. Tim gets arrested and Ben learns a moral lesson. The end.

This episode is just basically more of the usual. I don't really like Tim since that he's a really annoying character and his design is just creepy; especially his facial expressions. I also don't see why Ben needs Tim to throw tar vials on the dam so that he can use Diamondhead to make the repairs. We've already seen previous episodes that shows that Diamondhead's crystals stick on surfaces just fine on their own. Ben 24hrs, for example. I also really don't like that segment where Gwen and Max investigated Tim. That's one of the biggest problems of the animation style of this series where they try to take that more comedic spin on it and I've mentioned many other examples of this in previous episodes. It just feels out of place for a Ben 10 show. It doesn't fit into the identity of Ben 10 and those that follow me should know my take on the identity and traditional roots of Ben 10. Also, how did Gwen and Max get themselves unstuck from that tar and really, in that short amount of time, Gwen and Max were able to do that much of investigating? Granted, this show doesn't do a good job at being consistent with everything that's going on. The way that the Omnitrix works and how inconsistent it is, for example, as I had already pointed out in my previous reviews. Some more minor gripes that I have as well include how that tarp cover on the tour boat is able to withstand Cannonbolt's weight and how is there still a little flame left on that tarp when the tour boat itself was completely drenched by Cannonbolt cannonballing into the water. Of course, they don't put enough effort into the comedy so there wasn't even a single joke that I found to be funny.

Overall, again, it just more of the same, which I very much expected since that this is still the first season and all the episodes within the first season should've already had been finished in their production. It's another average, bland, filler-esque episode that doesn't really add to the series especially since that we've seen a premise like this done before in the Original Series.