Ben 10 2016 Reboot Episode Review: Something I Ate

[Tactical Ochoa]

Episode Links:
nayavideo.com/ben102016s01e08s…

Now before I get started on the review itself, I just want to make this mention. Another Deviant-art user posted his review of Waterfilter and The Ring Leader a couple of days ago. In his review, he points out more about these episodes that I realized that I missed in my review of those episodes. If anyone wants to check it out, here's the link. Taking into consideration of this user's review, I believe I previously stated that Waterfilter was an average episode with it being possible that it can be arguable at least above average. I changed my mind now and now I consider Waterfilter to be a mediocre and poorly made and written episode along with the other episodes of the Ben 10 reboot.

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(christopherweebling.deviantart.com)

Now let's get to the review, shall we? As usual, it contains spoilers.

Episode Review:
So in this episode, Ben, Gwen, and Max go to some coin museum that's also apparently the equivalent of Fort Knox because the museum apparently manufactures gold. In fact, is there a nuclear reactor or particle accelerator in that museum because how are they even making all that gold and how much mercury or platinum is in that museum because there's a lot of gold in this episode? Do museums even make gold? Is it even safe for a museum to manufacture gold? I could be wrong here with all of this (and if I am, I would be more than happy to admit it) but that's what it looks like to me.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesi…

Anyways, let's get back to the episode. So this episode debuts Dr. Animo, who has an evil plan...where he uses a big monster to steal gold? I don't care that this is a reboot. That does not fit Dr. Animo at all. Dr. Animo is a man of science that wants to create something that he thinks is worthy of a Nobel Prize. That's all he really cared about the most, if not at all, in these shows. He's a mad scientist that wants to pretty much play god and create new species; not some generic robber. It's part of what makes Dr. Animo a unique character that stands out in the Ben 10 series. I would get if Dr. Animo want to steal the gold to finance on equipment that he needs but why not just send a giant monster out to steal the equipment he needs instead? It would make at least a little bit more sense if the location of the episode took place at a science museum instead of a coin and mint museum. Dr. Animo isn't even that involved in the episode. In fact, he doesn't even make a physical appearance but instead just appears on a TV screen attached to...a robot bird? (sigh) Let's just go on with the rest of the episode.

So the monster attacks the museum and breaks into the vault that contains all the gold. A security guard decides to be stupid and "tries" to to threaten the monster...with a flashlight. Yeah, because a gun (or hell, even a taser) is too much for a cartoon show to have, even though every other Ben 10 show had a plethora of laser guns that are a lot more dangerous and deadly than an actual firearm loaded with lead and copper. Alien Force even had one episode where some county officers had actual shotguns and the CGI film, Destroy All Aliens, had one scene where a police officer was firing an actual Glock pistol. Anyways, going back to the episode, the security guard obviously gets his ass kicked. Why do so many characters in this reboot act like complete idiots? That's not funny in a Ben 10 show, writers; it's annoying as all hell.

The monster eats some gold and starts getting sick. For some reason, Gwen thought it was a good idea to "try" and help the monster. Ben transforms into Stinkfly to fight the monster. Speaking of transformations, I don't know if I mentioned this before but I don't like the transformations in the reboot. It doesn't look as if Ben is actually transforming into any of his aliens. It looks like the Omnitrix is putting a costume over Ben. Case in point with Stinkfly's transformation where all that happens is that Ben gets covered in Stinkfly's goo, gets cocooned, and then just hatches out as Stinkfly. In the 2005 original series, when Ben transforms into Stinkfly, he actually transforms. Eyes protrude out of the side of his head. Wings protrude out of his back. Stinkfly's legs protrude out of the side of Ben's body. You can see Ben's skin literally change. On a further note, I know that this is pretty much almost universal among fans and viewers but still, Stinkfly's reboot design and voice sucks. Who thought it was a good idea to redesign Stinkfly like this and who thought it was a good idea to have Greg Cipes provide the voice of Stinkfly? Cipes is a really good voice actor but he does not fit the bill for Stinkfly at all here. Hell, Dee Bradley Baker voiced the Tour Guide and the monster in this episode and he's always been Stinkfly all the way back to the OS. Why not have him voice Stinkfly instead? Not only that but Stinkfly doesn't even look much like an insect like he's supposed to be. In fact, Stinkfly doesn't even look alien at all but instead he looks like a guy in a costume.

Max then ends up getting swallowed by the monster. The Omnitrix times out just when Ben was only Stinkfly for like just over 30 seconds and then Ben soon after transforms into Grey Matter and remains in that form for the remainder of the episode. This is another problem that I've been noticing with the reboot. The Omnitrix is just so inconsistent with how long Ben stays in his alien forms and how long it remains in its recharge mode. At times, Ben could either remain in an alien form for most of the episode and can transform into multiple aliens before the Omnitrix goes into its recharge mode yet there are also times where the Omnitrix would time out and go into recharge even though Ben had only been in an alien form for so little amount of time. The Omnitrix would also be in its recharge mode for either just a few seconds or for a good while amount of time. In the previous shows, the Omnitrix would allow Ben to stay in his alien forms for 10-15 minutes while taking another 10-15 minutes for the Omnitrix to fully recharge. This reboot is just so inconsistent with how things are supposed to work.

Anyways, Ben, as Grey Matter, goes inside the monster to rescue Max. Grey Matter somehow had some string on hand so that he could make a double helix and somehow was also able to cut through the outside layer of a giant monster's liver with just his hand. While Grey Matter is busy rescuing Max, Gwen keeps the monster calm and still so that it moving around doesn't cause harm to Max and Grey Matter. She does this by...using candy bars with shiny wrappers to tame it? They're in a vault that's still filled with a ton of gold. Why is the monster even bothering with Gwen holding a handful of candy bars? Even then, why is the monster even bothering with Gwen at all? She's like an insect to that thing and anyone can already see just how much damage it can cause and how much strength it has.

This is also the point where Max and Grey Matter learn about Dr. Animo's involvement in all of this. Much like with Freaky Gwen Ben, the main characters and Dr. Animo already know each other, further showing that this reboot relies on watching the previous shows (most specifically the OS) in order to understand how they know each other and what's going on here. For some reason, even though Dr. Animo is just merely looking through a TV screen linked onto a camera attached onto the robot bird, Dr. Animo reacts to gold landing on the robot bird as if it actually hurts him or something. This happens again when at the end of the episode, Gwen stomps on the robot bird and Dr. Animo reacts as if that's a really bad thing to happen to him. Also, even as Grey Matter, Ben doesn't know why Dr. Animo is involved even though Dr. Animo told him that he's after the gold.

Anyways, Grey Matter builds a pod (that looks like a ship) around Max and makes the monster throw up so that they can escape. After escaping, Grey Matter defeats the giant monster and the episode ends. Two things to take note of though. One, in one scene, Gwen isn't covered in anything before Grey Matter transforms back into Ben but then the next scene after the monster collapses, Gwen is seen covered in the monster's vomit (ew). Two, isn't that stomach acid that Gwen is covered in? It's the same fluid that came from the monster's stomach and when it dripped onto Max's hand, he recoiled in pain (even though the acid didn't really do any damage to his skin). It's also the same fluid that was capable of melting the gold that was inside the stomach. Hell, the stomach acid, along with all that gold, was all that the monster vomited out. If that really is the monster's stomach acid that's all over Gwen, why is it not hurting her. I'm not saying that Gwen should get burned by acid but with something that's capable of dissolving and digesting gold and was even able to cause harm to Max, it just doesn't make sense at all that the stomach acid that Gwen is covered with isn't affecting her. Oh yeah and right after that scene when the camera angle changes, she's completely clean again.

Overall, this episode was crap. It was so poorly made and written. Dr. Animo was altered into a type of villain that he doesn't fit into. More characters end up being idiots (even Gwen makes some stupid decisions that she would've never done in the OS). Plenty of moments in the episode didn't even make sense and was very much inconsistent. The reboot Stinkfly sucks. Again, the animations are just average and felt stiff. The episode as a whole was just boring and bland as well. This is the episode that debuts Dr. Animo as well so compared to the OS episode, Washington B.C., this episode just doesn't hold any ground here. Even on its own, this episode was poorly made. That's just really it. It was poorly made and written and just so bland and boring and terrible.