Ben 10: Omniverse

Story

Ben 10: Omniverse consists of two Ben 10 TV episodes. In the first, Ben Tennyson (voice of Yuri Lowenthal) and his two alien-fighting friends, Gwen (voice of Ashley Johnson) and Kevin (voice of Greg Cipes), take on the ultimate interdimensional monster alien, which wants to rule the universe. Ben and his friends defeat the alien. As a reward for not abusing his superpowers, Ben is given a new and more powerful Omnitrix. This is a wristwatch-like device that lets Ben change into different aliens, each with unique superpowers.

In the second episode, Gwen and Kevin head off to college. Although he wants to work alone to protect the world from power-crazed aliens, Ben gets a new, young and eager partner, Rook Blonko (voice of Bumper Robinson). Ben has to adjust to life with his new partner. He also has to take on old enemies in secret underground cities, while being hunted by a mysterious trophy-seeking character called Kyber (voice of David Kayel). Kyber has a shape-shifting predator, and they stalk Ben as their next trophy.

Themes

Superpowers; aliens

Violence

This movie has continuous unrealistic, over-the-top, science fiction action violence, which is presented in a funny way at times. Younger children might copy this violence. For example:

Ben and alien creatures have several hand-to-hand fights and large battles. Superheroes and villains use their superpowers to punch and kick each other, throw each other through stone walls, shoot each other with laser guns, fire balls and bolts of energy at each other, swing power-enforced broadswords and generate force fields to throw their enemies back.
A super-villain uses an energy wave to turn the entire population of earth into a robot-like army.
An alien super-villain causes acid to rain from the skies. The rain dissolves buildings.
Bombs planted by extortionists destroy large buildings. The bombs leave giant craters behind.
A super-villain hurls a bolt of energy at a man. The man’s skeleton lights up before he collapses to the ground. He then instantly ages and turns to stone and then ash, which the wind blows away.
Ben takes the form of an alien and fights a large vicious dog-like creature. He punches it and knocks it to the ground. Ben hits the creature with an energy beam and leaves it lying lifeless on the ground. There is no blood and gore, and the creature is later seen uninjured.

Sexual references

None of concern

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

None of concern

Nudity and sexual activity

None of concern

Product placement

This movie has no product placement of concern. But franchised products including action figures, video games, animated TV shows, accessories and books are marketed to children.

Coarse language

This movie contains some name-calling and put-downs that children might copy.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Ben 10: Omniverse is a children’s animated science fiction action movie targeting children aged 8-12 years. Although the movie has some worthwhile messages, it also has lots of animated action violence. Children who are fans of previous Ben 10 adventures will be entertained by this latest instalment, which has new characters and a new Omnitrix full of surprises.

These are the main messages from this movie:

It’s hard not to abuse power if you think that doing so might help others or make the world a better place.
You can achieve more by working as part of a team than by yourself.
You need to have patience and respect to work with others in a team.

Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include the following:

Responsibility: Ben shows responsibility when he doesn’t misuse his powers to force his own ideas on other people.
Adaptability: although he doesn’t want to take on a new partner, Ben adapts to the situation. You could talk about how adapting to unwanted change and new situations can make us stronger.