Every Ben 10 Movie, Ranked by Letterboxd

Since his debut on television in 2005, Benjamin Tennyson, also known as “Ben 10,” has ruled over the children’s hero landscape. Despite popularity waning a bit in recent years (mostly due to a reboot that almost nobody liked), this alien-transforming hero has always had fun saving Earth, and not just on television. The Ben 10 series became so popular that it spawned some movies over the years. Everyone loves a good movie connected to their favorite television show.

To be fair, the Ben 10 franchise has always hurt a little bit on film, but fans typically find themselves still enjoying each one in one way or another, especially when they get to see their favorite alien heroes in live-action. But if fans are looking to see exactly which projects are the most successful, then the social media platform Letterboxd — in which people get to review films and see which their friends are watching — is the place to do the looking.

5

‘Ben 10: Race Against Time’ (2007)

Letterboxd Score: 1.9/5.0 (80 Fans)

Image via Cartoon Network Studios

The first-ever live-action iteration of the character comes in the form of Ben 10: Race Against Time. Airing two years after the series first premiered, this film really set out to show what was possible for the character outside of the animated realm. However, it didn’t get the best reception when it aired, as many considered it to be pretty dang horrible. Letterboxd user, Tyler Kershaw, gives quite the explanation in their review: “I think watching 9 year old me run around with a fake omnitrix was more entertaining than this movie”.

Fans have always said that, in theory, Ben 10 is a franchise that should work relatively well in live-action. If treated like the superhero franchise it is, it wouldn’t be hard to pull off something amazing. The effort, though, never really lived up to what the series truly deserves when it comes to how it should have been adapted. Although Ben 10: Race Against Time didn’t have a huge budget — $5 million to be exact — and was simply a TV movie, it can’t really be used as a true excuse for how the project turned out in the eyes of many. Had they utilized the budget a tad better and given the script more drafts and punch-ups, this could have been the start of a whole new era for the Ben 10 franchise that could have changed everything for the brand.

4

‘Ben 10: Alien Swarm’ (2009)

Letterboxd Score: 2.0/5.0 (42 Fans)

Only two more years after Ben 10: Race Against Time, Cartoon Network Studios decided to take the sequel they had planned for that project, and redevelop it into a live-action film to connect to the second series in the franchise, Ben 10: Alien Force, which came out one year prior. Thus, the movie known as Ben 10: Alien Swarm was born, and it didn’t do much better than Ben 10: Race Against Time. Throwing it into the second show’s timeline gave it more room to be a bit more mature in tone. Kailyn on Letterboxd describes this in their review by saying, “This felt like it belonged on the CW.”

The alien transformations in this movie are done far better, too (in CGI, specifically), despite there being fewer than the first, thanks to a larger budget of a whopping $40 million. This larger number also meant they had far more to lose, which put even more pressure on them, too. Director Alex Winter returned from Ben 10: Race Against Time to bring this to life, meaning everything that made the first movie good returned… but so did everything that held it back. The debate of whether Ben 10: Alien Swarm is actually better than Ben 10: Race Against Time is always active, but the Letterboxd reviews make it just slightly higher than the movie prior to it.

3

‘Ben 10 vs. the Universe: The Movie’ (2020)

Letterboxd Score: 2.7/5.0 (3 Fans)

Image via Cartoon Network

Speaking of that majorly disliked reboot series, it also got a movie in the form of Ben 10 vs. the Universe: The Movie (what a mouthful). Safe to say, no one was really looking forward to this one, but, somehow, it managed to get higher reviews than the previous two movies, which is a huge shock, given how much genuine disdain people had for 2016’s Ben 10. There’s an argument to be made, though, that their disdain isn’t as important to the movie’s quality as someone may think.

“Look how they massacred my boy,” is how Felipe Montoya described the movie in their own Letterboxd review. At the end of the day, though, a likely reason this has better reviews than the live-action flicks is that it’s not aimed at adult audiences, but for much younger children, of whom it succeeds at pleasing. So, does it really matter if older fans don’t like it? Some would argue yes, and some no. Regardless of what one thinks, the reviews themselves don’t lie.

2

‘Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens’ (2012)

Letterboxd Score: 2.7/5.0 (18 Fans)

Image via Cartoon Network

In 2012, Cartoon Network decided they’d take a trip down memory lane and return to the original show, but in 3D animation this time. This new animation style didn’t save it, though, as it ended up being pretty underwhelming. It continued to prove that the Ben 10 franchise was always going to struggle in film if the network and production companies didn’t truly put love and care into the products they were creating, as Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens felt more like a cash grab, especially since 3D animation is a lot cheaper to produce than 2D. No one knows the truth about the budget, but it’s clear that it wasn’t high.

Fans who grew up on it cherish it, though, like manosales on Letterboxd: “As a child, I used to scream when I watched it, and it’s still the same today,” (translated from Spanish). At the end of the day, however, despite having a higher ranking than the two live-action movies, Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens doesn’t live up to the series’ potential. Which is a shame, as the first and only 3D animated project could have been something really special and even paved a new way for the series to go, if it’d actually been successful.

1

‘Ben 10: Secret of the Omnitrix’ (2007)

Letterboxd Score: 3.5/5.0 (146 Fans)

Image via Cartoon Network

Pretty much the only Ben 10 movie to be considered truly good is the movie that acts as the first show’s unofficial finale, Ben 10: Secret of the Omnitrix. It’s the “unofficial” finale, because it aired before the original series ended, and it’s never technically been considered the finale, despite canonically taking place after the events of the original series. People genuinely do like this movie, and for some very good reasons. This is most likely because pretty much all of the exact team that worked on the show. This was also the first appearance of the iconic alien, Way Big (Fred Tatasciore).

A big complaint about a lot of the previous Ben 10 movies is that he never really seems to learn a lesson, or at least not one that sticks. This is very different with Ben 10: Secret of the Omnitrix, though, Ben (Tara Strong) goes through quite the character arc. He truly learns selflessness, even though it takes the supposed “death” of his cousin Gwen (Meagan Moore) to do so. This is a genuinely great arc for him — despite the fact that he consistently needs to learn it in the show — especially if one considers it the finale of the first series. It’s a great entry in the original series in the franchise, with ACritic saying, “So much worldbuilding and depth added. We’re actually venturing into space! Characters are all great. And even the villains are threatening. Vilgax is one badass motherf*****.”