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Ben 10: Alien Swarm (2009)

Rating: 6/10

US Certificate: N/A UK Certificate: N/A

If you are a boy between the ages of 7 and 10, this is probably right up your street. Particularly if you are a UK Ben 10 fan, aware that the film has been out in the US since November last year, yet is only just reaching our screens via DVD release 11/10/2010. And if you are the parent of a boy between these ages, you need this film. You will get a whole hour of peace and quiet while your boy watches the film. And then another when they watch it again!

If you aren’t a Ben 10 fan (and let’s face it, I’m not) the film won’t really mean all that much to you. I made the colossal mistake of asking whether it was a sequel and how come the aliens were different, and 20 minutes later, with my head hurting rather, I rectified my mistake by hitting play again. From a parent’s point of view, there’s certainly nothing to worry about in the film, but there’s not much to hold your attention either – there’s a broody teenager with a bit of a young Kevin Bacon thing going on, but really, he’s just too young.

There are a couple of strong female characters too, and I’m assuming that’s why my 10 year old daughter was as riveted as my son. I really wouldn’t have thought it would be her kind of thing, but she was equally transfixed both first and second time through.

Given this is a DVD release, the children were expecting special features, but it’s a DVD release of a film that was released on Cartoon Network so I don’t think there were many special features prepared. This is a shame – a little more detail on how it moved from cartoon to live action would have been good I think, and they do enjoy those bonuses. But more than anything they just enjoyed the film.

If the review sounds good to you, you might want to pop over and enter a competition to win 1 of 3 copies of the DVD.

It's Got: A whole hour of peace and quiet built in.

It Needs: The rest of the aliens. Only showing Big Chill, Humongosaur and Nanomech was a wimp out.

DVD Extras Behind the scenes. DVD Extras Rating: 1/10

Summary

One for the die hard Ben 10 fan, but unlikely to convert the passing viewer.