Episode 3 - "The Krakken"

Plot:
Today we will be spending 90% of the episode in brown grey swamp water, which I think is the biggest issue with the episode. When they do the underwater scenes in bright blue the show looks really nice, but they over do the saturation of grey to the utmost degree. I feel this is probably the reason I look back unfavorably on this lakeside adventure.

We open up on Ben messing around with Fourarms pretending to be a lake monster to scare Gwen, only to be attacked by a real monster the moment she turns her back. This could have been taken as a boy-who-cried-wolf kind of scenario where Ben isn't believed due to his prior pranks, but thankfully they play it much less heavy handed than last week's moral messages.

Quickly we are introduced to Captain Shaw, the hired boatman taking Ben and Max on a bonding fishing trip. He is given the Scooby-Doo treatment of being seen to be a mental, shady, creep, obsessively talking about hunting the lake beast, similar to that of Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. Luckily enough Ben is desperate to prove himself so their shared obsession with the beast makes him an ally from the start, as opposed to having to make him join later with friendship or stupidity.

The other characters this week pop up very quickly in the form of eco-protectors, generic rich looking people trying to "save" the environment! Suddenly as soon as they rock up the Krakken decides to come out mid-day time for the first time in hundreds of years for countless witnesses to see, attacking the docks.

Here we see the next major mechanic of the omnitrix come into play, Ben getting the wrong alien at random moments regardless of specifically and carefully choosing the right alien. Seeing an underwater threat Ben cleverly calls out for Ripjaws (whom he must have unlocked and named off screen).  We even see that he chose him and didn't slam down the watch randomly, yet for some reason he gets given XLR8.

This is the first major example of an error, but Ben manages to use the super speed to adapt to the water, running on water to begin his assault on the Krakken, but not before evacuating all tourists from the area, something more modern super hero stories could learn from. The monster steals something from the eco-guys and takes it to the ocean floor.

Ben still wants to hunt down the threat, so at midnight against Gwen and Max's orders he snuck out to Captain Shaw's boat and stowed away on a midnight diving expedition to find the stolen loot and the creatures base.
The pair find the crate was stolen eggs, that the mother-Krakken was stealing back from the eco-people, who were secret poachers!

Ben and Shaw get caught by these thieves, and Ben is forced to use Stinkfly to escape them. Ben is shocked to find that Stinkfly can't fly barely at all when he is wet, the first of many biological weaknesses the show must teach Ben about his transformations. This is a pretty exciting chase scene and is made more intersting with the threat to Stinkfly's wings.

The pair regroup with Max and gwen and assualt the makeshift stronghold the poachers have in the abandoned dockyard, shortly followed by the Krakken. The result is a three way fight between the robot-suited poachers, Ben finally debuting at Ripjaws, and the mother Krakken desperate for her eggs.

The fight is rather impressive, shifting from land to underwater, each party stealing the eggs constantly and getting a beating for their effort. After Ripjaw's savaged the suit the Krakken attempts to murder the poachers, however Ben shows his heroic resolve in saving even the theives from the angry mother. The poachers are left to the police and the monster sails off into the sunset with her eggs, another happy ending.


Alien of Focus:
Surprisingly for a water episode I think XLR8's first real use, outside a cameo, by Ben outshone Ripjaw's rather impressive fight. XLR8 showed the ability to both walk on water, and create typhoons with his super speed, these being the early signs of it being one of Ben's most versatile aliens.

Final Thoughts:
Surprisingly, going against my childhood memories, this episode wasn't that bad. I think my view of Ripjaws as a dull generally useless alien was overshadowing the details of the episode. It handled Ben fairly well, and I'm glad they didn't hammer home any moral lessons like last week, Ben making up for his joking with actual hero work rather than silly lessons.

Rating:

Plot: 4/10 - Rather bland plot, basic twist of the evil monster actually being a maternal mother wasn't that surprising with the introduction of the shady looking protest group. Well executed attempt to make the captain seem more guilty than he really was though.

Characterisation: 7/10 - This was a very Ben focused episode, with Gwen and Max avoiding the main plot mostly, however it did a good job establishing Ben's ability to use aliens growing, learning that some have crippling weaknesses (Stinkfly's inability to fly wet for example) and reacting to getting the wrong alien quickly and efficiently.

Humour: 6/10 - Solid one liners from Ben, this episode's introduction of Ben dialing the wrong alien was amusing, an important introduction to the mechanics of the show.

Action: 8/10 - Very solid three-way fight scene between Ripjaws, robots and the Krakken, actually winning a little respect for Ben's generally worthless fish-form.

Villain: 4/10 - Eco-defenders are annoying at the best of times, but the fact they were secret animal poachers did them no help, overall just dull bland human characters.

29/50

Next Week: Episode 4 "Permanent Retirement"