Episode Review: Generator Rex, Episode 101, "The Day That Everything Changed"

I'm going to be doing something a little different to most sites in that a lot of these reviews are going to be written with the benefit of having seen more of the series. This is only because I have such a huge backlog of series and films to review, I'm sure eventually it'll be a lot more real-time. As a result, this first burst of reviews will probably be more prone to spoilers (SPOILERS! YAY!) and less prone to speculation.

'Generator Rex' is 20 episodes old at the time of the this review, but you all deserve a recap anyway. 'Generator Rex' is the new series from 'Man Of Action', the collective of writers who brought you Ben 10 and Ben 10 Alien Force. Here's the plot according to Wikipedia

'Five years prior to the series, a massive explosion released nanites into the atmosphere, infecting every living thing on Earth. These nanites randomly activate inside their hosts, mutating the subject into a monster known as an E.V.O. (Exponentially Variegated Organism) that are usually mindless creatures threatening to everything around them. To combat the E.V.O. threat, the organization known as Providence was created to capture, cure, or kill them.

Rex is a 15 year-old amnesiac teenager who is infected with nanites like everyone else. However, unlike most E.V.O.s, Rex is able to control his nanites, allowing him to manifest a variety of powers and even cure others of their mutations. Working with Providence under Agent Six, he helps stop the E.V.O.s as they appear. Working against Providence is Van Kleiss, an E.V.O. with connections not only to the event which released the nanites, but to Rex as well.'

MY THOUGHTS
Wow.

I was not expecting to like this show, let alone enjoy it as much as I am. 'Ben 10' was a fun series, but the samey-ness of it kept me from checking out Rex. I figured it would have the same fun factor, but also the same cheap Saturday morning animation.

Wrong!

Having clearly learnt a few things from seven odd years of 'Ben 10' and its sequel series, 'Man Of Action' have written a fantastic episode that throws you in the deep end right away (though there is a helpful opening voice over care of Rex that pretty much reads like that wiki page). Right from the get-go we are treated to some fantastic monster design with the giant EVA size EVO (coincidence? not sure yet...). Immediately after we skydive into a surprisingly well boarded and animated action scene with Rex. If that weren't enough, Rex's babysitter Six (the Sixth most deadly man in the world, what a way to get a name!) then joins the fray and I decided right then and there to hand over my time for the rest of the season.

Generator Rex art by Soul Kotone via DeviantArt

Also a nice change from 'Ben 10' is the somewhat darker subtext. While Rex is still from the same obnoxious teenager mold as Ben Tennyson, he has a much more interesting back story (and current situation). Not only are naggy side characters like Grampa Max and Gwen swapped out for Six and Bobo (Rex's talking monkey), who are much more interesting as characters. Six is a trained and deadly killer (who rocks an awesome variant on the Man in Black look) while Bobo has the personality/attitude of a trucker-cum-barfly-mercenary type. The Plumbers have been switched with Providence, an organisation we know very little about, save the extreme measures they're willing to take to protect the world from Evos.

Rex himself is a recovering amnesiac, and his implied connection to Van Kleiss promises a host of dramatic story lines revolving around familial treachery (no doubt). Who is Rex, and how did he end up at Providence? Why is he a good Evo and why can he control them? These are interesting questions to setup in the first episode. For most shows that would be enough, but there's more to Generator Rex. Rex is acting out against Providence and this rebellion is clearly provoked by the fact that he's a 15 yr old who is treated as a weapon and has living quarters like a prison... and the only friends he has are a trained and deadly Soldier, a way to old for him Doctor (who he has a crush on anyway) and a foul mouthed and self centred monkey. That's a lot of psychological pressure and baggage to setup straight away and I'm very eager to see what they do with it. But that's not all, the friend he DOES make in this episode turns out to be an employee of Providence! Rex has got it tough that's for sure.

Had the story and writing been the only saving grace of this show, I'd probably stick with it because like Clone Wars and Sym-Bionic Titan, it feels like it's daring to do something a little different (just a teeeeensy bit subversive for Cartoon Network shows), but luckily for me it's not the only good thing about the show.

As you can see in the embedded preview at the top of this article, the animation itself is quite slick, much more so than they needed really. At numerous points during this episode, such as during the opening Evo fight, or when Van Kleiss was introduced and nature sprouted all around him I was positively dazzled. The key difference between this show and the best animated episodes of 'Ben 10 Alien Force' is the storyboarding and layouts. 'Generator Rex' is just giving off a much more cinematic vibe.... not as much as Clone Wars, granted, but still it's much more involving (visually) than the standard Saturday morning cartoon.

The voice work so far is fun, and the music enjoyably large. Of particular note is John DiMaggio as Bobo, giving us yet another great grumbler complainer in the vein of Sandman (Spectacular Spider-Man) and Bender.

Generator Rex 'The Day That Everything Changed' comes highly recommended as one of the better new toons of 2010.