Caffeinated Clint
SPOILER WARNING : If you’re reading, it’s assumed that you have seen the FINALE.
Personally, I thought the “Smallville” finale was quite good – just the right amount of, er, blur; great use of Johnny Williams’ classic theme; crafty plot wrap-ups; and ‘super’ use of John Schneider’s Jonathan Kent. Yes, Okay, so the villain was defeated way too easily and the planet bump sequence? Hokey, but as I see it, that’s Superman. It could be that I just wasn’t expecting too much – in fact, I expected to see a short glimpse of Clark, in suit, taking a leap before the cameras before fading to black – and so my expectations were in check. It could also be that I was just so damn rapt to see Michael Rosenbaum back as Lex Luthor (2.0) that I forgave the episode’s injustices. Or that I couldn’t take my eyes off Erica Durance. Or that it had me at ‘the suit’.
I’ve been watching “Smallville” since it premiered – in fact, before that, my old friend Garth Franklin (or Dark Horizons) lent me an early VHS copy of the pilot (it was around the time of the September 11 attack, I remember). The pilot, and the episodes that would follow, would be fun-enough to warrant an occasional watch… and that I did (heck, I probably saw most of the episodes), watch. As a big-time fan of the Richard Donner/Lester “Superman” movies, I was never not going to stop watching the show – yes, I loathed the whole monster-of-the-week setup of the first few seasons but really got into the show once they started to play with the mythology of Superman and the creators turned the show into much more of a serial – in that we’d want to watch next week to see what happens and I really did. Obviously when the show shifted from Smallville to Metropolis and both Lois and Clark got jobs at The Daily Planet the show transformed into something…else, but it was still fun… even when it wasn’t (if you get my drift; like last week’s penultimate episode, which stunk, you learnt to forgive the writers for the odd shitty ep) – but let’s not hate on Lana Lang too much. I think the writers slowly begun to realize that the audience wasn’t so much interested in the melodram and constant back-and-forth between Clark and Lana so tweaked the show around season 5 so it would become more of an out-and-out science fictioner. It worked. Mostly. Even when it didn’t, it was worth hanging with it just to see which actor from the world of ‘Superman’ – be it Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Dean Cain, Teri Hatcher, Marc McClure (who all made appearances) – would pop up on the show next.
Whatever the case, it’s finished now… and I’m mostly glad I stuck with it, though if I hadn’t have maybe I’d have had time to get into something like “Fringe” or “Chuck”, which many have recommended to me over the years. Maybe I can backtrack now that I’m not traveling down to the Talon every Friday night.
Let’s talk about the finale in the comments section below but first, here’s a round-up of some of the finale reviews.
Stuart Green, Comic Book Movie, says :
I thought that we’d have the show end with Clark becoming Superman. That is, by actually CALLING him “Superman”, actually have Tom Welling FULLY IN THE ICONIC SUPERMAN COSTUME and not have C.G.I. do it in far-away shots, and the people actually DISCOVERING Superman, the greatest hero that the world has ever known. Superman was supposed to be the light, the one hero who inspires people and other super heroes, and who “fights for truth, justice and the American way.” Alas, we did not get what we waited to see for ten years, and the crew, the writers, and the actors simply HAVE to know that. We did NOT get Superman. We only got to see pieces of Tom Welling’s Clark Kent in the classic costume. And that’s not super. That’s a huge, HUGE disappointment.
Blair Marnell, Crave Online, says :
Even Michael Rosenbaum’s long awaited return as Lex Luthor amounted to little more than a cameo appearance. It was really cool to see Rosenbaum back in character and that he finally agreed to return to the show. But for all of that buildup, he doesn’t do anything noteworthy besides his one conversation with Clark and killing his sister, Tess. In fact, Lex’s murder of Tess led to the biggest groan worthy moment of the night when she “drugs” him with something to make him conveniently forget everything he knew… thus preserving Superman’s secret and coming in line with the comics.
What a load of crap. That’s right up there with Wolverine getting instant amnesia from the adamantium bullets in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” One of the more refreshing things about “Smallville” was that it basically created its own Superman mythology. Trying to cram the genie back in the bottle ten years later just felt like a cheap way to deal with the fact that Lex knew everything about Clark. I wish they had just embraced that angle instead of trying to destroy it.
Joe Oesterle, of Mania, says :
Supershit. There it is. Contractually I don’t even have to write another sentence. I have just fulfilled my obligation as the reviewer on the series finale of Smallville. It sucked hard and it sucked hard for two hours. I guess that in itself is impressive, but everything else about this show just sucked.
Robert Falconer, of CinemaSpy, says :
Watching the series finale of Smallville last night I found myself frequently on the edge of my seat with anticipation. The two-hour conclusion to a ten-year franchise was, in many ways, beat perfect. Threads were wrapped up nicely. Clark (Tom Welling) learned some valuable lessons from both his human and Kryptonian fathers. Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) was brought back in a way that was largely satisfying for any sci-fi geek (myself included). And Kal-El finally donned the red, blue and yellow duds—though in a way that perhaps teased more than satisfied.
Matt DeGroot, Poptimal, says :
A part of me laments not being able to get a full, clear shot of Welling in the full suit, but maybe a little mystery is better? The show has always been addament about its “no tights, no flights” rule so maybe we’re already a little spoiled and should enjoy what we got – which was a satisfying and incredibly well done conclusion to a story that has captured our imaginations for ten years. The ending felt a little rushed but they gave us everything we could have hoped for and maybe a little more so my hat is off to the show’s producers for respectfully wrapping up a series that has often been mocked as silly and tired with a mature and well-crafted final episode for the ages.
Mike Moody, TVSquad, says :
The bulk of this two-hour finale was just painful to watch. We’re all probably used to ‘Smallville’ rehashing the same old themes, frustrating conflicts and vacuous ideas over and over again by now, but all that stuff seemed more cumbersome and anticlimactic than ever here. For much of the first half, I kept thinking, “Blah, blah blah, I’m tired of this convoluted identity issue business, LET’S GET TO THE GOOD STUFF, SHOW!”
And by “good stuff,” I don’t only mean the suit and the flying. I was hoping for some fun superhero action with the Darkseid storyline, and perhaps another Justice League meetup, or, I don’t know, something a little more compelling than watching Clark learning to view, accept and harness his life experiences as a whole. I mean, hasn’t Clark been down this road a million times before? The details might have been different, but Clark’s internal journey here didn’t feel new or interesting.
Cyriaque Lamar, io9, says
I believed Smallville was inoffensive camp…until I saw “Finale.” I’ve noticed a sinister trend in the final block of episodes — the show was going out of its way to prevent anything of consequence from happening.
Instead of tying up loose ends and building towards Clark’s final conflict with the evil space god Darkseid, Smallville delivered a ton of meandering, no-stakes episodes (not to mention that hilariously execrable Hangover tribute episode in which Superman gets drunk on magic champagne). In light of all this dreck, surely the finale would be an ejaculation of gooey denouement, complete with a cape and John Williams score!
The confessions of a Smallville apologistWhat did we get? John Williams, but not much else
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