Smallville10x21&22 "Finale" Discuss/Grade

[Procutus]

At least it was fun participating in the final commentary thread.

That it was. It has been an extreme pleasure doing these commentaries with you guys for the past five years. It's given me a lot of pleasure, and it's going to seem strange not to see you all again next September.

Then again, we may turn this into the Never-Ending Smallville Thread, so who knows!

 

[Skywalker]

So Superman saves a crashing airplane which happens to have Lois aboard, and then saves the planet by throwing a giant hunk of rock away from it.

These writers are brilliant! Why didn't Warner Bros. hire them to do the new movie?

 

[Procutus]

It would have been funny if CGI Superman had thrown the planet and it was announced that he saved Earth but destroyed Vulcan in the process...

Maybe he hit Nero's ship instead.

 

[Gotham Central]

Wait...can someone explain the comic book? I mean it would make sense if it were called Superman...but it was called Smallville. Plus...why didn't Oliver get to be in that final scene with Chloe?

Why is there a comic about Clark's life? His secret doesn't appear to be out. Or was there some sort of framing narrative I missed that place Chloe and her son outside of continuity?

I had a problem with that as well... It was like real-life intruding on the narrative. I mean, how in the name of hell can you have a comic book about him revealing who Supes is if no one is supposed to know that Clark is Supes?



The scene was cute... It just didn't make any sense.

That's why I asked the question. If the comic had just been called Superman you could just chalk it up to DC comics merely speculating about Superman's life (in the comics they actually made a movie at one point). The fact that it was called Smallville suggests that the real story was being told. Of course...what could have happened is that Chloe works for DC as a writer and wrote her own version of events and changed the names to protect the innocent.

 

[Procutus]

You realize, no one called him Superman but Chloe when reading the comic?

I'm still chuckling over her line about seeing him in the funny pages.

 

[Mr Silver]

-One hour of wasted potential

Potential doing what? It followed the tone of the show as best it could and made a decent build towards Clark finally becoming Superman.

-Darkseid's minions taken out by just some arrows

'Minions' being the key word. Lets not forget that Green Arrow is also a 'Superhero' and things like that are all in a days work throughout the Green Arrow comics.

-Darkseid's defeat

Would you rather they blew the entire budget on Matrix quality fight scenes and had little or no acting, along with poor quality CGI and no John Williams score?

-Apokolips just being pushed away. Not a single troop from Darkseid's army? I guess them flying would have been too much

Superman has done far more OTT things in the comics. With Darkseid's defeat...how would he call his army?

-CGI superman

Superman Returns was just the same in all wide terrain shots

-Last minute retcon of Lex and all his memories. But Lex has lost his memories in the past and somehow regained a shred of it.

Staying true to the Superman mythos, where Lex Luthor doesn't initially have any knowledge of who Superman really is.

 

[Broccoli]

It was corny at parts (in a good way), but overall I thought it was great! I really don't know what people were expecting, but it wrapped up things nicely for the overall arc of the season with the Lois & Clark relationship and then Clark coming fully into his own.

To people complaining that Clark and Darkseid didn't have a full on brawl...what that ever in the cards? I mean, did the producers ever say or imply that was going to be happening in any way, shape, or form?

And with people complaining about not seeing a battle on Apocalypse...the Apocalypse featured in the episode was just a simple planet. It didn't have any civilization on it. It was coming to Earth because of the Omega mark on people.

Interestingly enough, this episode had a lot of (presumably) unintentional similarities to Superman Returns in the CGI Superman and the fact that the problem was solved by Superman pushing a giant rock into space.

The surprise in Aaron Ashmore was awesome, and I am pretty convinced that was Michael McKean's voice we heard as Perry White.

One piece of nice news is that, in the year 2018, DC Comics will still be only $2.99 and they will still be promoting it with the "Drawing the line..." slogan!

And what hapened to Toyman and the Legion from last week? Please keep these writers away from writing tv.

What happened is that Toyman is in jail and the other members of Marionette Ventures (not the Legion) had their own targets (ie. who they typically menace in the comics). Plus, since this was the day after the previous episode and everything on the planet went to hell, it is likely that they either didn't get whatever villainous scheme in place yet or said to each other "Um...lets hold off a bit guys."

 

[DarthPipes]

Re: So did Clark put on the suit and fly? (Smallville SPOILERS)

CGI Clark put on the suit...

 

[Agent Richard07]

If the comic had just been called Superman you could just chalk it up to DC comics merely speculating about Superman's life (in the comics they actually made a movie at one point). The fact that it was called Smallville suggests that the real story was being told. Of course...what could have happened is that Chloe works for DC as a writer and wrote her own version of events and changed the names to protect the innocent.

That makes a bit of sense, but telling a story like that still constitutes revealing too much even if names are changed.

Anyway, so long Smallville. And thanks for the fun times everyone.

 

[Showdown]

The last few minutes was a good way to end the series. I love they used John Williams score. Lex's mind wipe is probably out of necessity to continuity. Good to see Lex and Jimmy too. Like many of you, I always thought that Welling will never wear the suit, and will only show the S shield at the very last second. Didn't expect to see the CG Superman saving the day.

 

[Procutus]

Of course...what could have happened is that Chloe works for DC as a writer and wrote her own version of events and changed the names to protect the innocent.

I'll go along with that, in fact, it makes as much sense as anything, given the evidence shown. After all these years, she's still sort of covering his butt.

I like that.

 

[Samurai8472]

-CGI superman

Superman Returns was just the same in all wide terrain shots

True

but was every shot of Superman CGI? No

The point is, that they could have did one shot with Welling in an actual suit.


But no, they just resorted to CGI for every single shot of Superman


I'm going to watch "Superman Returns" Yes the finale was so underwhelming i'm going to watch "Superman Returns"

lol

 

[Icemizer]

I will say I liked the way Johnathon Kent was put into the final. Tying up the stories of the two fathers was probably one of the better points of the whole thing.

 

[Mr Silver]

-CGI superman

Superman Returns was just the same in all wide terrain shots

True

but was every shot of Superman CGI? No

No..but as I said in an earlier post, it was probably due to Tom Welling and the NTNF's rule (or respect to it) that Clark wasn't show in his full Superman Suit in all its Digital Film glory. Can't people just accept that we saw him put the suit on, fly around in it and then show the crest off in a classic Superman gesture at the end?

 

[Lookingglassman]

It got weak at the end. I figured there would be a bigger battle against the possessed Lionel Luther.

 

[Broccoli]

I remember the convention video where John Schneider was talking about how he'd end Smallville and he basically said that Clark would be looking into a mirror contemplating something, then, out of nowhere, Jonathon Kent would walk up behind him, put the cape on him, say "It's okay," and the show would fade to black, the end. Interesting to see that idea was partially ported in the scene where Jon gave the suit to Clark in the actual episode.

 

[Lt. Trull]

That last shot reminded me of that nude model paint (the painted on swimsuit) yeah I know it was cgi... but still....

 

[Mr Silver]

It got weak at the end. I figured there would be a bigger battle against the possessed Lionel Luther.

Like I said, whats the point on having an extended battle that takes up a big amount of the episode budget, especially when its done to illustrate Clark, finally grasping his potential and becoming Superman?

 

[Lookingglassman]

Re: So did Clark put on the suit and fly? (Smallville SPOILERS)

They did it in such a way where you really never saw him in the full suit. He was either too far way to see his face or the closeups showed his head with part of the cape flapping behind his neck. At the end he opens his shirt and reveals the "S" on his shirt and it goes off.

 

[startrekwatcher]

To people complaining that Clark and Darkseid didn't have a full on brawl...what that ever in the cards? I mean, did the producers ever say or imply that was going to be happening in any way, shape, or form?

No but this is a series finale, Darkseid is a tough motherf*cker and Clark becomes Superman you'd think there would be an epic fight.

And with people complaining about not seeing a battle on Apocalypse...the Apocalypse featured in the episode was just a simple planet. It didn't have any civilization on it. It was coming to Earth because of the Omega mark on people.

Darkseid and Apokolips were just macguffins in the end. But you'd think in the series finale and on a show as bad as this they'd give us some exciting fights and battle sequences involving Parademons or having Superman go there and confront Darkseid instead of the other way around if for no reason that add some excitement to the mix. Afterall they hinted at his coming all season and not to pay it off in a more grand scale and more focal way seems inept on the part of the writers.

What happened is that Toyman is in jail and the other members of Marionette Ventures (not the Legion) had their own targets (ie. who they typically menace in the comics). Plus, since this was the day after the previous episode and everything on the planet went to hell, it is likely that they either didn't get whatever villainous scheme in place yet or said to each other "Um...lets hold off a bit guys."

Yes if we were talking about the real world you could make that argument but Smallville is fictional entertainment--silly me I just assume if the writers make a point of making a big deal out of it and setting it up as something more then they should follow through otherwise why frame it the way they did?