Smallville "Finale" Series Finale Talkback (Spoilers)

[The Penguin]

Believe! It's the two-hour series finale of Smallville tonight at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.

Smallville #10-21 "Finale" - Series Finale
Friday, May 13, 2011 @ 8 p.m. ET/7 CT on The CW
BE THERE AS SMALLVILLE WRAPS UP CLARK KENT'S TEN-YEAR JOURNEY IN AN EPIC TWO-HOUR SERIES FINALE - The story of Clark Kent (Tom Welling) culminates in this epic two-hour series finale as Clark takes the last step to becoming the Man of Steel. With surprise guest appearances, nods to the first few seasons of the series and Michael Rosenbaum's return as Lex Luthor, this final episode wraps up a decade-long story following one man's journey to becoming the world's greatest superhero. Erica Durance, Allison Mack, Justin Hartley, Cassidy Freeman, John Glover, Annette O'Toole and John Schneider also star. Kevin Fair directed "Finale Part 1," which was written by Al Septien & Turi Meyer.

#10.20: "Prophecy"

CWTV.com - Smallville

 

[DarkAngel]

Haven't watched in years, but if this is the final episode, I think I have to check it out.

 

[klammed]

Haven't watched in years, but if this is the final episode, I think I have to check it out.

This (especially if Rosenbaum's appearing). And man, Tom Welling's grown.

 

[Palin Dromos]

iTunes is offering all 10 season premiere episodes for free right now as a promotional tie-in to the finale. Don't know how long it will last.

Pilot
Vortex
Exile
Crusade
Arrival
Zod
Bizzaro
Odyssey
Savior
Lazarus

HD too (720p).

I own them all on DVD (except Lazarus) but free stuff is free stuff

Looking forward to the end, in a bittersweet way.

 

[CantThinkOfaName]

CW is airing a ridiculous amount of commercials.

 

[Wounded_Dragon]

This finale thinks too highly of itself. Less talky, more do-y

 

[CantThinkOfaName]

I agree. The finale was a bit disappointing. Tom Welling never wore the full suit. All the action shots were CG. He only wore the suit during the rooftop scene. Darkseid was defeated too easily. I don't know. I was just expecting more.

 

[Nephets]

If you took everything you knew about Smallville (i.e. awesome season openers, decent season finales circa S6, budget that prevents superfights) this episode was pretty alright. Though I do agree, this episode was more dialogue driven than action.

Lex's memory loss, was handled alot better than it could have been. Tess injecting him with neurotoxins is a better explanation than him being brought back to life with amnesia...hell, after the whole super suit incident, I wouldn't have minded.

Darkseid's intent was still just...off. I heard that there was some deleted scenes that explained more about Apokolips. Shame that we never got to see it, but hopefully it'll make it's way onto the DVD's

 

[DarkAngel]

This finale thinks too highly of itself. Less talky, more do-y

Agreed.

And visually...I don't know, I'm having a tough time finding the right descriptors, so maybe someone can help me out and do a better job, but it looked lame/dated/B-movie-esque. You know? Like a direct-to-video, cheap, generic take on Superman rather than the real thing. I only mention that because if it comes across that way on its premiere night, how's it going to be perceived just a few years from now? I guess that comes from reaching too much. If they don't have the money to do a Darkseid story right, then maybe they should have gone for something more manageable.

And I wouldn't have minded the weak fx if, like WD said, there was more entertaining action and less talk. I was stunned when I realized half the finale was over and it seemed like nothing had happened yet.

Also, if I was following things correctly, Lex had a neurotoxin used on him that took away his memories. Is that right? Man, was that necessary? Smallville has to have diverged from official comic book details/canon in so many ways already...was it really necessary to end with Lex not knowing Clark's Kal-El/Superman? When Lex and Clark had their face to face, and Lex called him Kal-El and it seemed to carry all the baggage of everything that had happened between them over the whole series, I thought that was one of the best parts of the finale. And then they throw that all away at the end?!?!? Come on! I wasn't even a fan of the series, but it feels like that move robs the series of everything that was done with the Clark/Lex relationship over all the seasons. Really a bad, stupid, unnecessary move.

And what was the deal with "the rapture" and "left behind" and all that. Seriously? Not a huge deal, but it just felt weird to be hearing that stuff here.

Two questions (since I haven't been watching the series):
1. Clark, when talking with Jonathon, mentioned a previous encounter with Darkseid. Was that done similar to this episode with DS inhabiting someone else's body?

2. What was Smallville's take on why Clark's wearing the glasses, since it appears he's been wearing them but only became Superman in this episode.

DA

 

[Bazinga1978]

As a fan who has been watching every episode since the beginning I was satisfied with the finale. This was his journey to becoming Superman and they did that. This was a satisfying closing that I have been watching ten years to see.

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[Shredder565]

It personally fell on my expectations...

- Clark flying to do a goku like dragon fist on darkseid was a tad un expected, but the darkseid defeat in ten seconds wasn't.

- Chloe Junior and the Superboy comic WAS a surprise. Wonder if she's editor in chief?

- Why wait 7 years to get married? Nice touch to have the REAL Jimmy, not some fake one to get an emotional surprise death, in the finale. And I love the touch of only hearing michael mckean, not seeing him. Especially after just watching Short Circuit 2 on blu ray .

-Jonathon handing him the suit at the end. Not only does it prove he's a real ghost and not a figment of clark's imagination, but just a great symbolic touch.

- Only real complaint, but not un expected, is no full shot of clark in the suit. I thought that was REALLY lame after ten years of build up. A quick ten second shot would be nice...

 

[nick p]

The Smallville Finale was everything I hoped it would be. The suit, theme, fathers, flight. Best series finale I've ever seen.http://www.google.com/search?q=#sma...=juvNTcuxGZKRgQfJsKDGDA&sqi=2&ved=0CDEQsQcwBA

 

[Wounded_Dragon]

I feel absolutely cheated. The finale feels like the show producers patting themselves on the back every other minute. Take the epiphany scene right before Clark gains the ability to fly. Now normally the shots(memories) used for such a scene would have emotional/character significance. Instead, it runs like they picked out all their favorite scenes and any other scenes fans like and stuck them in there. And if they were wanting to go with the "the whole series has been your trials" they didn't need to have it go on and on and on and on. That wasn't Clark's trial, that was ours!

Meanwhile, every money shot is off-screen, leaving us with either crowd reactions, wide shots, or a close-in on the face. We barely get to see Clark moving Apokolips. This has an interesting side-effect: because we don't get to see the effort of Clark moving it, it comes off as too plot device rather than heroic deed. "Whoops, we need to resolve this episode in two minutes, move it Clark!"

This is of course assuming you weren't bored to tears by then. The back and forth of Part 1 and the first half of Part 2 was entirely too dialogue heavy. The conversations reek of writers too in love with the way they're handling things to stop. It slowed things far too much. It's rather ironic that there was a DBZ-Kai commercial during my showing. There is a point in the episode where a government guy gives "the Blur" 5 minutes to save the day. Well, that 5 minutes turned into a half-hour. Really guys, tighten things up or give us some big-time pay-off.

Don't get me wrong, there are moments of good emotion. The rising of the suit, Jor-El's final words, Pa Kent handing him the suit was a particuarly touching scene. Once they got to the point, Clark's faith driving the darkness out of Oliver is a nice scene. Oliver giving the shaft to the three disciples was satisfying. Lois clocking the arrogant political correspondent got a few chuckles out of me.

Heck, Lex killing Tess while she poisons and wipes his memories was actually better done than I expected. The return to status quo was expected but the price paid being her life makes it passable.

In a nutshell, the finale is pretty much Smallville in a nutshell, lots of brilliant inspirations but the execution is ultimately fumbled. The Luthor as president at the end is emblematic, as Lex becoming president in 5 years after a full-scale memory wipe just breaks all sorts of credulity; however, we're supposed to wink-wink and enjoy the reference to comic continuity.

 

[Superpan]

I was disappointed, but I feel my disappointment has been summed up...so my comment is....did Chloe and Olvier get married? That's not supposed to happen....

Also, it was seven years after Lex becmae President. Though how someone becomes a politician becomes president after losing his ENTIRE memory is truly a miracle. Maybe a serum restored most of it? I don't know. It was lame....

 

[young101]

I think everyone was waiting for a full shot of the suit but based on the interview welling gave to kimmel, it didn't really sound like we would get it, and we didn't. I only wish they just showed the head and some of the shoulders at least! His head and neck with CG'd flapping cape and background looked.....meh.

Everything was certainly tied up into a neat little package, well in the way that it had to satisfy the DC's wishes I'm assuming. Pretty predictable if you think about it (ie. lex losing memories, the full on lois lane look, the actual jimmy, lex as president etc).

I was wondeirng, if they killed off jimmy's brother so that the smallville series fits in some sort of continuitiy with the comics, are we to assume that chloe and oliver's son is the actual green arrow (since he's supposed to be with black canary)?

 

[Superpan]

I didn't know it was the full-on Lois Lane look that included the glasses.

Anyhoo, the more I think about it, the more I feel cheated. They did not have to go all over the place like this. Of course where some see a messy finale, I see an interesting splinter DC universe that i can now officially make stories up about in my head without worrying about continuity.

That said....I haven't been paying attention alot to the past two seasons. What happened to Mia Dearden? Did she leave for some reason?

 

[kid rabbit]

I was wondeirng, if they killed off jimmy's brother so that the smallville series fits in some sort of continuitiy with the comics, are we to assume that chloe and oliver's son is the actual green arrow (since he's supposed to be with black canary)?[/QUOTE]

Oliver and Chloes son is Conner hawk the second green arrow and Oliver's son in regular dc continuity

 

[Fleo]

The finale was weak it felt to rushed and lacked substance. They could have done more with Lex and to make him forget everything was horrible; it destroys the character and does not give him any motivation for his actions in the future.

I wonder who Chole's child is, I think possibly a reinvented version of Roy or maybe Connor.

The episode had it's good moments, especially with Johnathon coming back and talking to Clark in the barn. And the family hug made me tear up a little.

 

[Bat-Fan Beyond]

The last two hours of Smallville represents, to me, exactly how the series as a whole was all through the course of its entire ten season existence: A considerable amount of great moments sprinkled here and there throughout tons and tons of crap from beginning to end.

What should have been the series' most defining and exciting moment in its finale, with Clark pulling open his shirt exposing the famous red "S" blazoned on his chest as the almost equally famous John Williams movie score swells in volume, instead becomes the makes-no-difference creamy whipped topping and sweet juicy cherry added quite a bit too late to a stinking dung sundae I had already begun to forcefully eat.

That final moment that would have otherwise left this fanboy with emotional tears in his eyes, instead just left me feeling empty and relieved that it was all over, especially after the first hour of that two-hour finale which was so terrible that it was unbearably painful to sit through without yelling about how terrible it was.

I've loved this series and I've hated this series. I faithfully watched it every week since its pilot, never missing a new episode whenever it aired. I was one of its biggest fans and one of its biggest critics, and despite how often it annoyed me with its often bad writing and direction, I still tuned in and continued on in dedicated acceptance of its flaws, because I loved the cast and their characters, and I loved the concept of Superman in his early years and the moral stories that accompanied it, regardless of how poorly they were executed from time to time. I'll miss this show, but I'm really glad that its all finally over now.

R.I.P., Smallville

 

[Bazinga1978]

If all you wanna do is complain get over it. I have enjoyed Smallville from day one and think it was a new and interesting take on the mythology of Superman. I watched it for what it was a tv show that was an escape from reality and not to criticize every little detail. If you were a true fan you would not complain and enjoy the fact that we got closer to the story unlike so many other shows.

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