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The Final Smallville - Countdown/LIVE Discussion Thread For "Finale"

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  • Smallville's Big Finish: An Oral History Marking 5 Years Since Clark Took Flight

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    • Decided to rewatch the finale. It has its good parts and bad parts. It tries to do a lot at the same time. We've got the Lois & Clark wedding, the conclusion of the Darkseid plot, conclusion of the E-2 Lionel plot, resurrection of Lex Luthor and Clark putting on the suit. Given that they didn't get married, the wedding plotline could probably have been dropped.

      Certainly the return of Lex would've required its own episode. By doing it in this episode, as a subplot, you end up with a rushed conclusion (not only do you have to bring him back, but you also have to remove his knowledge about Clark's secret) and a very problematic one at that. For one thing, I'm confused if this really is Lex (merely repaired with pieces from clones) or if he's simply a Lex Luthor clone, constructed from pieces of other Lex clones. If it's the latter, than he's only another Lex clone and not the real deal. The real deal was killed two years earlier. Which means that the Lex Luthor destined to be Superman's archnemesis was a clone of Lex, not the original. Another problem is that they end up erasing all of his memories (not just Clark's secret), meaning seven years of character development is undone. So, they might as well have introduced a brand-new character, named Alexei or Alexis (something that can be shortened to "Lex"), another one of Lionel's illegitimate kids, who becomes the canon Lex Luthor.

      This situation was no doubt caused, because they weren't sure if Michael Rosenbaum would return, until the last minute. In hindsight, perhaps they should've done like Superboy did in the 80's: recast the part and explain the change in appearance as being due to plastic sugery. However, that would be easier said than done. Superboy did it after one season, which had only featured Luthor four times. Smallville had used the same Lex for seven seasons and 152 episodes. Would the viewers have been okay with a recasting? They really were between a rock and a hard place, with the Lex issue.

      The framing device with the comic book didn't work. They were clearly trying homage Superman The Movie, but that film had a kid in the real world read a comic, which we then traveled into. Here the comic was about actual events, in their universe, and showed the reader the secret identity of Superman.

      Sad to see Tess being killed. Thankfully, they brought her back in the S11 comic.

      My favorite bits of the episode was the montage sequence of Clark's trials, which I deeply enjoyed. And him taking flight in the Fortress.

      During the events of this episode, Clark would've been 23-24 years old. So, despite the fact that it took ten years for him to put on the suit, he is among the youngest when it comes to putting on the suit in live-action adaptations. No idea how old the Kirk Alyn Clark Kent was supposed to be, when he put on the suit. The George Reeves Clark Kent was said to be 25. The Christopher Reeve Clark was 30 years old, when he becomes Superman. The Dead Cain version would've been about 27. And the Henry Cavill Clark was 33, when he puts on the suit. The only two that was younger was the John Newton/Gerard Christopher Clark from the 80's Superboy series and the Johnny Rockwell Clark from The Adventures of Superboy and those were Superboy, not Superman. Don't think people usually consider this. I once saw someone compliment the Henry Cavill Clark for doing in two hours, what it took Smallville's Clark ten years. The movies may be two hours long, but the events in them take place over 30-33 years. If the Reeve and Cavill Clarks had also been on TV (and starting out in the same point in Clark's life as SV did), it would've taken actually them 16 and 19 years, to get the main character in the suit. Looking at it like that, it actually took Henry Cavill's Clark nine more years to put on the suit, than it took Welling's Clark. Eleven years, if you count Clark's time as the Blur.

      This was probably a tricky episode to make. You're doing the last episode of the season, the entire series in fact. The cast is no doubt tired. And you need to make sure that the budget covers everything. Not just guest actors, but special effects. For this episode they had to show the planet Apokalips, coming dangerously close to the Earth. Create a CGI Superman, who could be flying around (I should perhaps note that much of the flying done on the current shows are also done with CG-doubles, rather than an actor on wires) and use the John Williams' theme (which I'm assuming they have to pay him for) for Superman. And being the last two episodes of the season, they had probably already spent much of the budget for the season.
      Last edited by jon-el87; 06-26-2017, 03:27 AM.

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