Special Effects from Bizarro.......

[Dean_19]

The CG was good on the whole. TV gets a lot less time and less cash for these things than movies. Plus water stuff is notoriously hard to do, especially with very little development time.

The only thing I didn't like was Bizarro's face effect. It was too obvious, it needed to be more subtle. You didn't even need an effect for that, they could have just taken it as simple logic, the sun makes supes stringer, so if Bizarro is opposite it makes sense it would make him weaker.

[MidgardDragon]

The face effect was mostly a nod for comics fans, since Bizarro is traditionally white and pasty. I think the cracked-face made him much more menacing and was, although not realistic (it's not supposed to be people, this is Sci-Fi), a very beautifully done effect. I was surprised they managed to make it look as good as it did, really. The last flying scene of Phantom was good, but a closeup of a quick effect is a lot different then having to do it with him moving around and doing stuff. Glad they didn't have it cracked all the time, though, because then it would've gotten a little old.

[Jaded Wolf]

Originally posted by clarkbunny
No, no, no the whole point of CGI is to make the impossible look possible - AND REAL. That's what these CGI studios are paid mega bucks for. When the impossible looks fake - that's bad CGI! We all know cybernetic robots do not exist but the terminator scared us all none the less as he looked damn real in all the films. We all know spiderman doesn't exist and people can't really swing from building to building with webs but that looked real too.

The water scene in Smallville did not look real, if you cannot make CGI action blend in with the live action don't bother.

For that brief moment it took me out of the imagination bubble of smallville to think oh my god what is this crap ?!?

The directors speak in the commentaries about shots & scenes that didn't work, they even laugh about it. So I am not wrong in being critical about some CGI that just didn't work.

Oh and on a side note, I watched a program the other day - not sci-fi but just a normal documentary about surfers chasing the big waves.

In analysing how they do it they had a shot of the live action stopped and they went into the wave showing the stopped water and the surfer and the water dripping off the surfer and the wave all stopped in mid air. I have no idea how they did it but it looked real and it wasn't like it was a sci-fi show - so it is possible to make stopped water look real. The water in smallville didn't even look like water any more it looked like plastic or a drawing.

Hey I love the show but i've got to call a spade a spade when I see it - and that was some bad cgi right there.

CGI never makes anything look real. Look at the Star Wars prequel. CGI made it look all fake. The point of CGI is to take what once required manual labor and many pulleys and moving parts and make it easier to produce on film. People need to take a look at Joss Whedon's Serenity. That movie was produced with minimum special effects and the scenes looked real. As for the dam scene, for once I have to agree with MidGardDragon and say that the dam scene will look fake because there is no one on this earth who can slow down time and make a river of water evaporate that quickly.

[MidgardDragon]

CGI never makes anything look real.

Probably the first thing I've ever agreed with JW on. And it's not supposed to make it look real, nor is that a bad thing, IMO. Sometimes fantasy should look fantastic. Realistic would be the opposite of that.

[clarkbunny]

Well we will have to agree to disagree on the CGI then. As I think CGI is supposed to make the impossible look possible and believable. The integration of CGI with live action should be seamless when done properly. Most of the time I am very impressed with the special effects in Smallville this time I was disappointed.

[tornoofo17]

Did they just run out of money by the end of the episode? Seriously, the ending with Lana had to be cheesiest green screen job I've ever seen. Oh and Clark getting clocked in the face in slo-mo look really, really funny.

[Clark/Lois-fan]

Clark using heat vision at the water was awesome. Wish it had been longer though, but...

When Clark uses his super hearing at the hospital. It's done so much cooler than before, when we get inside his ear...

At Reeve's Dam when Clark jump & tries to hit Bizarro- that looked amazing, & when he got hit in slow mo

That's my favorite speciel effects from Bizarro