Smallville Finale

[Paul (ral)]

Did anyone catch this last night? I haven't seen it yet (live in a different country don't cha know!) but I am hoping to soon.

What did you guys think of it?

[The Dark Knight]

Haven't seen it, but I hear the Superman stuff is very disappointing.

Obscured views of the suit, etc. Which is a shame given the years worth of buildup.

[Silver Nemesis]

It was ok. Not bad, but not great.

Superman is probably my favourite superhero but I never really liked Smallville. I watched the entire first season and bits of seasons 3-4. The last complete season I watched was the fifth. And since then I've just watched the occasional episode (season premieres, the feature length Justice Society episode, etc). I personally don't think it was worth waiting ten seasons for this 'payoff', but it was still pretty cool to see the costume (albeit indistinctly) and hear the Williams score. Considering the budget they had, they did a good job of creating an epic finale. But it hasn't changed my overall opinion of the series.

For all its faults, I still think Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman is the best live action Superman TV show to date. Smallville trumped it in terms of visual effects, but L&C stuck closer to the comics and had an integral charm that Smallville always lacked for me. But that's just my opinion and I don't mean to offend any Smallville fans.

Here are some screen captures I took of the Smallville costume. If anyone would rather wait until they see the episode themselves, then don't scroll down (though you can't see the suit all that clearly anyway).
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[BatmAngelus]

I hated it.  I've only been watching the show on and off since the new showrunners took over, but I watched the finale with anticipation to at least see him become Superman, see Lex Luthor to return as his nemesis, and see Superman's first confrontation with Darkseid.

(SPOILERS)
Instead, we got a really obvious CG cartoon Superman performing two short and really predictable saves, a Lex who turns into an amnesiac thanks to some neurotoxin that we've never heard of that renders his motivation against Clark/Superman completely null (I get that they didn't want him to remember that Clark was Superman anymore, but then...what's his motivation to fight Superman now?  What was the point of his 7 seasons on the show if he doesn't remember anything from his past?), and an anticlimactic scene of an animated Superman pushing Apokolips away from Earth, which seems to magically solve everything.

I had a bunch of other problems with it (and none of which even have anything to do with loyalty to the comics.  Just writing problems in the story they were telling), but I'm glad the show is done now.  I'm grateful for the past episodes I've enjoyed as well as the performances of Michael Rosenbaum and John Glover over the years, but I'm more than ready for a new interpretation on the Superman universe.

[gordonblu]

It looks like they just borrowed the Superman Returns suit, they might have used cg models from the film too. As for the show, I saw a few episodes and never really got into the "Kal-El's Creek" approach. When I saw pics of other superheroes that were featured in the show, I was nonplussed by the lack of effort to even remotely make them look like they are supposed to (I know some things wouldn't work in live action, but a semblance would be nice). At least Dr. Fate looked spot on.

[Paul (ral)]

Like a lot of you I have been watching Smallville since it started. My fiance and I moved in together around about the time Season 5 started (I got a bootleg boxset of seasons 1-4 and we watched a few episodes a day so she could catch up). It is one of the few tv shows that we watched together in all our time together.

Looking back at the first few seasons...man, so much happened in them. They were great. At the time it seemed entirely possible that the series would tie into the mythology we all knew seamlessly - padding everything out. The freak of the week aspect didn't bother me back then. The use of kryptonite as a source of villians was fairly clever I thought...especially as I didn't expect to see major villians and a series that just focused on Clark handling to life with powers would be pretty boring. We were teased with the William's theme every now and then. Clark hovered in his sleep and he became more powerful. All this kept us watching. Waiting for Superman.

After that, especially with the introduction of Lois, Lex finding out Clark's secret and all the Clana crap, the series went down hill - stretching out the enivitable transition to Superman. It did have high points from seasons 4-10, especially in the later, though most involved villians who were too powerful for a flightless, doubting Clark and shouldn't have been there - Brainaic, Doomsday, Zod and Darkseid. All these teased us that Clark would step up to the plate of his destiny. All this kept us watching. Waiting for Superman.

In that was Smallville's problem. We all know it went on too long (to the point that Michael Rosenbaum got bored quoting Greek mythology and shaving his head; and left). There were too many episodes were they seemed to go nuts and copy other films...we had a Matrix episode, a Hangover episode. You could usually tell in the first minute if the episode was filler (which usually had my fiance and I turn to each other and facepalm).

And so I watched the finale. Geninuely excited. Waiting to see Clark put on the suit. Having read a bit about it before-hand I had and idea of what to expect. As a finale it cleared everything up. It killed off the people it was supposed to and wiped the memories of others. It was a rushed mess at times. How convient that all the loose ends would be tied up just as Clark becomes Superman. The last season should have been about tying up those loose ends...it shouldn't have been left to the last 90 minutes (actually the last 30 minutes).

Now I won't lie. I was holding back tears for some reason as Clark was given the suit in the fortress. Jor-El's speech was perfect and Jonathan handing Clark the suit saying "Always hold onto Smallville" was excellent. Maybe that whole scene was worth waiting 10 years for. Just maybe.

However let's remember what kept me watching these past 10 years...I was waiting for Superman. Waiting to see Tom Welling in the suit and have Williams' theme in the background. As the years rolled on and Williams' theme became absent from the show I was expecting to just see Welling in the suit.

And that's why ultimitely, despite being very emotional during the fortress scene, the finale was a failure for me - no Welling in the suit. I can accept that the super-feats were CGI for a tv shows budget but Welling never putting on the suit is unacceptable.

We should be asking why. Really we should. Think about it. Who wouldn't want to have Superman standing in an iconic shot (perhaps on top of the Daily Planet - which should have been the final scene btw, not a shirt-rip)?

Nobody.

So why didn't they?

[Silver Nemesis]

While I never actually loved Smallville, there was a time – so long ago now I'd almost forgotten – when I did at least like it and looked forward to watching each episode. So I do feel a little sad that it's over, even though its conclusion was long overdue. And I've got to admit I did find some of the scenes in the last thirty minutes of the finale quite moving.

A retrospective article on IGN (http://uk.comics.ign.com/articles/116/1168363p1.html) made an interesting point about how the show allowed us to see live action versions of lesser known DC characters who ordinarily were unlikely to appear in a live action medium. It was annoying in the early seasons the way every hero wore a t-shirt/hoody that happened to be the same colour as the costume they wore in the comics. But in recent seasons they made more effort to translate the comic iconography onto the screen. Characters like Booster Gold, Hawkman, Blue Beetle, and especially Dr. Fate, all looked pretty accurate to the source material. And unless they appear in Warner Bros' planned Justice League movie, I think it's going to be a long time before we see live action versions of those characters again.

One other thing I find sad about the show's demise is that, aside from 1998, 1999 and 2000, there's been a live action Superman show on TV every year for the last 23 years.
•   Superboy (1988 – 1992)
•   Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993 – 1997)
•   Smallville (2001 – 2011)
And even in the three years between L&C and Smallville we had Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League. Nowadays Warner Bros are far more conscious of the commercial value of their superhero properties. Consequently I think they'd be less likely to commission a live action Superman show today than they were back in 2001. I doubt we'll see another non-animated Superman series for many years now. And that's a sad thought.

It looks like they just borrowed the Superman Returns suit, they might have used cg models from the film too.

I think that's probably true. There are rumours circulating that they took unused test footage from Superman Returns and reformatted it. If you look at the Superman character model –



– you can see that his face is blurred. Possibly to disguise Brandon Routh's digital likeness?

We should be asking why. Really we should. Think about it. Who wouldn't want to have Superman standing in an iconic shot (perhaps on top of the Daily Planet - which should have been the final scene btw, not a shirt-rip)?

Nobody.

So why didn't they?

I think this question is going to follow Welling around for a long time. I've been seeing a lot of comments from disappointed fans across the internet bemoaning the fact that he never actually wore the suit. Yes, he donned a blue top with the 'S' logo. But he was never shown in the full costume. Rumour has it that his contract stipulated he'd never have to wear the tights. If that's true then it's a kick in the teeth to the fans who waited ten years to see him do it.

The theories I've heard about why he didn't wear the suit are:
1)   He just didn't want to. Every other actor has manned up and worn the tights so it'd be silly for Welling to commit ten years of his life to the project and then balk at taking the final step. Especially when you consider he gets paid an estimated 200,000 dollars per episode. If this is the real reason then it's pretty disrespectful to his fans and to the character.
2)   Warner Bros wouldn't let him wear the suit because they wanted to avoid having the image of another Superman fresh in the audience's mind when Henry Cavill plays the role next year. But considering they didn't have a problem with Ben Affleck wearing the suit for the George Reeves biopic Hollywoodland the same year Superman Returns came out, I don't see why they'd have a problem with a licensed Superman adaptation using the suit now.
3)   They couldn't afford to make the costume. This theory is just ridiculous. If they can afford to make all those other hero costumes – many of which were far more elaborate than Superman's – then they could afford the make the man of steel's suit. Supposedly the suit on display in the Fortress of Solitude was one of Routh's from the 2006 movie. I read somewhere that this had been confirmed by a producer. So in a worst case scenario, Welling could simply have worn that.

Whatever the reason, that aspect of the finale was a letdown. Eventually someone will give us the real reason. But until then we can only speculate.

[BatmAngelus]

Sadly, I think #1 is the most likely, especially since it's well-documented that Welling was apprehensive about taking the role because he didn't want to wear the costume and became more interested in joining the series when they established the "No tights" rule.
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/05/05/smallville-tom-welling-on-saying-goodbye-to-superman/

#2 sounds illogical to me as well, not only because of your Hollywoodland example, but also due to the fact that Snyder's Superman is more than a year away and hasn't even started filming yet. 
Also, if anything, I'd think WB TV would've wanted Tom in the suit for a lot more of the finale and definitely would've promoted him wearing it in advertisements to further attract audiences into tuning in that night.

#3 sounds ridiculous to me as well considering how much they've been able to pull off in past episodes.  Plus they absolutely had the power to put enough money set aside for the suit early on and cut down on some of the more expensive things that didn't need to be in this season (considering there was a ton of filler and unnecessary characters this season, I don't think that would've been hard to do).

Also, I know that a lot of fans who were upset about the CGI suit, lack of Darkseid fight, and other issues, have been putting the blame on the budget and possible restrictions from WB, but I'd argue that it was still the Smallville showrunners' job to make the episode work. 
Television isn't a medium with free reign.  You've got to keep everything within a tight budget, so you can't go overboard on effects, locations, guest characters, etc.  You have to keep writing and turning in quality scripts by certain deadlines and make revisions based on studio and network notes before you can start filming.  You have to have episodes shot and edited under a deadline (as well as apply studio and network notes on those cuts) and then, have those episodes color coded and ready to air by a certain date. 
It's obviously not easy, but it's the showrunners' job to work within these restrictions and produce the best show possible.
In my opinion, when it came to the finale, they failed.

EDIT:  Looks like someone was finally able to ask the executive producers about it.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/smallville-why-we-didn-t-192811

Peterson, who penned Part 2 of the finale with Souders, noted that the series has always been about Clark becoming the hero from the famed mythos and that the adventures of Superman were stories that have been -- and will continue to be told -- via other avenues, including Christopher Nolan's upcoming Man of Steel, set for next year. "[Showing Tom in the full suit] to me is just not super relevant and not what we were trying to do," he said.

Not relevant?  Sorry, but that's exactly what everyone was expecting to see after ten years.  Not a Lois-Clark almost-wedding that gets delayed for seven years.  Not Lex getting his memories of Clark and Smallville wiped by a random toxin. 
It was Clark Kent finally donning the suit and becoming Superman as the big climax of the series and culmination of his arc.  That may have been what the writers intended, but I was hoping to feel some sense of pride for Clark's character and closure that he had completed his journey once he became Superman.  Instead, it all just...happened and fell completely flat for me emotionally.  With the exception of the scene in which Clark gets the suit from the Fortress, I thought it was poorly done.

[thecolorsblend]

So. Sooooooooooooo.

Allison Mack has been arrested for that sex cult stuff and could facing 15-life in prison.

Seriously, wtf?!!?!?

[Silver Nemesis]

Welling returns: https://ew.com/tv/2019/09/19/tom-welling-smallville-crisis-on-infinite-earths-arrowverse/

The cast of the next Arrowverse crossover event now includes Burt Ward, John Wesley Shipp, Kevin Conroy, Brandon Routh and Tom Welling.

But where are Teri and Dean? And how about someone from the Burtonverse?