Just a quick thing to put people's mind's at ease before I start the review. I'm not going to be doing a weekly review of Smallville so don't worry, the blog won't become cluttered with them. I'm mainly going to be doing them when a major guest character comes in or if something so ridiculous happens I need to blog about it. OK so, on with the review.
Smallville is slowly starting to remind me of Tinkerbell. It's become this little light that's slowly going out at the hands of evil doers and all we as fans want to do is clap really loud and say "I do believe in Smallville, I do believe in Smallville". I say this because the people currently in charge of the show don't believe in Smallville and apparently will not rest until they've run the show into the ground. This week's episode is a prime example of how people who have no concept of what Superman or Smallville is about are controlling the series.
This week Clark (or excuse me THE BLUR) faces off against Metallo played on the show by Brian Austin Green the kid from 90210. As the show begins Clark is still doing good deeds but refuses to break off fully from his past life to focus on his Kryptonian training because he loves Lois so much. Meanwhile John Corben (Brian Austin Green) is continuing his quest to try and bring down The Blur. Corben is hit by a truck and wakes up with a Kryptonite heart in this bizarre chest apparatus and a mechanical arm. Tess is also hanging around but mainly with some computer geek trying to figure out where Zod and his army vanished to.
The problems with this episode stem from the idea that nothing actually happens on this show anymore it's all set up and no pay off. If it's not set up and no pay off it's a rush to just get something on screen. For instance we're given no time to get to know Corben before suddenly he's hit by a truck and wakes up as Metallo. The whole driving force of his hatred of The Blur is Corben blames him for his sister's death. That idea is given a whole 6 minutes to marinate and somehow we're supposed to feel a connection to that whole issue.
I also wasn't happy that the producers tried to force it that Zod and his cronies built Metallo. How lucky they chose the one guy who hated The Blur huh? I understand that this is supposed to be another version of the Superman mythos but that doesn't mean trying to force a round peg in a square hole just for ratings.
The build up and no pay off equation really comes to light when Clark finally faces off with Metallo. Just like the big "battle" with Doomsday nothing really happens. They toss each other around a bit and then Clark welds a lead top to the Kryptonite heart which renders Metallo's Kryptonite heart useless as a weapon. Now why didn't Clark do that to begin with instead of this whole ham-fisted electro-bomb thing? So with the Kryptonite heart neutralized Metallo still has his super strength and now it's time for the face to face battle, right!? NOPE. Instead Metallo gets really angry and rips off the lead top effectively pulling out his heart and killing himself. WOW, that was good television. The only reason it wasn't as awful as the Doomsday fight was that it didn't take a whole season to get to.
Acting wise they've shifted the focus again to Lois and that's always a mistake. Erica Durance is a real miracle of evolution in that her acting gets WORSE the longer she's on the show. When confronted with Metallo who wants to kill her she says "When did you become a human light bright"..yep, top notch shit there.
Then there's Brian Austin Green as Corben/Metallo. Apparently somebody told Brian that if he worked out his abs and biceps it would strengthen his acting because that seems to be the focus of his "Metallo" side. Brian allows us to know that he's angry by breathing heavily and talking in the dramatic whisper, outside of that his acting chops are taxed. Combine that with how fake the Metallo heart apparatus looks and you don't get much of a threatening bad guy, which is a shame since Metallo is such a great character.
Then there's Chloe who continues to kick ass and be the emotional center of the entire series. Allison Mack is not only good as her own character but she also raises Tom Welling's (Clark) acting up to a respectable level. You can tell he needs a solid actor to play off of because his work with Erica Durance has zero chemistry and zero believability. I keep hoping the producers will go way off the reservation and have Lois die and Clark fall in love with Chloe because she's somebody you want to see stick around.
Another aspect of the show that kind of bugged me was the end when Clark suddenly returns after deciding that he can't turn his back on his humanity. I have no issue with that happening, in fact I kind of expected it, but once again the producers rushed it. The end of last season was all about Clark giving up his humanity as was the season premiere. He battled Jor-El about Lois, Chloe about turning his back on Clark and then BAM he's back and everything is okay.
Why not let that be an underlining theme for the entire season, why end it so soon? Personally I think that the producers know the ship is sinking so they're throwing anything they can at us hoping something will stick.
Hey guys check the ratings, your plan isn't working.
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