I commandeered my friend's large-screen television on a Friday night to watch the premiere of the 2-hour Smallville movie, and while it was 1/3 cheese it was also 2/3 awesome! I think, even if you'd never watched Smallville before, this would have been a good episode/movie to catch. All you would need to know you could have figured out pretty quickly. Clark Kent and Lois Lane are reporters at the Daily Planet. Clark's best friends are others who either have special powers or just enjoy saving lives, and they often team up on cases to help people (in the comic books, this team will eventually become the Justice League which includes Batman and Wonder Woman, but for now, Clark hasn't even made the leap to becoming Superman yet, so the Justice League has not yet been formed). Chloe is the Watchtower, an uber intelligent cyber hacker who can find out anything at the snap of a finger and who connects all of the "superheoes" on Smallville with one another; Oliver is a hunk of hotness in green leather who could shoot the apple off of your head with perfect precision from a mile away, and he's otherwise known as the Green Arrow; John is a police officer and Martian bounty hunter now living as a human after the loss of his abilities (he saved Clark's life on a previous episode and thus lost his powers).
For this movie event, it kicks off when a strangely costumed man comes to warn Chloe that she and her "friends" are in danger. He is pretty much murdered in front of her by a weirdo wielding icicles, and it kicks off an investigation that leads to a band of other strangely dressed "criminals" that are being murdered off one by one. The band is a team of superheroes called the Justice Society of America.
Overall, I thought they did an amazing job, considering this was only the CW and it was Smallville. I thought the first hour was a little slow and where most of the cheese occurred, but of course, the first hour didn't have Lois Lane, Tess Mercer or much action. It also didn't have the costumes. As an aside, I must say that I really loved when Tess showed up at the Daily Planet, talked to Lois and Tess mentioned that "print is dead." I've been wondering when Smallville would recognize this modern day reality about newspapers. But I really, really loved Lois Lane's comeback when she handed Tess her business card and said, "My name, in print. I guess I haven't been having many problems." Oh, I loved that moment. Such a great Lois thing to say.
Geoff Johns did an excellent job on the writing and even made me tear up with some of the dialogue (I literally had chills; that man seriously needs to write a superhero movie), and I was pretty impressed with star Tom Welling's direction of the second half of the movie. I think he will have a good career as a director when he gives up acting.
My five favorite moments:
5. The scene where Clark went to the JSA museum and uncovered the exhibits. I mean, when he leaned in and saw a green lantern and green eyemask, I had an OMG moment and cheered on the inside. It was an obvious shout out to Green Lantern, who is a Justice League member not yet featured on the show because of DC Comics legalities, I'm sure. But a really cool moment none-the-less.
4. When Dr. Fate saw Clark's future and it flashed a vision of the red cape and S symbol blowing in the wind, I almost cried. Sometimes it's easy to forget now that on Smallville, Clark isn't Superman yet. He's still in training to be Superman, but someday he will wear that cape, red boots and blue spandex suit I love so much. Totally cool.
3. Great uplifting speech by Dr. Fate about Clark's destiny as a savior. Part of it is below in the scene embedded. It also shows why I LOVE Lois Lane, and especially Erica Durance as Lois Lane. Her final comment at the end of the clip nails it - it nails why I love Lois so much. She's so spunky!
2. Loved Stargirl's speech to Chloe about the Justice Society and when she asked about Chloe's team. When she gave the whole "Where's the table where you gather to eat? Where do you hang out?" speech and it showed Chloe's face, I knew that was the moment on the show when the Justice League truly forms. Especially when Stargirl added, "Family's not just about blood." And Stargirl's comment that the old superhero team was a family who got together for holidays and fun times and not just when things were bad and that was why it worked...loved it. Great lesson there, Chloe.
1. I almost picked the scene at the end with Oliver aka Green Arrow, John and Chloe as my favorite because it goes hand-in-hand with the scene above. John (aka Martian Manhunter) comes in to see Chloe and tells her that she, Clark, Oliver and the others are his only family now that he's not on Mars, then Oliver shows up, just because he wanted to see them, and then they all decide to go grab dinner together. Like a family would. Oh, it almost made me cry. But my favorite scene is really this one. Hawkman's speech to Clark at the end of the show. It made me feel great about the future of Smallville and the JLA on Smallville.
No comments:
Post a Comment