Finale

Thanks forever Smallville! What a epic and nostalgic final after ten seasons!! Incredible!!!

Epic ending to a fantastic story, I got goosebumps and wet eyes. Thanks for the journey Smallville, Im sad its already ending here, but all good must end some day and better it ends at its peak.

All the actors through the series have done such a great job bringing the story to live, and my favorite is and will be Lois and Clarks relationship in the end, just wow, so natural that it almost feels like its not a movie 😁 Now I will proberly just start watching it all over again 😂😀😁

Three months after it was aired in the US, I in France just came at last to see Smallville's finale and... oh my God! I was screaming and laughing and crying in front of my screen: at last I was seeing the true Superman live again! Tom Welling was meant to wear the blue suit and red cape, he was made to be Superman; for the first time since the 1978 movie with regretted Christopher Reeve, I saw this symbol of hope, flying with his red cape in the wind and the mythical music theme of John Williams as a bonus. This final double episode was really satisfying, with beloved guest-stars and many brilliant ideas to link together the series with the universe of the comics. Of course, not everything was perfect, for example Lois and Clark's relationship was not quite as bubbly as usual, but they're cute nevertheless, and I believe that every fan found what they expected. I think we can congratulate Smallville's writers and producers for the coherence and inventiveness of the universe they created and its respect for its model. They took the stand for 10 years and they can be proud of their work.

The preceding (9th) season of Smallville was my least favorite--a 4/10 star stinker. Finally given an endgame to shoot for, the series improves a bit on that performance here--but unfortunately not as much as one might hope. The plotting and character beats still bump up against the same old problems that the series forever harbored.

I'll start with the good: every S10 episode feels like a wrap-up, of sorts, bringing back an old character for a denouement or bidding farewell to a fond location. This is a marked improvement over the parade-rest stalling of S9 which became interminable. A few episodes--such as Homecoming, Beacon, and the two-part Finale--are surprisingly emotionally affecting for such a long-in-the-tooth show.

Alas, the series still gets stuck in the molasses swamp in two key arenas:

First and foremost, it seemingly can't keep an arc in its head for more than a couple episodes at a time. The last time the series attempted a long arc was the decent Doomsday angle back in S8. There are actually some interesting ideas thrown around in this S10, such as...

-The U. S. government's reaction to superheroes.

-The notion that Darkseid preys on the evil within human hearts.

-The "Earth 2" arc, which really teased some interesting character combinations and allowed old friends to return. In all honesty, the entire season could have been built around this and it might have been more successful overall.

-Clark Kent (Tom Welling) coming to terms with the hero he is destined to become, including a relationship with Lois Lane (Erica Durance) that in these later seasons produced some surprising chemistry (considering Lois could have been voted "most annoying character" in her early goings on the show).

Sadly, none of those arcs realize their full potential because the writers seemingly cannot (or will not) commit to any of them. More of a "mix everything in a bowl" approach as opposed to really digging in to the pacing and storytelling.

Character-wise, Smallville's tenth go-around also does the thing it has engaged in since the Pilot...that being allowing plots to dictate character motivations rather than the other way around. Here, the way a character is utilized in any given episode is almost 100% predicated on "what this week needs" rather than any sort of past precedent. This approach renders character consistency moot and undercuts much of the potential emotional fertile ground. It is really tough to truly feel anything towards characters that are pulled hither and yon depending on what the plot calls for this particular 42 minutes.

Overall, I settle on a right-down-the-middle 5/10 ranking for Smallville's curtain call campaign. Does the season deliver a solid finale? Yes. But ultimately the breadth of the campaign bandies about a lot of interesting possibilities without committing to any of them. Pair this with no more than surface-level (if that, at times) character depth and you have a season that feels like a different show every week--and Smallville isn't supposed to be an anthology.

What a long and inspiring journey it was ! It's how I felt after watching the Finale. 10 seasons to find the strength to put one foot in front of the other in our daily life. 10 seasons to witness the birth of heroes we can relate to. 10 seasons to entertain ourselves but more important to educate us. Despite its flaws long time fans had found in the show what they needed. Role models ? A weekly dose of Lois & Clark moments ? A fictional family ? The matter what we were hoping for it was inevitable that our expectations would be high. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for the dream team behind Smallville to produce such an episode on time and budget. In the end what they have achieved is remarkable in many ways but the critic within can't help taking over the geeky fanboy, but sleek, I have always been.

Indeed this last installment reminded me a lot of Doomsday, season 8's finale. The action scenes were numerous but they were far too short and some of them were just rushed, specially the one with Green Arrow. At times it should even make you wonder what happened but thankfully the church sequence was a brilliant mix of love and percussive fighting. The continuity between some scenes was also quite weak and an awkward editing didn't help. Still there were a few good surprises like some creative camera movements but overall I found the story was unbalanced and even boring at times. I was specially annoyed by the speech Lois gave on the plan because it just didn't make sense considering what her audience knew. She had no arguments to back it up beside her strong belief and her words weren't nothing like the inspiring ones in season 8's Idol.

Don't get me wrong I liked our love birds dance and the guests were surprising but when Clark Kent became Superman I just didn't believe in it. It's simple I think we never saw him from head to toes dressed up as the superhero we all dreamed of. The camera kept dancing between obscure close-ups and long distance filming of a vulgar CG doll in tights. And the very end was also quite disappointing considering Lois wasn't featured in it. There was nothing memorable about it when I was expecting a classic scene with Superman on top of a building with his cape flying in the wind. The cult moment we all expected just didn't happen. I suspect the producers were only able to afford a limited Superman license, restricting its use on the show. But in my humble opinion he doesn't belong to its creators nor to the bunch of capitalist egoists who manage and sell his rights to stuff their greedy pockets. If it wasn't for his fans the franchise would already be dead. I'm also convinced things would have been completely different if Christopher Reeve was still alive. His few appearances as Doctor Virgil Swann were soulwarming and I have no doubt his soul is disappointed, if not annoyed, that Tom Welling wasn't allowed to embrace Superman like him. After so much hard work and considering his extraordinary metamorphosis across the 10 seasons Welling deserved better than that. He is Clark Kent. He is The Blur. But his portrayal of Superman remained grounded for selfish and absurd reasons. They should have let him be the true superhero we all wished for ! Open the license, free Superman !

But despite all these flaws there were still plenty of elements that I enjoyed. The first would be the dark, apocalyptic and tragic ambiance. It was quite immersive thanks to good visual effects, well designed sets and trembling cameras. Only a car chase and some rare outdoor scenes jarred with the rest. As for the acting I was almost intimidated to see so many talented performers on screen. Naming just one wouldn't be fair to the others because overall they all did a tremendous job. The wicked story lines their characters were involved in were also quite exciting and even shocking at times. From ecstatic joy to deep sorrow they really succeeded in moving us for one last time. Also I found their approach, in terms of writing specially, quite respectful of comics. Chloe telling an epic story to a little boy was heartwarming and linking the end to some past episode was interesting and well thought. And even if these vivid gems could never hide what went wrong I can only admit that I'm not ready to forget about the epic scene in the barn, even if the flashbacks looked more like heavy fan service. Doomsday ? Zod ? His dark period ? These were probably the most important trials that shaped him as The Man of Steel. Still Darkseid was well rendered in its CG form and we couldn't have dreamed of a better actor to portray his evil human form. But ultimately the one thing I'll save in a secret room of my memory are the beautiful and dramatic Lois & Clark moments. From the theatrical apartment sequence to the church one Erica Durance & Tom Welling's chemistry was stellar and served by a writing reminiscent of divine episodes like Charade and Salvation.

Note : Even if the Finale didn't live up enough to my expectations I would like to congratulate the minds behind the show because their work really inspired me. Everyone on the show should be proud of what they have accomplished because producing 22 episodes per year during a decade with so many great ones is just unbelievable ! Thanks from all my heart and soul.