SV 6.01, Zod
So now that I've recupporated some, it's time to get back on target. :)
- Loved the Phantom Zone. I know I said that when the promotional photos came out, that I loved that it looked to be the exact opposite of Krypton via the FoS. And y'know, I still see that but I love that how they built up Raya's house and that as it's a very cold, girtty, *Kryptonian* wasteland. And the colros and tones really made all the difference - especially as it was a direct throw to Superman Returns, IMO. Colorwise it very very much made me feel like it was SV's homage to that look. (Though not entirely, as SV is always like ZOMG, COLOR!)
- Zod was enjoyed by everyone here. The Terrance Stamp face was the icing on the cake, Zod completely looked down his nose at people, and I can't help but hope with Nam-Ek (c'mon you know that he's totally got an opening if the actor can get away from Hereos should he want; Law and Order Aethyr too.) will show up. And it's great to see that their names that were out there in Arrival were finally "canonized." And since they are out - and multiples are - I kind of suspect Zod is going to get free, possibly in some new body. That being said, Michael was AWESOME. The lines aobut the Pentagon make me laugh (and I've really got no idea why.)
- Brainiac; okay so this is what I understand is going on (which isn't much): as long as the black ship exsisted, so did Brainiac. Stabbing Fine with the dagger only allowed Jor-El to kill all copies of Brainiac on Earth *not* the ship (and conviently let Brainiac hijack the Fortress/kill the Forrtess.) Now, Zod activated the ship, took out it's harddrive (conviently octogon shaped!) and it disappeared. It makes me wonder if Brainiac is coped in the FoS or in the (broken) hard drive.
- "Prisonsers from the Twenty Eight Known Galaxies": So I think it's possible that we're going to have *non* Kryptonian baddies out and about. Which could be really cool.
- Lana + Saving the World = Doesn't Work; that being said I think in both Arrival and Zod she was in possitions that her attempts made sense. And Lana's zenophobia raises it's head again. I know people are all "See if you just trust Lana she'll be okay" but y'know, I think her reaction to Zod - calling him "one of those things from that ship" pretty much underlined that fundamentally Lana will *never* be okay with that. The only time she was okay with Zod was when she was trying to 'lure' him into a trap. Also? I love the Arrival throw backs that Lana was tossed around the room in *exactly* the same ways as the last premiere. Lana Abuse aside, that kind of detail is why I love the SV production team.
- Martha Vs. Jor-El; Terrance sounded very bored. Annette sounded very angry. I really loved that we saw Martha remembering Jonathan (though her Lionel clinging is only going to ick me out more and more, I think). And I think it really highlighted something mention in S3; Jor-El was convinced that Clark's destiny was too big for the Kents to get (something that has been said repeatedly in the show, while the Kents say it's Clark's to choose.) Clark never minds because he, himself, doesn't get this destiny either. Jor-El took the time to spell it out to Martha and, wow, she did exactly what needed to be done (which reminded *ME* of Commencement. Once he made it clear what was going to happen, Clark got the darn elements.) And interesting that Jor-El, now that he's thinking Kal-El is gone/Zod is gone that Clark gets to decide his own fate.
Also I loved when Clark saved Martha - because her look. It wasn't "Yay I'm alive!" or "What are you DOING?" It was very clearly "My BABY is ALIVE!" which honestly? Broke my heart a little. Just... a little.
- The New Credits looked like Ass. Sorry. Now, I loved the 1-4 credits and those are examples where in-house updating worked, and worked really well. And S5 were shopped out and they were clear, crisp and vivd. This year you can tell where they tried to inhouse manipulate the new look and it didn't WORK. The colors were wrong, the pacing was off, they had extra time, and it was really, really disjointed. That's either where you re-shop them out or you leave them alone. We should of seen a signifcant change - either a new addition or a remix of placement, or soemthing. And they didn't, and so they look last minute editted. Thats' what they look like.
- Jimmy: Ashmore is really good and very canon!Olsen, a good mix of NewEarth (older, wiser), SilverAge (superDork), while still being a believable character (movies, LnC). That being said, too much Jimmy? Is always annoying. And I do wonder if he's meant to be somewhat annoying.
- The Chlarkimmy. Boy a lot of things to note here!
For one Clark wore the blue shirt (or a very close proximity)! That blue shirt, I'll be honest, always makes me happy. They did a variation of it in Crush, Rush, and the same color in Delete. (And of course the Supersuit in Pariah and Arrival and such.) While his Super Outfit is clearly demarkated it's interesting that we see Clark split up pretty much in blue as 'regular Clark' during a lot of their big moments. A blue jacket that's all we see in their two shot in Bound for example. Blue shirts all through Tempest. It's just one of those small things that makes me very very happy.
Secondly, and this shouldn't be a shocker, BRACELTS! Big ones. You can't MISS them ones. In green and red, very traditional Lois colors. And blocked in the middle of the frame. I mentioned about the octogon earlier, but I really do think there are objects that they like to continually twist on - the knife (Talisman, Vessel); the bracelts (Skinwalker, Pariah, Arrival, Tomb); the octogons (Obscura, Zod); the crests (Exile, Relic, Exposed, Zod); the S (Pilot, Dichotic, Exodus, Relic, Facade, Zod); the glove for Lex (Pilot, Hourglass, Void); dangerous necklaces (Pilot, Vengence, Hypnotic); watches (Shimmer, Lexmas, Vengence). I know a lot of people are like "blalalbhabhalbhab, Smallville BAD" - but really the production work is really solid in that way, and the writing too. It really could be IMO one of the best shows out there if it was a 13-16 episode season (it's those random 6 'so-so' to 'HORRIBLE!' episodes that kill it.)
Thirdly - the blocking? That is TEMPEST. Chloe runs up to meet Clark in the drive, and then the dance. She runs down the hall, and then they spin hug. Same thing - not the same shots, but same blocking. And, they literally do a slow mo on Allison when Clark first sees her. They end it pretty naturally with a extra walking by as the cut point, but hello romantic editting. More over, they continue to put Chloe in the corner when editting the triangle and Clark in the center; (and the acting in that scene was really fabulous all around.) But the little things (gulping -they did that a lot, head leanings and the fact that Clark immediately steps away and puts her down when she 'rejects' him... *sigh*)
Fourthly (hah, I never give up): If you listen during their second hug, there is actually a swell of ...something. I'm not sure what track it is (it's not the main theme but it *is* familiar) I'm breaking out my albums tonigh. It's not as defined as the moments in Arrival or Delete, but if someone else could tell me if I'm not entirely crazy? That would be nice. But there is, again, a huge musical turn over the minute Jimmy enters (I don't think that's a cowink either.) And then there are *definate horns* when Chloe introduces Jimmy and Clark.
- Loved them listing out Lionel and his Power, Lex and his half a hard drive, and a Phantom down in South America where Clark's other Fortress was as the dangers at the end. Great set up, SV!
- Dead Fortress = Death of Jor-El in SR, I think. Which is a nice tie around. Vessel and Zod stack up nicely, IMO, as a reinterpretation still.
So... yeah, I liked it.
- Loved the Phantom Zone. I know I said that when the promotional photos came out, that I loved that it looked to be the exact opposite of Krypton via the FoS. And y'know, I still see that but I love that how they built up Raya's house and that as it's a very cold, girtty, *Kryptonian* wasteland. And the colros and tones really made all the difference - especially as it was a direct throw to Superman Returns, IMO. Colorwise it very very much made me feel like it was SV's homage to that look. (Though not entirely, as SV is always like ZOMG, COLOR!)
- Zod was enjoyed by everyone here. The Terrance Stamp face was the icing on the cake, Zod completely looked down his nose at people, and I can't help but hope with Nam-Ek (c'mon you know that he's totally got an opening if the actor can get away from Hereos should he want; Law and Order Aethyr too.) will show up. And it's great to see that their names that were out there in Arrival were finally "canonized." And since they are out - and multiples are - I kind of suspect Zod is going to get free, possibly in some new body. That being said, Michael was AWESOME. The lines aobut the Pentagon make me laugh (and I've really got no idea why.)
- Brainiac; okay so this is what I understand is going on (which isn't much): as long as the black ship exsisted, so did Brainiac. Stabbing Fine with the dagger only allowed Jor-El to kill all copies of Brainiac on Earth *not* the ship (and conviently let Brainiac hijack the Fortress/kill the Forrtess.) Now, Zod activated the ship, took out it's harddrive (conviently octogon shaped!) and it disappeared. It makes me wonder if Brainiac is coped in the FoS or in the (broken) hard drive.
- "Prisonsers from the Twenty Eight Known Galaxies": So I think it's possible that we're going to have *non* Kryptonian baddies out and about. Which could be really cool.
- Lana + Saving the World = Doesn't Work; that being said I think in both Arrival and Zod she was in possitions that her attempts made sense. And Lana's zenophobia raises it's head again. I know people are all "See if you just trust Lana she'll be okay" but y'know, I think her reaction to Zod - calling him "one of those things from that ship" pretty much underlined that fundamentally Lana will *never* be okay with that. The only time she was okay with Zod was when she was trying to 'lure' him into a trap. Also? I love the Arrival throw backs that Lana was tossed around the room in *exactly* the same ways as the last premiere. Lana Abuse aside, that kind of detail is why I love the SV production team.
- Martha Vs. Jor-El; Terrance sounded very bored. Annette sounded very angry. I really loved that we saw Martha remembering Jonathan (though her Lionel clinging is only going to ick me out more and more, I think). And I think it really highlighted something mention in S3; Jor-El was convinced that Clark's destiny was too big for the Kents to get (something that has been said repeatedly in the show, while the Kents say it's Clark's to choose.) Clark never minds because he, himself, doesn't get this destiny either. Jor-El took the time to spell it out to Martha and, wow, she did exactly what needed to be done (which reminded *ME* of Commencement. Once he made it clear what was going to happen, Clark got the darn elements.) And interesting that Jor-El, now that he's thinking Kal-El is gone/Zod is gone that Clark gets to decide his own fate.
Also I loved when Clark saved Martha - because her look. It wasn't "Yay I'm alive!" or "What are you DOING?" It was very clearly "My BABY is ALIVE!" which honestly? Broke my heart a little. Just... a little.
- The New Credits looked like Ass. Sorry. Now, I loved the 1-4 credits and those are examples where in-house updating worked, and worked really well. And S5 were shopped out and they were clear, crisp and vivd. This year you can tell where they tried to inhouse manipulate the new look and it didn't WORK. The colors were wrong, the pacing was off, they had extra time, and it was really, really disjointed. That's either where you re-shop them out or you leave them alone. We should of seen a signifcant change - either a new addition or a remix of placement, or soemthing. And they didn't, and so they look last minute editted. Thats' what they look like.
- Jimmy: Ashmore is really good and very canon!Olsen, a good mix of NewEarth (older, wiser), SilverAge (superDork), while still being a believable character (movies, LnC). That being said, too much Jimmy? Is always annoying. And I do wonder if he's meant to be somewhat annoying.
- The Chlarkimmy. Boy a lot of things to note here!
For one Clark wore the blue shirt (or a very close proximity)! That blue shirt, I'll be honest, always makes me happy. They did a variation of it in Crush, Rush, and the same color in Delete. (And of course the Supersuit in Pariah and Arrival and such.) While his Super Outfit is clearly demarkated it's interesting that we see Clark split up pretty much in blue as 'regular Clark' during a lot of their big moments. A blue jacket that's all we see in their two shot in Bound for example. Blue shirts all through Tempest. It's just one of those small things that makes me very very happy.
Secondly, and this shouldn't be a shocker, BRACELTS! Big ones. You can't MISS them ones. In green and red, very traditional Lois colors. And blocked in the middle of the frame. I mentioned about the octogon earlier, but I really do think there are objects that they like to continually twist on - the knife (Talisman, Vessel); the bracelts (Skinwalker, Pariah, Arrival, Tomb); the octogons (Obscura, Zod); the crests (Exile, Relic, Exposed, Zod); the S (Pilot, Dichotic, Exodus, Relic, Facade, Zod); the glove for Lex (Pilot, Hourglass, Void); dangerous necklaces (Pilot, Vengence, Hypnotic); watches (Shimmer, Lexmas, Vengence). I know a lot of people are like "blalalbhabhalbhab, Smallville BAD" - but really the production work is really solid in that way, and the writing too. It really could be IMO one of the best shows out there if it was a 13-16 episode season (it's those random 6 'so-so' to 'HORRIBLE!' episodes that kill it.)
Thirdly - the blocking? That is TEMPEST. Chloe runs up to meet Clark in the drive, and then the dance. She runs down the hall, and then they spin hug. Same thing - not the same shots, but same blocking. And, they literally do a slow mo on Allison when Clark first sees her. They end it pretty naturally with a extra walking by as the cut point, but hello romantic editting. More over, they continue to put Chloe in the corner when editting the triangle and Clark in the center; (and the acting in that scene was really fabulous all around.) But the little things (gulping -they did that a lot, head leanings and the fact that Clark immediately steps away and puts her down when she 'rejects' him... *sigh*)
Fourthly (hah, I never give up): If you listen during their second hug, there is actually a swell of ...something. I'm not sure what track it is (it's not the main theme but it *is* familiar) I'm breaking out my albums tonigh. It's not as defined as the moments in Arrival or Delete, but if someone else could tell me if I'm not entirely crazy? That would be nice. But there is, again, a huge musical turn over the minute Jimmy enters (I don't think that's a cowink either.) And then there are *definate horns* when Chloe introduces Jimmy and Clark.
- Loved them listing out Lionel and his Power, Lex and his half a hard drive, and a Phantom down in South America where Clark's other Fortress was as the dangers at the end. Great set up, SV!
- Dead Fortress = Death of Jor-El in SR, I think. Which is a nice tie around. Vessel and Zod stack up nicely, IMO, as a reinterpretation still.
So... yeah, I liked it.