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maristuI just watched Vortex. Actually, I watched it last night, after hours of download and trying to find an MPEG4v3 codec to install on my machine. BTW, if anyone ever has trouble playing MPEG4 files, let me know because I've become an expert on that subject...
Since everyone else and their pet dog has put up a review for the ep, I feel it's only fair that I put one up too :) So, here goes...
I liked the episode very much. Granted, I watched it in a tiny 320x240 rectangle on my computer, and the quality wasn't all that good, but still. The editing was good. The acting was good (Acting!Lana! I saw her! I actually liked her!). The story? Good.
There were only a few things that I didn't like. TW's delivery of the "Supermom" line just... sucked. The line sucked, and his delivery of it sucked. Bo's "Crouching Tiger" jump at Nixon actually made me laugh. There were a few plotholes, like the spaceship's ignition key (or whatever it is) falling out. Really bad design, don't you think? Other than that, some of the story made me cringe. Not because I didn't like it, but rather because it made me want to smack the characters over the head for being so stupid. So convincingly stupid. Because hey, I know that if I'd been in any of their shoes, I'd be stupid too. I'd do a lot of dumb stuff, because that's what happens when you're in a confusing, stressful and emotionally draining situation. You act stupid.
Starting with Lex. God, I felt so sorry for him. So very sorry. He is Fortune's fool. Nothing goes right for him. I just wanted to hug him.
A lot of people disliked his dialogue with Clark in the shed. I agree that it was very selfish of Lex to delay Clark with his story, but come on, give the guy a break! He's been through hell. He went through one of the most emotionally draining nights of his life. His father vows to take him down one second, and the next is begging him to help him. He feels guilty for even thinking about letting Lionel die, not to mention the fact that Lionel saw his hesitation. He needed to talk to someone, and the only person in the entire world that he knows would be there for him is Clark. And Clark is there for him, and says the things he needed to hear ("The important thing is that you saved him"). So yeah, he was selfish, and he stole precious minutes from the search, but then he helped. He left his father in the hospital, blind, and went out to help Clark search for his father. I think that was pretty decent of him.
Another thing that people disliked was Jonathan's dialogue with Nixon. Yeah, that was pretty stupid of him. But again, he wasn't really thinking. He was trapped in a lead box, with no real hope of ever getting out. And I'm pretty sure that he thought he could somehow change Nixon's mind, make him see Clark as a person (human being?) instead of a story. He wanted Nixon to see how much he loved his son, how much it would hurt his family if the story ever got out. Because what else was he going to do? We all know that he wouldn't kill Nixon. His only weapon was dialogue. Of course, we all knew that it wouldn't work, but Bo didn't. I think that his character was pretty coherent.
What else... Clark's "I'm glad that Lex got his hands bloody instead of my dad" moment. Yeah, that also made me cringe. I hated that dialogue. I thought it was poorly written. But the sentiment was... interesting. People talk about Lex's moral ambiguity, but Clark is even more ambiguous than Lex most of the time. And that's something that bugs me a *lot* in Smallville in general. Because Superman is this iconic figure, a modern day Palladin. For those of you who play AD&D (or Baldur's Gate), he's supposed to be Lawful Good.
Yet in Smallville, he's anything but. He hasn't killed anyone, but he hasn't saved everyone either. He has little to no compassion. I remember being surprised at his look of sheer hate for the old guy from Hourglass, or for Phelan. At least two VOTW (that I can remember) have died because he let them: bugboy (although he actually warned him) and the guy from Kinetic. That one creeped me out, because it would have been so simple for him to just knock both Whitney *and* the guy out from beneath the truck, but he chose not to. And the guy died. Lex, on the other hand, is willing to pay for psychological treatment for the Shimmer guy, even after the guy bound and gagged him and shot swords at him. See what I mean?
I don't know... Maybe that's intentional. He *is* a teenager, after all. Maybe they want to show Clark's development into Superman that way. But it still bugs me.
Chloe's scenes were bittersweet. People are right, Chloe should never cry. I think that both her reaction and Clark's were pretty realistic. That doesn't mean that I didn't want to smack some sense into both of them, though. Heh.
I liked Lana, which was a surprise. She looks somewhat... normal. Not so preternaturally pretty. Her acting's better. I liked her scene with Martha. And I liked her scene with Clark. The way she knows that there's something that Clark's keeping from her, but she'll let him keep his secrets. For now.
So yeah, I liked it. All in all, it was a well written, well acted and well shot episode. I was trying to figure out exactly why people didn't like it, and this is the only explanation I found: people are mad because the show's not going in the direction that they wanted it to go.
Now, I have to ask: what exactly were you expecting? Lana being smushed by a big chunk of kryptonite that the tornados threw at her? Clark and Lex falling into each other's arms and having hot, passionate sex? That's what fanfic's there for, folks. And vidding :)
The thing that people have to understand is that watching Smallville is like watching Titanic. No matter how much you stomp your foot, yell at the TV and curse the writers, the boat is still going to sink. We know how things will end. Lana's not going to die. Heck, she'll probably date Clark at some point. And Lex? He's going to become evil. He's going to hate Clark. He's going to spend most of his adult life trying to figure out a way to kill him.
Things are supposed to get darker, sadder, more complex. And this first episode was exactly that. I just hope that it continues that way, and doesn't fall back into "Dawson's Creek" meets "X-Files".
Since everyone else and their pet dog has put up a review for the ep, I feel it's only fair that I put one up too :) So, here goes...
I liked the episode very much. Granted, I watched it in a tiny 320x240 rectangle on my computer, and the quality wasn't all that good, but still. The editing was good. The acting was good (Acting!Lana! I saw her! I actually liked her!). The story? Good.
There were only a few things that I didn't like. TW's delivery of the "Supermom" line just... sucked. The line sucked, and his delivery of it sucked. Bo's "Crouching Tiger" jump at Nixon actually made me laugh. There were a few plotholes, like the spaceship's ignition key (or whatever it is) falling out. Really bad design, don't you think? Other than that, some of the story made me cringe. Not because I didn't like it, but rather because it made me want to smack the characters over the head for being so stupid. So convincingly stupid. Because hey, I know that if I'd been in any of their shoes, I'd be stupid too. I'd do a lot of dumb stuff, because that's what happens when you're in a confusing, stressful and emotionally draining situation. You act stupid.
Starting with Lex. God, I felt so sorry for him. So very sorry. He is Fortune's fool. Nothing goes right for him. I just wanted to hug him.
A lot of people disliked his dialogue with Clark in the shed. I agree that it was very selfish of Lex to delay Clark with his story, but come on, give the guy a break! He's been through hell. He went through one of the most emotionally draining nights of his life. His father vows to take him down one second, and the next is begging him to help him. He feels guilty for even thinking about letting Lionel die, not to mention the fact that Lionel saw his hesitation. He needed to talk to someone, and the only person in the entire world that he knows would be there for him is Clark. And Clark is there for him, and says the things he needed to hear ("The important thing is that you saved him"). So yeah, he was selfish, and he stole precious minutes from the search, but then he helped. He left his father in the hospital, blind, and went out to help Clark search for his father. I think that was pretty decent of him.
Another thing that people disliked was Jonathan's dialogue with Nixon. Yeah, that was pretty stupid of him. But again, he wasn't really thinking. He was trapped in a lead box, with no real hope of ever getting out. And I'm pretty sure that he thought he could somehow change Nixon's mind, make him see Clark as a person (human being?) instead of a story. He wanted Nixon to see how much he loved his son, how much it would hurt his family if the story ever got out. Because what else was he going to do? We all know that he wouldn't kill Nixon. His only weapon was dialogue. Of course, we all knew that it wouldn't work, but Bo didn't. I think that his character was pretty coherent.
What else... Clark's "I'm glad that Lex got his hands bloody instead of my dad" moment. Yeah, that also made me cringe. I hated that dialogue. I thought it was poorly written. But the sentiment was... interesting. People talk about Lex's moral ambiguity, but Clark is even more ambiguous than Lex most of the time. And that's something that bugs me a *lot* in Smallville in general. Because Superman is this iconic figure, a modern day Palladin. For those of you who play AD&D (or Baldur's Gate), he's supposed to be Lawful Good.
Yet in Smallville, he's anything but. He hasn't killed anyone, but he hasn't saved everyone either. He has little to no compassion. I remember being surprised at his look of sheer hate for the old guy from Hourglass, or for Phelan. At least two VOTW (that I can remember) have died because he let them: bugboy (although he actually warned him) and the guy from Kinetic. That one creeped me out, because it would have been so simple for him to just knock both Whitney *and* the guy out from beneath the truck, but he chose not to. And the guy died. Lex, on the other hand, is willing to pay for psychological treatment for the Shimmer guy, even after the guy bound and gagged him and shot swords at him. See what I mean?
I don't know... Maybe that's intentional. He *is* a teenager, after all. Maybe they want to show Clark's development into Superman that way. But it still bugs me.
Chloe's scenes were bittersweet. People are right, Chloe should never cry. I think that both her reaction and Clark's were pretty realistic. That doesn't mean that I didn't want to smack some sense into both of them, though. Heh.
I liked Lana, which was a surprise. She looks somewhat... normal. Not so preternaturally pretty. Her acting's better. I liked her scene with Martha. And I liked her scene with Clark. The way she knows that there's something that Clark's keeping from her, but she'll let him keep his secrets. For now.
So yeah, I liked it. All in all, it was a well written, well acted and well shot episode. I was trying to figure out exactly why people didn't like it, and this is the only explanation I found: people are mad because the show's not going in the direction that they wanted it to go.
Now, I have to ask: what exactly were you expecting? Lana being smushed by a big chunk of kryptonite that the tornados threw at her? Clark and Lex falling into each other's arms and having hot, passionate sex? That's what fanfic's there for, folks. And vidding :)
The thing that people have to understand is that watching Smallville is like watching Titanic. No matter how much you stomp your foot, yell at the TV and curse the writers, the boat is still going to sink. We know how things will end. Lana's not going to die. Heck, she'll probably date Clark at some point. And Lex? He's going to become evil. He's going to hate Clark. He's going to spend most of his adult life trying to figure out a way to kill him.
Things are supposed to get darker, sadder, more complex. And this first episode was exactly that. I just hope that it continues that way, and doesn't fall back into "Dawson's Creek" meets "X-Files".
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no subject
on 2002-09-28 04:55 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2002-09-28 06:15 pm (UTC)I still don't think it was badly written. I would have done a few things differently, yes, and a lot of the exposition was completely unnecessary (while a few other things that should have been explained weren't), but it was generally good. Not the best ever, and definitely not as good as last year's premiere, but better than Reaper, definitely :)
no subject
on 2002-09-28 06:33 pm (UTC)That's what the Hug Lex Now site is for!
Lex? He's going to become evil. He's going to hate Clark.
No, sweetie, Lex's supposed to hate SUPERMAN, not Clark! Big difference there.
(http://www.colorwithoutstructure.com/smallvillehardcore/hugnow.htm)
no subject
no subject
Ooh, nice! I think I'll put a button on my Rhapsody vid page :)
No, sweetie, Lex's supposed to hate SUPERMAN, not Clark! Big difference there.
Oh. Yeah. That's what I meant. Consider it a freudian slip or something. But still, I think it's very unlikely that he'll hate Supes and love Clark... Even more unlikely that Clark will love Lex as Clark and hate Lex as Supes. Split personality, much? :)
no subject
on 2002-09-28 06:55 pm (UTC)I haven't even seen all of season one yet, let alone Vortex, but hugging Lex? Now that I can understand. I feel like that every episode ;)
no subject
on 2002-09-29 06:53 pm (UTC)Season one hasn't finished here in Brazil either, this week they're showing 'Crush'. But I'm obsessive enough to download from the 'net. Good thing is I have the excuse that I need the episodes to vid :)
no subject
on 2002-09-30 04:30 pm (UTC)Yet in Smallville, he's anything but. He hasn't killed anyone, but he hasn't saved everyone either. He has little to no compassion. I remember being surprised at his look of sheer hate for the old guy from Hourglass, or for Phelan.
He had a look of sheer hate for the old guy from Hourglass because the old guy from Hourglass had brutally murdered one innocent man already, and tried to kill an innocent girl by throwing her in front of a semi truck. He showed no remorse, and was taunting Clark with the fact that he was going to get away with it; how *should* Clark look at him?
As for Phelan, he'd put Clark's father in jail, possibly for life, for a crime he didn't commit, in order to make Clark commit crimes for him. How would *you* look at someone who had put your family in a situation like that?
I see Clark as having *lots* of compassion. If he didn't have compassion, he wouldn't care about Whitney when Whitney was going through problems, seeing as how Whitney never did anything nice for him (just the opposite, in fact.) If he didn't have compassion, he wouldn't have bothered to save Sasha's life in "Drone," after Sasha tried to *murder Clark's mother.*
How can you have more compassion than that?
That one creeped me out, because it would have been so simple for him to just knock both Whitney *and* the guy out from beneath the truck, but he chose not to.
Heh. You know, I see a lot of people say this, but it's just.... it's not what I see. I posted about it on ClarkLex just a few days ago... This is basically what I said.
If you actually *watch the scene* where Wade dies, several things are clear. First, *Whitney* sees that Wade's meteor-rock tattoo has faded. Neither Wade or Clark see this. They both think Wade can still phase, and that Whitney is about to get squished.
Second, since Wade stuck his fist in Clark's gut, earlier, Clark knows that trying to touch someone who's phased will be very painful and incapacitate him.
Third, Wade is *yelling YEEEEHAAAAA* as the car crashes down on
him: the vocalization of someone who completely expects to survive and not get squished. Clark did not try to save Wade because he *thought Wade would phase*.
Trying to grab Wade, while Wade had the power to phase, would have been useless and only gotten Whitney killed. Which is why Clark didn't do it. He did not think Wade *needed* to be saved.
As for bugboy, he was a friend of Clark's! And he hadn't even killed anyone-- why would Clark have let him die, if he could have saved him? Personally, I don't think he *could* have saved him, seeing as how Clark was in a room *full of meteor rocks* at the time. He could barely stand, let alone superspeed over and save bugboy... I just don't think you can blame Clark for that one.
no subject
on 2002-09-30 07:42 pm (UTC)How would *you* look at someone who had put your family in a situation like that?
But see, that's my point exactly. It's not me. It's Clark. Maybe it's just that I have a romantic view of Superman as the example of morality. Granted, it's been *ages* since I've watched a Superman movie, and I'm not an avid comic book reader (I mostly read Batman, anyway :) ), so I may be completely wrong here. But as far as I know, Superman is portrayed as being highly compassionate towards bad guys in general. Saving them whenever possible, with little regard for his own personal well being. Sending them to jail (or the loony house, depending on the case), but saving them nevertheless. SV's Clark is way less compassionate than I expected him to be.
Trying to grab Wade, while Wade had the power to phase, would have been useless and only gotten Whitney killed. Which is why Clark didn't do it. He did not think Wade *needed* to be saved.
That makes it sound as if he had to choose which one to save, but he could easily have saved both. They were side by side. Even if the tattoo made him feel sick, just the impulse of his jump would have been enough to get all three of them out of harm's way. The points you made are valid, but he still had no way of being sure that the guy would phase. The Clark in my mind wouldn't have taken the chance...
Just to be clear, I don't *dislike* Clark. At all. He's just... different from what I expected. As is Lex. But it's all good :)
no subject
on 2002-10-03 12:50 am (UTC)*nods*
Saving them whenever possible, with little regard for his own personal well being. Sending them to jail (or the loony house, depending on the case), but saving them nevertheless. SV's Clark is way less compassionate than I expected him to be.
Well, to be fair to him, he's still growing into his role as a hero; if he were perfect right off, it would be boring. I *still* don't think that he has hurt someone when he didn't feel like he had to. (although I was a little shocked in 'Heat' when.... have you seen that episode? I won't spoil it, but he did cause pain to the VoTW that I didn't think was totally necessary, to stop her from escaping. I'm like, what, Clark, you forgot about superspeed? you couldn't just let her go, and then chase her? But, again, I'll cut him a little slack since he's sixteen and not a full-grown professional hero yet.)
me:
Trying to grab Wade, while Wade had the power to phase, would have been useless and only gotten Whitney killed. Which is why Clark didn't do it. He did not think Wade *needed* to be saved.
you:
That makes it sound as if he had to choose which one to save, but he could easily have saved both.
No, that's not what I'm saying at all. There was no choice to be made. Wade did not need to be saved. Whitney did. From Clark's POV, Wade was *in no danger at all.*
Heck, from *Wade's* point of view, Wade was in no danger at all. Wade fully expected to walk away and live; how can someone expect *Clark* to know that Wade's powers were going to go wonky, if Wade himself didn't know?
Whitney, in that situation, was the only one who was really in danger, and the only one who needed saving. If it hadn't been for the *total fluke* of Wade's tattoo flickering out, then Wade would have walked away unharmed. I don't think you can blame Clark for not predicting something so totally random.
All Clark could do was look at the situation, and see the facts, which were:
1) Wade was not afraid of getting squished by a car, which meant he was going to phase. I mean, he was yelling, "Drop the car!" and then "Woooohooo!" as the car fell.
2) When Wade stuck his fist in Clark's chest, it caused him intense pain and he crumpled over and couldn't move for several minutes-- which teaches Clark that trying to touch someone who's phased isn't just useless, but also crippling, and *dangerous*.
Therefore, trying to grab Wade would've just been *stupid.* As far as Clark could possibly see or imagine, Wade didn't need saving. Trying to grab him anyway would've just gotten Whitney killed.
Now, if Wade had suddenly realized that he was going to get squished, and yelled "Help!" and Clark had still let him get squished, that would be awful and bad.
But that's not how it happened.
I know I sound a little.... *cough* ranty here, but this is something that's come up over and over again, and I just don't see how Clark could possibly imagine that Wade would be dumb enough to stand under a car, yell "drop the car," and then *not phase.* It was pretty much a 100% certainty that he *would* phase. How could Clark possibly have been *more* sure that Wade was going to phase? Short of Wade yelling, "Okay, I'm going to phase RIGHT NOW!"
The tattoo flickering out was a total fluke, and I don't think it's fair to blame Clark for Wade's powers flickering out at that exact wrong moment.
no subject
on 2002-10-03 06:50 am (UTC)Totally agree with you here :) I'd hate to have Clark Kent be all, "Gee whiz, that's just swell!" like he was in the old comics... And I do believe that he's still acquiring his moral foundations. So like I said, it's all good. It still irks me at times, when there's some especially bad dialogues, though :P
Haven't watched "Heat" yet, unfortunately, but hopefully it'll be up on Kazaa today :)
No, that's not what I'm saying at all. There was no choice to be made. Wade did not need to be saved. Whitney did. From Clark's POV, Wade was *in no danger at all.*
I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one :) Because my point is, Clark shouldn't make assumptions like that, when it's a person's life on the line.
You say that from Clark's POV, Wade was in no danger. Here's a similar situation. In Leech, when Eric's standing over the dam the second time, ready to jump, Clark still yells at him, "Eric, don't!", and runs to try to help him. Now, he had every reason to believe that Eric wouldn't be hurt, and that he, in turn, could get hurt by trying to save him, but he still tried. No assumptions.
no subject
on 2002-10-03 08:54 am (UTC)Yeah, but Eric wasn't endangering anybody *else's* life at the time. If he had been, Clark probably would have tried to save the non-superpowered hostage first.
but, okay, agree to disagree.
Actually, this was kind of cool, because it helped me put some of my thoughts in order about that particular scene. Maybe I'll put them together into an essay for
no subject
on 2002-10-03 09:35 am (UTC)You should put your thoughts up in Existential Heroes. Differing points of view are a good thing! Really :)