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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 2002-10-03 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 :)