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Reviews
Smallville: Justice (2007)
Great acting, good story, nice prelude to ending
This is a reunion, a team, and a great episode of Justice. From hesitation to resolution, Clark has made a important leap from a troubled teenager who was afraid of a controlled destiny, to a Superman who, like Green Arrow, sets aside his emotions to his few loved ones, ready to save the whole planet. This is not just a thrilling story about teamwork, loyalty, and friendship; this is also about deciding what's more important in life, a lesson for Clark. I do not want the series to end, but I hope the ensuing episodes will strictly stick to what Justice shows without any "rewind" pushes and put a good end here of Smallville---and a wonderful beginning of Superman.
In this episode, however, we should have seen more contrast between Lex and the Team. Nine stars should give it enough credit.
Smallville: Cyborg (2006)
Another great episode of Season Five
I was quite speechless after watching Cyborg. Probably that's because I see two parallels depicted in an exquisite way. One clearly is the love between Clark and Lana and that between the Cyborg man Victor and his girlfriend, the other treacheries of Lex and of his father to Clark and Martha respectively. Each resulted in a completely different ending. This is not the episode that you may simply walk away when it's over; nor does it contain anything that would make you edge over your seat with sweaty hands. It will make you think---speculate for a better word, what it is that makes the similar kinds of people get different results out of their similar actions in similar settings. Would one of the answers be Attitude? There is definitely a surprised revelation of Lionel's attitude toward Clark's secrets.
Despite its lack of stunning actions and surprising plots, I give ten stars for a good try at developing depth of the characters.
Smallville: Reckoning (2006)
Very sad yet beautifully written
This is the first episode in Smallville that got me on the verge of tears, and the best so far in the whole series. When a sad story is mixed perfectly with detective, emotional, mysterious auras, there are very few hearts out there that could not be moved at all.
Standing out with other motion pictures that dealt with time travel, Reckoning has an advantage, and that is a hidden reveal of a life philosophy, which tells people that now, the present, shadowed by events and decisions one had in the past, casts shadows to the future.
Ten stars might be involved with my emotions, but it is indeed the first one that happened to be my favorite.
Smallville: Lockdown (2006)
A good story and great visual effects
A Chinese saying goes like this: A crying baby would sooner get his mother's milk. The major worth-seeing plot in Lockdown is not the boring usual fight between Clark and Lana, not Sheriff Nancy Adams being shot by her "girl", not even the two traitors wanting to see the spaceship. What really catches the eye is Lana's obscure emotional shift to Lex, who's seriously injured by the effort of trying to save his lover with his "Flesh and Blood" body. Lana is obviously touched by his courage and perhaps some truthfulness apparently absent in Clark that she is craving for.
I was touched, however, by a scene in which Clark speeds through the big fire and runs onward with the unconscious Lana in his arms, great fire closing in. Great visual effects and irony are happening here. I think our heroin will make her own decision who should deserve more love. Clark, showing up almost every time saving her, but unscathed? No, he is always silent with no smart words to cover up his secrets. Lex, who's risking his life trying to save someone he loves? Well, yes, he does look nicer with little distinction between his true words and lies, doesn't it? In other words, he is the crying baby long trained to be exquisite for his words.
I give nine stars to this great presentation of the "crying baby" philosophy.
Smallville: Fanatic (2006)
This is about Sun Tsu Art of the War
Being a Chinese, I just know Sun Tsu wouldn't take sides of good and evil when he wrote the book the Art of the War. Neither would he know that thousands of years later one or two of his battling techniques became a basis in an American script that mainly tells stories about aliens. There is no black and white in AOW, but winning and losing. Fanatic adopts this idea in a convincing sort of way.
It is more interesting to see that Clark chose Chloe for advice on his relationship with Lana, and disappointing that Martha finally went to Lionel in a very un-Marthaish way for the money needed in Jonathan's doomed election, which is the part that annoys me greatly. Two stars were cut off for this inconsistency of Martha's personality.
Smallville: Lexmas (2005)
Excellent version of Dickens's A Christmas Carol
One of the best in Season Five, with Clark in his first Lanaish Christmas trading his very precious time with Lana for helping to deliver the gifts, his talking with the mysterious depressed "Santa"(It is the only part I consider lame because Santa could not possibly die from committing suicide by jumping from an eight story building, could he?!), and Lex's interpretation of his dream, in which he had the happiest and saddest moments of life. This episode just pull people closer to Lex's real desired life and in what ways he is going to get to it, ways that make him become a person he will be. Along with the few other episodes in the previous respective seasons, this screenplay writer did a fascinating job adding bits with much subtlety a Westerner could summon, explaining to his audience who eventually turned a man into a devil, power-hungry and full of hatred.
Ten stars should give this show enough credit.