Smallville Review – “Arrival”

The final season kicked off last night.

Cast

Tom
Welling
as
Clark Kent

Kristen Kreuk as
Lana Lang

Michael
Rosenbaum
as Lex Luthor

John
Glover

as Lionel Luthor

Annette
O’Toole
as Martha Kent

John
Schneider
as Jonathan Kent

Allison Mack as
Chloe Sullivan.

Erica Durance as
Lois Lane.

Written by Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer.

Directed by James Marshall.

Original Airdate


Arrival
originally aired on Thursday,
September 29, 2005.

Synopsis

Two Kryptonians appear in Smallville in the aftermath
of the meteor
shower, and start tearing the place apart looking for
Kal-El.

High Point

“Take me along for the ride.”

Low Point

There were some rather weak special effects in the
opening teaser.
The CGI ice fell more like styrofoam than actual ice.

The Review

There are some original directions for the
show, and many
that were already established in the comics. The
state of things at
the end of the episode promises some interesting times
ahead. I give
it 4 out of 6.

The effects in the opening sequence were a
bit weak, but from
then on, things looked mighty fine. I give it 4 out
of 6.

The story was one of Smallville‘s
traditional
high-octane season openers. Things moved and changed
with every
scene, and set the stage for some interesting actions.
I strongly
suspect that we’re going to see many parallels to the
first two
Christopher Reeve Superman films, which next
year’s movie is
supposed to be a sequel to. (Yes, the movie will
ignore the last two
Christopher Reeve Superman films.) This
will, I assume,
allow Smallville viewers who haven’t seen the
original movies
to step in and understand what’s going on, so that the
new movie will
be an ambiguous sequel to both movies. It’s going to
be a hard line
to walk without feeling like a retread. I give it 5
out of 6.

The acting was much improved. Welling can
play confidence
well, and that’s what we saw from him this week. The
rest of the cast
did great work bringing it all together. I give it 5
out of 6.

The emotional response was great. The show
is back on track,
and the ending really makes me look forward to this
season. I give it
6 out of 6.

The production was very well done, with great
editing and
changing focus in the cinematography. They put
together a great
episode. I give it 5 out of 6.

Overall, this was an excellent way to kick
off the final
season. I give it 5 out of 6.

In total,
Arrival
receives
34
out of 42.

19 replies on “Smallville Review – “Arrival””

  1. Didn’t like the ending
    When the two people came out of the space ship, I was jazzed that they were doing the Zod story, instead of the Martian however as things progressed I had the sinking feeling that they would tidy things up in one episode they did not dissappoint.

    However Zod materializing at the end went a long ways towards me forgiving them.

    All in all I really liked the episode. I look forward to this season. I just hope they can keep it "fresh".

    • Re: Didn’t like the ending

      However Zod materializing at the end went a long ways towards me forgiving them.

      That was Brainiac.

      • Re: Didn’t like the ending

        However Zod materializing at the end went a long ways towards me forgiving them.

        That was Brainiac.

        Really are you sure? I guess that kind of makes sense. Then I guess I am still a little upset then.

        • Re: Didn’t like the ending
          Depends on which origin you follow. The one I like is:

          Braniac was a computer created by Jor-El. Somewhere along the way, it decided to get off of Krypton and explore the universe collecting all the information it could. Its method: gather the data and destroy the original. Its first victim, though slightly indirectly, was Krypton itself. See the first episode of the Superman animated series from the late 90s for the details. Heck, watch the whole series, it’s really well done.

    • Re: Bow before…

      Told you it was Zod.

      Since when can Kyrptonians do what we saw this as yet unnamed individual do?

      And why did Barbie the Barbarian and her Ken-doll steal the black jumpsuits from the cops?

      • Re: Bow before…

        Told you it was Zod.

        Since when can Kyrptonians do what we saw this as yet unnamed individual do?

        And why did Barbie the Barbarian and her Ken-doll steal the black jumpsuits from the cops?

        James Marsters isn’t Zod! He was just hitching a ride.

      • Re: Bow before…

        Told you it was Zod.

        Since when can Kyrptonians do what we saw this as yet unnamed individual do?

        And why did Barbie the Barbarian and her Ken-doll steal the black jumpsuits from the cops?

        And when exactly did heat vision become force beams? We’ve seen heat vision used before on delicate objects. It heats things. Sets them on fire. Now, everyone hit by heat vision get’s thrown back 20 feet, or tossed in the air?!

        It was nice seeing Charles Gunn, though.

        • Re: Bow before…

          It was nice seeing Charles Gunn, though.

          That wasn’t J. August Richards.

          It was Leonard Roberts, who played Forrest in Buffy S4.

          • Re: Bow before…

            That wasn’t J. August Richards.

            It was Leonard Roberts, who played Forrest in Buffy S4.

            That’s why he was so gorram familiar. I kept wanting it to be Richards, but I knew it wasn’t. You can never get too far from the long arms of the Whedonverse.

            • Re: Bow before…

              That wasn’t J. August Richards.

              It was Leonard Roberts, who played Forrest in Buffy S4.

              That’s why he was so gorram familiar.

              Oh yeah… I was wondering where I knew him from! He does look a lot like Gunn… well, the freaky eyes don’t help.

          • Re: Bow before…

            It was nice seeing Charles Gunn, though.

            That wasn’t J. August Richards.

            It was Leonard Roberts, who played Forrest in Buffy S4.

            My mistake… And what I get for posting from work where I can’t access IMDB.

        • Re: Bow before…

          And when exactly did heat vision become force beams? We’ve seen heat vision used before on delicate objects.

          At least in this series, all we’ve seen is what Clark’s undeveloped, untrained, abilities are capable of. These guys are presumably fully grown and trained.

          • Re: Bow before…

            And when exactly did heat vision become force beams? We’ve seen heat vision used before on delicate objects.

            At least in this series, all we’ve seen is what Clark’s undeveloped, untrained, abilities are capable of. These guys are presumably fully grown and trained.

            True… But Even Clark’s final us against the Zod follower pushed him back into the phantom zone.

        • Re: Bow before…

          And when exactly did heat vision become force beams? We’ve seen heat vision used before on delicate objects. It heats things. Sets them on fire. Now, everyone hit by heat vision get’s thrown back 20 feet, or tossed in the air?!

          i believe there have been a few eps that have had clark shooting heat vision where things exploded/shot into the air… unfortunately i can’t remember good examples.

          • Re: Bow before…

            And when exactly did heat vision become force beams? We’ve seen heat vision used before on delicate objects. It heats things. Sets them on fire. Now, everyone hit by heat vision get’s thrown back 20 feet, or tossed in the air?!

            i believe there have been a few eps that have had clark shooting heat vision where things exploded/shot into the air… unfortunately i can’t remember good examples.

            Exploded, especially when we’re talking cars, is within movie cliche, and I don’t complain about it. But when they hit a person, and he fly’s back 20 feet… Especially when that person is another Kryptonian? That kind of force would have shattered the antidote Clark had to heat up a couple seasons back. I’m just asking for some consistency.

            • Re: Bow before…

              And when exactly did heat vision become force beams? We’ve seen heat vision used before on delicate objects. It heats things. Sets them on fire. Now, everyone hit by heat vision get’s thrown back 20 feet, or tossed in the air?!

              i believe there have been a few eps that have had clark shooting heat vision where things exploded/shot into the air… unfortunately i can’t remember good examples.

              Exploded, especially when we’re talking cars, is within movie cliche, and I don’t complain about it. But when they hit a person, and he fly’s back 20 feet… Especially when that person is another Kryptonian? That kind of force would have shattered the antidote Clark had to heat up a couple seasons back. I’m just asking for some consistency.

              I just took it that they could control the intensity of the heat vision. It’s like Clark’s x-ray vision. Sometimes it can see through one wall, but other times through a whole building. Same with people. He can see through to their skeleton (and if they’re hiding anything in their hands) or just their clothes (like when he was under the influence of red kryptonite and made the comment about Chloe’s butt).

              • Re: Bow before…

                And when exactly did heat vision become force beams? We’ve seen heat vision used before on delicate objects. It heats things. Sets them on fire. Now, everyone hit by heat vision get’s thrown back 20 feet, or tossed in the air?!

                i believe there have been a few eps that have had clark shooting heat vision where things exploded/shot into the air… unfortunately i can’t remember good examples.

                Exploded, especially when we’re talking cars, is within movie cliche, and I don’t complain about it. But when they hit a person, and he fly’s back 20 feet… Especially when that person is another Kryptonian? That kind of force would have shattered the antidote Clark had to heat up a couple seasons back. I’m just asking for some consistency.

                I just took it that they could control the intensity of the heat vision. It’s like Clark’s x-ray vision. Sometimes it can see through one wall, but other times through a whole building. Same with people. He can see through to their skeleton (and if they’re hiding anything in their hands) or just their clothes (like when he was under the influence of red kryptonite and made the comment about Chloe’s butt).

                Or that first incident during gym class, when he was looking in the direction of the girl’s locker room.

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