Smallville Review – “Vengeance”

Sorry about the lateness of this review; yesterday’s
management meeting ran quite late, and I couldn’t
watch it until today.

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

Erica Durance as
Lois Lane

Allison Mack as
Chloe Sullivan.

Written by Alan Septien and Turi Meyer.

Directed by Jeannot Szwarc.

Original Airdate


Vengeance
originally aired on Thursday,
February 2, 2006.

Synopsis

Clark meets a viligante who masquerades as a mild
mannered reporter by
day.

High Point

Lionel’s complete lack of surprise at a key moment.

Low Point

Casting a former Miss Universe instead of someone who
was a convincing
actress.

The Review

This wasn’t original. In fact, the same
producers did
something very similar when they cast Sung Hi Li on
Birds of
Prey
a few years ago. It served its purpose for
Clark’s future
and Lionel’s return, but that’s all it’s done. I give
it 2 out of 6.

The effects were decent implementations of
effects we’ve seen
before, and some interesting prop work. I give it 5
out of 6.

The story had two components. The remarkably
predictable
main storyline was rather weak, partly because anyone
familiar with
what Clark will grow up into will be well aware of
where it would be
going, while the secondary plotline involving the
Luthors was very
well done. I give it 4 out of 6.

The acting from regular cast members was well
done across the
board. The acting from the most prominent guest star
was pretty darn
poor. I give it 4 out of 6.

The emotional response was weaker than it
should have been.
They were, after all, delivering on their promises to
set up the
future of Clark, but doing so this predictably still
weakens their
position. I give it 4 out of 6, mainly for the
secondary plot.

The production was the usual quality for a
Miller/Gough
production. I give it 5 out of 6.

Overall, it’s not a bad episode, but it seems
as if the main
purpose was to help Clark mourn as quickly as possible
while setting
things up for his future methodology, rather than tell
the story as it
came naturally. I give it 4 out of 6.

In total,
Vengeance
receives
28
out of 42.

8 replies on “Smallville Review – “Vengeance””

  1. Very Weak Episode
    In a way, I think they painted themselves into a corner by trying to simultaneously represent Clark as destined to be the vanguard of costumed superheroes and deciding to offer up another costumed hero who puts the idea into his head. They really couldn’t use any of the well-established DC heroes (like a JSA hero, or maybe The Thorn – the latter could have made a very good story) because it would mean the general public would be aware of the phenomenon. The bottom line is that the main plot of this episode was ill-conceived and probably should have been scrapped at the outline stage. I won’t pile too much on the guest star. It’s not her fault that someone cast her in a part for which she wasn’t ready.

    One other comment I have is on the production. In the scene with Martha in the alley, that alley looked awful to me. It’s probably due to this team usually doing Smallville (I mean the town, not the show) work and not doing a lot on the urban side, but the it – especially when they panned out (though they had to in order to show the sign) – looked really strange. It looked like something out of Sin City. Under other circumstances that would be a compliment but it seemed out of place. It even looked odd compared to later scenes in Suicide Slum.

  2. My low point…
    "Accuvue to the rescue." Allison Mack must have died a little inside having to say that line. This blatant inside-the-show commercial crap needs to stop. It rips the viewer out of the show. I spent the rest of the time until the commercial break swearing at the TV and not paying much attention to the show. OK, maybe not that bad, but it took me a good 2 minutes to stop being pissed off and get back into the show and start paying attention.

  3. The music
    Did anyone else hear a touch of the Batman theme when the girl swooped in to save Martha? It happened again a few times during the show too.

    I also liked the line that Chloe had when she asked Clark if he thought he could do what that girl was doing, "mild mannered reporter by day, superhero by night". I love when they throw in little things like that.

    • Re: The music

      Did anyone else hear a touch of the Batman theme when the girl swooped in to save Martha? It happened again a few times during the show too.

      Yeah, I did too. But then I started considering the purchase of Acuvue(tm) brand contact lenses and I stopped paying attention to the show, as I was looking for my eye care specialist’s number to get an appointment right away!

  4. who was she?
    i thought i sort of recognized her outfit. was she a known dc universe character?

  5. Didn’t follow the LuthorCorp plot
    I think I was supposed to believe that Lex had spent so much money on the campaign that his ownership of the company was weakened. But this was a state senatorial race. This has always bothered me because as the head of a major corporation, Lex is already in a position of greater political power than he would be as a state senator. I would have found it more believable if he was running for governor. Anyway, a state senate race that cost 1 million dollars would be a very expensive one. I’m thinking Lex could find $1 million laying about the mansion. So I couldn’t understand what the whole conflict between Lex and Lionel was about.

  6. Actually I sort of liked it….
    There were several tonge-in-cheek bits that I liked….
    The changing in the phonebooth bit – and Clarke’s question…

    The big neon sign on the top of the roof that they were on ("SuperO")

    The cape….

    And the theme vaguely reminiscent of Batman…

    Kind of a fun episode all in all…hope that they don’t revive this next season though…becausethen it will officially be a "franchise" ;)

  7. Smallville follies
    It seems that these episodes catch me in a cranky mood but …

    Why does Clark do all these too-visible super stunts (grabbing the phone)?

    Why does Martha go to such an obviously dangerous place in the middle of the night (duh – plot requirement)?

    Why didn’t they ask what Clark would have done if Martha had been killed?

    And finally, why can’t one of us post the first Smallville comment when the moderator has ingested too much kryptonite?

    Martin Cohen

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