SUPERMAN THE MOVIE TO SMALLVILLE AND THE BITS IN-BETWEEN

To this website, Superman is seen largely as an era in film that began in 1974 and ended in 1987. The Superman movies existed in a period that covered the landmark blockbuster's of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the special effects revolution of Star Wars, baroque British production values, optical visual effects and the early signs of computerization, and musical movements such as
Glam Rock, Punk, Disco, Electro Pop and the New Romantics. Immediately this explains why Superman CINEMA is perhaps not the most informative website on Smallville, the new Warner Brothers television series. Nevertheless, one cannot ignore Smallville and its currently rising success, both with critics and audiences. This editorial will therefore take a fresh look at Smallville,
its position both as a piece of new, televised drama and as the latest filmed version of the Man Of Steel legend, while also chartering other filmed and attempted interpretations of Superman that appeared post-Superman movies.

Superman, as everyone takes for granted, is not just a trivial, dot printed, comic book character. Superman is now permanently embedded in modern American mythology and culture, an important piece of the young nation's history, the three primary colours of blue, red and yellow being the ultimate representation of truth, justice and every other well intentioned, morally correct factor
that the world aspires to. Superman the character has been cited as a role model to inspire utopia and on that level has received limitless amounts of religious parallels. Let's also not forget that the diamond framed 'S' emblem is as characteristically recognizable as Mickey Mouse's ears, Sherlock Holmes' deerstalker hat, Santa Claus' reindeer and Tarzan's loincloth.

Ever since the final bar of Alexander Courage's closing credits to Superman IV:The Quest For Peace in 1987, the respect for the Superman legend on screen has hardly realized the Twentieth century icon to great effect. Superman was seen in youth form in the late 1980s Superboy television series, a show delivering charm and fun, but a grossly underwhelming, causal and annoyingly light depiction of the enormous icon it derived from. While Superboy was obviously not up to carrying the great burden of the entire man of steel mythology to best effect, it did provide entertaining escapism on a weekly basis and whatever was approached from the Superman source material was done so with respect. After Superboy, respect is something that became completely detached from the filmed versions of the Superman source material. With the arrival of the derivative, self conscious 1990s, the superficial, post ironic and unambitious trademarks of the decade sent the Superman legend well off the rails with Lois & Clark, The New Adventures of Superman. What could have been an interesting and welcome exploration of the Lois and Clark chemistry, their internal and external feelings to their unique partnership and a possible alternate perspective on the legend from inside the reporter's great Metropolitan newspaper never made it to our screens. Instead, the show indulged in glossed up stereotypes, the weakest megamix of day time soap opera cliches
redressed as the Emperors New Clothes and it held a cynical disrespect to the legend and all other existing screen versions of the subject matter. Even worse, the dishonesty of involvement in every aspect of the production, from the writing and performances down to the colour of the blue tights was painfully obvious. As Christopher Reeve famously said during the Balcony scene of Superman the Movie, "Lois, I never lie", and this is the essence of Superman, the essence of the legend, the innocence and commitment of a true keeper of good. When any interpretation of Superman refuses to tell the truth,plain and simple, it isn't Superman.

By 1997 justice had caught up with those who don't tell the truth, and Lois & Clark, The New Adventures Of Superman was loosing ratings at an alarming speed, and eventually the show was cancelled. Following this, the movie world suffered an equally disrespectful rendition of Superman, but fortunately, this only reached pre-production. Superman Lives was to be produced by merchandising and product placement obsessive John Peters. Auteur Tim Burton was the director in
running, and he wished to make the film based on how he interpreted the character, as opposed to Richard Donner's acclaimed preference of showing the legend objectively, never allowing subjective, personal taste onto the screen (which is something Richard Lester was heavily criticized for doing). Nicholas Cage was to star as the Man of Steel, his performance filtered through Burton's interpretation of Superman as a cold, tortured soul in the vein of Batman. Afreak, an outcast and alien. Naturally, Burton wanted to leave the universe created in the original films and predictably impose his expressionist derivative dark design work, a bias towards the perverse, an obsession with cold, deranged personalities and a disregard for verisimilitude ("lack of slickness") across a Kevin Smith story script-doctored by Batman Returns writer Wesley Strick. Thankfully, it never happened.

Now in the new millennium, the hottest property for television producers everywhere are the Kevin Williamson initiated, post modern teen shows. Largely manufactured visions of youth culture, the shows, headed by Williamson's own Dawson's Creek are full of shallow, manipulated sentimentality and naive, ironic humour, making all of John Hughes brat pack efforts of the 80s seem worthless. The biggest successes within this market have been those that draw upon the genre television of the last decade, partially inspired by the X-Files, Millennium and The Outer Limits, expanding their audience size by genre crossing. The most obvious of these is Buffy The Vampire Slayer series,
a cut above the rest of the generic waste thanks to the incredible imagination and writing talent of Joss Whedon, the show's creator, who puts full attention and respect on the mythology of vampirism and magic, making it a well intentioned show for all audiences. Other less imaginative Buffy clones
such as Charmed and Roswell have also performed respectably in terms of ratings.

Enter Smallville.

It is immediately off putting to know that an icon as big as Superman is not respected by its owners, that they are not willing to devote screen time to Kal-El's truth, that they no longer believe that a legend speaks for itself and that it now has to conform to the market forces. It's a denial of identity.When the word came out in 2000 that Smallville was to be the next filmed Superman, a show focusing on a mysterious town, a town where bizarre occurrences happen, where the focus is on a group of Twenty something's in the role of 16 year olds and there is to be no inclusion of the 'S' emblem, the red cape or the tights, the initial reaction can be only one thing: They have
soldout.

After viewing the pilot episode of Smallville, one could argue that the conforming to market forces does not equal immediate death. In fact, this situation best parallels Superman IV: the Quest for Peace, a film that proved to have more heart and truth to the Superman source material than either of Richard Lester's mega budget Super efforts. When the word came out in 1986 that Cannon films were making a Superman movie, one cannot deny that the initial reaction was that the legend of
Superman was doomed in the hands of a film production company associated with cheap exploitation. When word got out that the film had an insultingly low budget, special effects that amount to visible wires, laughable travelling matte flying shots and location work such as doubling the London underground for the New York subway, surely there and then one could not help but feel that the filmmakers were disrespecting the legend. As mentioned earlier, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace does have heart and a return to the tone set by Richard Donner, even though it was dogged in problems. The entire sequence in which Superman delivers an anti-nuclear speech to the United Nations is particularly one of the most significant developments of the character seen in
the series, and it's challenging of the character's political standpoint was a mature and daring. In this respect, Smallville and Superman IV: The Quest For Peace both share a framework that is an insult to the Man Of Steel, and both must be inventive within these boundaries. The difference here is that unlike SupermanIV, Smallville is not a failure.

After the intolerably non-Superman Lois & Clark, it is magical to have an on-screen Superman that is proud to be part of the hero's history. The young Tom Welling is an example of casting that just could not have happened in the mid 1990s, he has all of the natural innocence associated with Clark Kent which the camera loves, and the best part is he is totally unaware of it! This isn't a model playing Clark Kent, this isn't a Californian surfer who wants to relish his opportunity to look cool on television, this is an actor who is taking it slowly, an actor enthusiast to live the journey's adventures and not make himself the centre of attention. In fact, Welling is most reminiscent of Helen Slater as Supergirl in that he seems to possess the naive honesty to let the audience know exactly what is going on in his world without doing anything and he really looks as though he doesn't know what is going to happen next.

Michael Rosenbaum's turn as Lex Luthor is perhaps the most interesting casting piece and characterization of the whole show, as he is distanced from the fine interpretations brought from Gene Hackman and John Shea. The chemistry Rosenbaum's Lex shares with his buddy Clark is particularly teasing, a witty and creative variation on the classic Lex/Superman banter seen in the films and the comics, and best of all something fresh and new to on-screen Superman. Ironically, future villain Lex is the most relatable, comforting support character in the show, and this allows for a detailed study and appreciation of why he became a bad guy, one which could definitely continue after the pilot episode.

From the legion of teen genre shows Smallville lies best next to Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Whereas Whedon's story's are so good in that they focus on the magic and mysticism and then allows the characters to interact around the interesting situations, the same thing happens here. This is not a crass generation-Y fest, and it is only the age of the teenage cast that points to that direction. Smallville is much better viewing than cynical demograph fodder and soul sell-out such as Dawson's Creek and Roswell, and unlike those manufactured, empty distortions of youth culture, the lead players are credible at representing the late teen age group.

Technical credits are also up to scratch, the photography obviously acknowledging both the works of Geoffrey Unsworth BSC and Robert Paynter BSC, respecting the past and progressing with Smallville's own style. It's so refreshing to finally see a new look to a filmed comic book, and Smallville has a wonderfully pulpy look to its rendering of large scale cornfields, the trademark aerial shot over the barn will hopefully become the show's signature shot as it's the most beautiful, oddly cinematic moment in a filmed interpretation of a superhero for along time, putting the likes of Singer's X-Men and Raimi's Spiderman in shame . Special effects are also very competent(although whether we'll see such polish outside of the pilot episode is unknown), and the fake corn goes completely unnoticeable.

Superman CINEMA only covers the films of the Superman legend, and while GandalfDC has held his opinion on Smallville, I hold mine:

A very promising pilot.

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