Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Doomsday soars, but Superman's walking corpse lumbers on...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown August 22, 2009

Look! On the CW! It's a once-respected series... it's a floundering hit... it's Smallville, alive and unwell in its eighth overwrought season! Don't get me wrong, with a cast utterly decimated by departures and a story undone by the absence of Superman's greatest foe, I'm almost tempted to forgive all involved for producing such a lackluster superhero outing. But cumbersome scripts are just that: cumbersome scripts. Laughable character design is laughable character design. Stalled plotlines are stalled plotlines. Scattershot performances are... well, you get the point. There are high points to be sure -- actresses Alison Mack and Erica Durance continue to lend plenty of girl power to a series that could have easily become a boy's club, and guest star Sam Witwer (Battlestar Galactica, Dexter, and The Mist) is perfectly cast and brilliantly used as a man struggling with his own inner Kryptonian demons -- but it's really time to slap a cape on Supes, bring a young Bruce Wayne into the picture, and put Smallville out of its melodramatic misery.

"Come on, we have to finish this script before the writers get here..."

For anyone who isn’t familiar with the now eight-year old WB series (or the 174 episodes tucked neatly under its belt), Smallville earned a respectable audience by slapping together a cast of doe-eyed Dawson’s Creek clones, blessing their characters' teenage frames with superpowers, and turning them loose in a fictionalized Midwestern town that's host to more meteorites and interplanetary visitors than our smoldering adolescents know what to do with. The story naturally focuses on Clark Kent (Tom Welling), a mild-mannered boyscout who, of course, we all know is destined to become one of the most iconic superheroes in comicbook lore: Superman. Over the course of its first seven seasons, Clark picked up quite a few new tricks (you know, the usual post-pubescent oddities... heat vision, inhuman strength, and flight), went toe to toe with his childhood friend Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum, who exited the show at the end of season seven), clawed his way out of the Phantom Zone, and overcame a who's who of classic rogues including Braniac (James Marsters), General Zod, Bizarro (Welling), Mxyzptlk (Trent Ford), and assorted other freaks of the week. But he didn't have to fight them alone. Slowly but surely, a team of do-gooders arose to help him confront the mounting threats: Impulse (Kyle Gallner), Martian Manhunter (Phil Morris), Aquaman (Alan Ritchson), Cyborg (Lee Thompson Young), Black Canary (Alaina Huffman ), and the Green Arrow (Justin Hartley).

In its eighth season, Smallville introduces a slew of new villains -- Lex Luthor's manipulative replacement, Tess Mercer (Cassidy Freeman); the five-member Injustice League (Anna Williams, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Brendan Fletcher, Anna Mae Routledge, and Nathan Witte); and the greatest threat to Clark's big city stomping grounds, a conflicted Kryptonian creature called Doomsday that conceals itself within a seemingly unwitting human persona, a paramedic named Davis Bloome (Sam Witwer) -- and ups the screentime for its resident heroes. Clark undergoes some serious changes himself, leaving his not-so-quaint farmboy life behind after scoring a job at The Daily Planet, a Metropolis newspaper with a particularly feisty reporter, Lois Lane (Erica Durance). Meanwhile, as Chloe (Allison Mack) and Jimmy (Aaron Ashmore) prepare for their wedding, a love triangle develops between the happy couple and Bloome, a steady parade of superpowered flunkies pour into the city, and Lois tries to uncover the true identity of a certain helpful hero who's been swooping about town rescuing anyone and everyone he can.

I wanted to enjoy Smallville's eighth season, so much so that I stuck with it to the end, hoping beyond hope that the series would finally find its defining moment and escape its aging roots. And there were times, even entire episodes, where it almost did just that. Sadly, for every stirring Witwer scene, engaging Lois and Clark development, and rip-roaring Superman/Doomsday clash of the titans, I had to wade through the same villain-of-the-week nonsense that's haunted the series from day one, attempt to overlook the void left by Rosenbaum (a challenge considering the characters continue to mention Lex every five seconds), and suffer through some truly awful storylines and subplots. Oliver's dreamscape flashbacks? Jimmy mistaken for a Kryptonian? A Saw-esque episode with a serial killer who puts his victims' love to the test? General Zod's wife? Clark undercover as a cop? Lois posing as a leather-clad superhero? A shocking death that ends with a gotcha name reveal? Sigh... season eight left me muttering, "comas and time travel and irradiation, oh my." I cannot express how effortlessly Doomsday is weaved into the Smallville mythos, or how involving the Bloome-centric episodes actually are, but it's tough to concentrate on the season's strengths when mediocrity, not Witwer's wonderfully wielded Kryptonian monstrosity, emerges as Superman's most deadly and devious foe.

By the time its twenty-two episodes drew to a close, Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season was just good enough to make me wonder where everything will go in season nine. I still think the series needs to bow out before it loses more key cast members -- although I'll bet its creators would try to figure out a way to push on regardless of who left, even if it was Welling -- or, at the very least, work overtime to produce more storylines in the vein of season eight's Doomsday run. I'm sure diehard Smallville fans will dig Clark's romp through Metropolis far more than I did, but I suspect many others will share my indifference and slight dismay. Here's hoping season nine is leaner, meaner, and stronger than ever before, finally giving viewers a truly complete Complete Season to sink their teeth into.

Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Similar to its seventh season predecessor, the Blu-ray edition of Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season features a decent 1080p/VC-1 transfer that captures the atmosphere, tone, and intensity of Clark's misadventures in Metropolis. While Barry Donlevy and Glen Winter's at-times unwieldy palette jarringly bounces between sun-drenched amber hues and bleak, steely blues (sometimes within the same scene), each episode benefits from the rich colors and absorbing shadows on display. Moreover, contrast is bright and bold, blacks are well-resolved, and delineation is relatively impressive (particularly considering the intended look of the series). Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the transfer's technical stability and fine detail. Faint artifacting, banding, and source noise disrupt the proceedings at least three times per episode, and texture clarity is all over the place. Some shots are pristine -- facial features are crisp, foreground objects pop, hair and stubble are rendered with care, objects boast natural edges -- but far too many others are soft and spongy. Some scenes blaze by without a hitch, still others look as if they've been filtered, filtered, filtered and, just for good measure, filtered again. Granted, the Blu-ray edition looks substantially better than the DVD version, even better than the series' problematic HD broadcast, but I can't help but feel underwhelmed by the results.

If you were thoroughly satisfied with Smallville's previous Blu-ray releases, The Complete Eighth Season will fulfill your every high definition desire (after all, its digital anomalies aren't as distracting or persistent as those that appear on the season six and seven Blu-ray releases). However, if you were less than thrilled with the previous seasons' transfers, prepare yourself for a fairly comparable experience.

Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Once again, Smallville limps onto the market with a single, apathy-inducing audio option: a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track (640kbps). That's right... Warner has decided to forgo a lossless mix and toss out a track that doesn't sound much better than its DVD and HD broadcast counterparts. Granted, it certainly gets the job done -- dialogue is clean and intelligible, LFE output is strong (albeit a tad sluggish), and most every element of the series' lackluster sound design has been adequately preserved -- but it's as forgettable as they come. While action sequences offer listeners the requisite smashes and crashes, most of the explosions and superpowered punches are actually a bit lifeless. And even though the rear speakers are active throughout each episode, they contribute little, crafting a somewhat uninviting soundfield and, ultimately, a passable front-heavy experience. Unfortunately, Smallville isn't the sort of series that will ever boast high-dollar sound design, a fact I'm sure Warner is well aware of. Perhaps a lossless track wouldn't make a huge difference; maybe I've just set my expectations too high. Regardless, The Complete Eighth Season is a sonic setback; one audiophiles will probably have to endure each time a new season meanders onto the market.

Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season arrives on Blu-ray with the same meager supplemental package as the standard DVD edition, but presents all of the video content in high definition. Not only will television junkies be disappointed with the relatively limited special features, series regulars will barrel through everything the set has to offer in less than three hours.

• Audio Commentaries (Disc 2): Director Mairzee Almas, executive producer Brian Peterson, and actress Cassidy Freeman deliver a decent overview of "Identity," while producers Darren Swimmer and Tim Scanlan, and writer Geoff Johns offer up a more satisfying overview of "Legion." While neither commentary will blow anyone away -- Johns is really the only one who properly dissects the differences between the traditional Superman mythos and the television series -- there's enough development and production details on tap to please newcomers and those who've followed the show from the beginning.
• Unaired Scenes (HD, All Discs, 18 minutes): Deleted scenes are included for "Plastique," "Instinct," "Legion," "Power," "Requiem," "Turbulence," "Hex," "Eternal," "Beast," and "Injustice." There's very little of note, but Smallville fans will appreciate the additional material.
• In the Director's Chair (HD, 19 minutes): An overproduced but informative trip behind the scenes with Allison Mack. She discusses her transition from actor to director, her approach to the series, and her take on the characters. The featurette is a bit heavy of episode clips, but serves up plenty of solid interview segments to make up for it.
• Smallville's Doomsday: The Making of a Monster (HD, 15 minutes): This look at season eight's big baddie delves into the vicious alien's design, appearances, and clashes with Clark and his superpowered brethren, as well as the CG and practical effects that brought his transformations to life.

Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

After writing thirteen paragraphs about Smallville's latest twenty-two episodes, only one word remains in my brain: meh. I'd offer a bit more but, sadly, my computer doesn't have a key for shrugs shoulders. Suffice to say, the Blu-ray edition of The Complete Eighth Season represents yet another hit-or-miss series outing, features a decent but problematic video transfer, stumbles with a bland Dolby Digital audio track, and serves up an underdeveloped, undernourished supplemental runt. Even the biggest series fans may want to wait for this one to go on sale.