This was never going to live up to the hope/expectations I had for it, but overall it was a bit of a disappointment. First off, the first half of the episode was tortuously long and boring and as usual, had more to do with teen drama angst than it had to do with Clark becoming Superman.
The second half really picked up the pace and yes, Rosenbaum was terrific. An excellent swansong for the character. But the amnesia thing was ****ing terrible. I can't believe they did that. They could have chalked it up to 'minor amnesia' so that he only forgets chunks of his experiences in Smallville (and that would have been bad enough), but they actually went so far as to completely delete the man's entire life. Why would he even be the way he is without all of those experiences?
I had no problem with the lack of a 'big fight', or whatever. I was never under any illusion that we were going to get anything like this. They could have made Clark's showdown with Darkseid a little bit more epic than just zombie Lionel in the barn, but it worked out okay. Clark learning to fly could have been done a bit better as well, I think.
The only truly ****ed-up, blasphemously terrible thing about the finale was its stubborn refusal to show Tom Welling actually, physically wearing the Superman costume or even a full body shot of him. It's depressing to think that all of those fanboy photoshopped images and trailers we've seen over the years are actually better than what we got in the show. It's a real pity too, because even though the wide shots of Superman had rather shabby CGI, they did look good from an animation and flying perspective. If there had been a few 'real' shots of Welling, it could have really tied the whole thing together a bit better. It just looks unfinished the way it is. I'd bet a steak dinner that the only reason it turned out like this is because of Tom Welling's douchetastic refusal to wear the Superman suit, even after ten years of wearing moronic red jackets. I will never understand that about the man. And I'd bet another steak dinner that if anyone asks him why he refused to wear the suit, he'll come out with some "No matter what you do you can't please everyone," crap.
It's hilarious to think that in the 90s, people complained about how in a few episodes of the later seasons of Lois & Clark, Superman wouldn't perform a proper takeoff when he flew away, he'd just move off camera, flapping his cape in front of it. But now in 2011 we have Superman appearing for the first time and you can't even see his full costume. Lois & Clark really was a hundred times better than Smallville, even if it had smaller plots and more of an emphasis on comedy.
I liked the music at the end, but I didn't like how the main chorus of the Superman theme started playing before Clark actually did the shirt rip reveal. Maybe that's just nit-picking though.
