Smallville Review – “Sacred”

The episode touted as a Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon
style episode has aired. Did the
marketing guys even pay attention to the show before
making the ads?

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

Jensen Ackles as
Jason Teague

Allison Mack as
Chloe Sullivan.

Written by Brian Peterson and Kelly Sounders.

Directed by Brad Turner.

Original Airdate


Sacred
originally aired on Wednesday,
February 23, 2005.

Synopsis

The hunt for the stones leads Clark, Lana, Jason, and
Lex to China.

High Point

Passing the torch from Swann to Crosby.

Low Point

If you don’t have professional martial artists, don’t
do a serious
wire fight. It just won’t work.

As a close runner up, either they were out far longer
than it looked
and Lex was way, way behind, or somebody forgot to
use X-ray vision to
look for something that disappeared with only three
other people
around.

The Review

Even the promotions recognized that this wasn’t
original.
Find a stone, and spoof Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon
. Not
a difficult formula. I give it 2 out of 6.

The effects were pretty good. There was one
ground-breaking
effect that wasn’t entirely convincing, but it wasn’t
terrible. Most
were quite good. I give it 5 out of 6.

The story got off to an interesting start,
but soon broke
down into some pretty predictable stuff. I give it 4
out of 6.

The acting was pretty good. Welling does
better when he’s
taking command, and Kruek can do a decent villain.
John Glover did a
great job once more. I give it 5 out of 6.

The emotional response was weak. If I
wanted to watch
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, I’d pop in
the DVD. In the
meantime, I’ll tune in to Smallville hoping
to see Superman
developing. I give it 3 out of 6.

The production was good. These people know
how to maintain
the look and feel of the series, and how to tie the
scripts together.
They just need to go back and review the first two
seasons to remind
themselves what kinds of scripts the fans were
consistently tuning in
for. I give it 5 out of 6.

Overall, it’s a decent episode, but until we
know what the
stones are all about, it’s hard to get hyped up about
the search for
them. If we knew what they were capable of, even if
the characters
didn’t all know, it might be a lot more suspenseful.
I give it 4 out
of 6.

In total,
Sacred
receives
28
out of 42.

11 replies on “Smallville Review – “Sacred””

  1. Is Jason an idiot?
    Give the stone to Lana in the hopes of freeing her from the witch sure, But the witch is still in her and the witch wants the stone.
    Isn’t that a bad idea? I think that Lana does not want the witch to have any _more_ power. I keep coming back to Smallville thinking that this time I’ll hear; “Hey Fonzy, do you have any water skis?” and mostly I’ve been suprised, but this was just bad. Maybe they wanted to say goodby to C.R. and forgot to check the rest of the script. Oh well, I’ll keep watching.

  2. promos

    Did the marketing guys even pay attention to the show before making the ads?

    The WB has some of the worst promo-monkeys in the biz. Never, ever believe what you see in one of their promos.

    • Re: promos and other stuff

      The WB has some of the worst promo-monkeys in the biz. Never, ever believe what you see in one of their promos.

      Have to agree with this one after watching Charmed for a few years!

      For some reason it completely missed me that Clark should have been able to find the stone. Duh! Oh well.

      I’m thinking the stones are what the green crystal was in the movie… Haven’t figured the witches yet, other than maybe they’re "General Zod" types (i.e. bad guys from Krypton).

      First time in a while that I’ve been interested in Clark’s story line over the Luthors…

      And just to vent: just how *stupid* did those guys think Sark was on Alias last night??? He’s never been that stupid in the past… Though I was expecting them to find the bug, not him waiting for them

      • Re: promos and other stuff

        For some reason it completely missed me that Clark should have been able to find the stone. Duh! Oh well.

        I noticed it, and it bugged me, but the question I’m asking is why in the hell is it so damn easy to knock Clark out? He’s basically indestructible to most things (excluding kryptonite and – apparently – magic) and he got knocked out, what, three times? Also, when he initially stole the stone from Lana/Countess, why the hell didn’t he keep running? He could have stowed the stone somewhere and come back to rescue them.

        This is my one big grip with this series – when Clark learns to do something with his powers, he seems to forget that he can do it to advance plots, or is too afraid of being found out to use the power. When he and Bart got together he seemed to pick up a few things, but now all that knowledge is gone. If these stones could destroy the world, you would think he’d be more concerned about getting his hands on them.

        • Re: promos and other stuff

          I noticed it, and it bugged me, but the question I’m asking is why in the hell is it so damn easy to knock Clark out? He’s basically indestructible to most things (excluding kryptonite and – apparently – magic) and he got knocked out, what, three times?

          If you will recall from the original comics, Clark has three weaknesses (other than Lois and Lana): Kryptonite, the light from a red sun, and magic…

  3. Is Lana really back?
    I am surprised that no one has mentioned it, but I am thinking that Lana could still be Isabelle. That was a pretty wierd look at the end of the episode.

    • Re: Is Lana really back?

      I am surprised that no one has mentioned it, but I am thinking that Lana could still be Isabelle. That was a pretty wierd look at the end of the episode.

      Yeah, I noticed that too, and for some reason was suspicious when “Lana” returned — it seemed to perfectly timed or something…

      • Re: Is Lana really back?

        I am surprised that no one has mentioned it, but I am thinking that Lana could still be Isabelle. That was a pretty wierd look at the end of the episode.

        Yeah, I noticed that too, and for some reason was suspicious when “Lana” returned — it seemed to perfectly timed or something…

        Plus now she has one of the stones – and Isabelle knows where another one is.

  4. Foreshadowing
    Personally I really like it when they have subtle elements that hint at Clark’s destiny, like last week they had that red towel draped over the dog.

    This week, I can’t be certain but I think I heard strains of the Superman movie music a couple times. Particularly when Clark decided to go to China.

    • Re: Foreshadowing

      This week, I can’t be certain but I think I heard strains of the Superman movie music a couple times. Particularly when Clark decided to go to China.

      I noticed it when he got the communications from Dr. Swann – I think it’s just a way to tie in the memory of Christopher Reeve and the future Superman with Smallville. I think it’s a nod and a wink to the fans more than anything else.

    • Re: Foreshadowing

      Personally I really like it when they have subtle elements that hint at Clark’s destiny, like last week they had that red towel draped over the dog.

      This week, I can’t be certain

      He WAS on a mission to save the world

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