SMALLVILLE {4th. Season} (DVD Review) - 15/2/08

Recently I was re-watching "Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines" and found out whilst watching that naughty old Warner Brothers has re-used footage from two scenes in the film and slapped them into an episode of "Smallville" a classic case of saving on CGI costs and hoping no one would notice. A bit like all the repetitive library footage we constantly get padding out various episodes with Clark's moonlight barn shot, Lex's outside fountain mansion shot and numerous shots of Smallville High which always seem to be in constant Summer from the look of the foliage outside. This Season we also get the highly laughable version of Smallville's "Crouching Tiger..." when they visit 'China' truly awful. In a duff stand-in Art Deco 'Chinese' Temple the naff fight scene (and it is bad!) between Clark and Lana get's more ridiculous as they go on. I had tears of laughter rolling down my cheeks. The premise of this Season took on a more poignant note with the real-life death of actor Christopher Reeve (Who had already made a couple of earlier appearances in "Smallville") so that the feel of this Season's run seemed to fill out with much stronger episodes apart from the silly Superdog one. The continuation of the back plot and story arc carries on with Lionel Luthor reformed or is he? [Playing a "Long Game"?] Plots thicken with the Teague family as everyone and everybody all seem to be hunting for the three Kryptonian stones of power. Ending with a fairly lack-lustre finale and the usual cliff-hanger (Because I really won't watch the programme again unless it has "To Be Continued" at the end of each Season - Yawn!) we await the dawn of the fifth Season. As with the previous three Season's the fourth also has DVD-ROM content plus Commentaries, Deleted Scenes and a Featurette on the 6-Discs in this Boxset.