This is one of those dream episodes for any Smallville or Superman fan. It's hard to not have an enormous fanboy reaction to the scenes on Krypton, especially the one where Jor-El and Zod appear before the council, which was shot to look almost identical to the opening scene in Superman: The Movie, except with Zod and Jor-El's roles reversed.
With the exception of Marlon Brando in the original Superman movie, this is one of the first times Jor-eL has been portrayed live action, and it's an extensive role in this episode. Jor-El probably takes the majority of the screen time. Julian Sands does a phenomenal job of playing Jor-El. He perfectly bridges Brando's performance and Stamp's vocal performance from Smallville. Keeping Jor-El and Clark apart for the majority of the episode was the right decision to make creatively as well. It made their meeting all the more dramatic and emotional. One of the problems in season 7 when Clark met Lara is that they had too much interaction. It deflated the natural drama. Here it's handled much better, although they could have made it last a couple of seconds more. One final comment on Jor-El and the casting of Sands. I find it hilarious that so many people complained that it doesn't make sense to cast him, since Welling himself played young Jor-El back in season 3. Were these the same people complaining back in season 3 that Welling shouldn't have been used as a young Jor-El, and that his casting was cheesy? Here we have a great actor playing a well written version of Jor-El. Season 3 had a poorly written version of Jor-El portrayed in a confusing (and much criticized) casting choice by Tom Welling. I'm astounded that anyone would prefer the illogical casting of Welling.
Zod's story is progressing nicely by this point, and it would continue to improve throughout the season. Some people thought Zod was too tame this season, others thought he was too over the top. While he has moments where he's tamer than we'd expect, and others where he is over the top, it makes perfect sense since they made this Zod a younger version. He's not purely evil, and at the same time not entirely stable. I'm shocked that some people still didn't like Callum Blue's portrayal of Zod after this episode. Once I'd seen his confrontation with Jor-El, I was sold on him 100%.
"Kandor" is the first episode of seeason 9 that I feel deserves a score of a perfect 10. It holds up even better on repeat viewings.
With the exception of Marlon Brando in the original Superman movie, this is one of the first times Jor-eL has been portrayed live action, and it's an extensive role in this episode. Jor-El probably takes the majority of the screen time. Julian Sands does a phenomenal job of playing Jor-El. He perfectly bridges Brando's performance and Stamp's vocal performance from Smallville. Keeping Jor-El and Clark apart for the majority of the episode was the right decision to make creatively as well. It made their meeting all the more dramatic and emotional. One of the problems in season 7 when Clark met Lara is that they had too much interaction. It deflated the natural drama. Here it's handled much better, although they could have made it last a couple of seconds more. One final comment on Jor-El and the casting of Sands. I find it hilarious that so many people complained that it doesn't make sense to cast him, since Welling himself played young Jor-El back in season 3. Were these the same people complaining back in season 3 that Welling shouldn't have been used as a young Jor-El, and that his casting was cheesy? Here we have a great actor playing a well written version of Jor-El. Season 3 had a poorly written version of Jor-El portrayed in a confusing (and much criticized) casting choice by Tom Welling. I'm astounded that anyone would prefer the illogical casting of Welling.
Zod's story is progressing nicely by this point, and it would continue to improve throughout the season. Some people thought Zod was too tame this season, others thought he was too over the top. While he has moments where he's tamer than we'd expect, and others where he is over the top, it makes perfect sense since they made this Zod a younger version. He's not purely evil, and at the same time not entirely stable. I'm shocked that some people still didn't like Callum Blue's portrayal of Zod after this episode. Once I'd seen his confrontation with Jor-El, I was sold on him 100%.
"Kandor" is the first episode of seeason 9 that I feel deserves a score of a perfect 10. It holds up even better on repeat viewings.
