Villainous.

Glorious.

Ridiculous.

Such was this past week in movie-related news. Oh, and here’s an Ape.

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In light of all recent developments, let’s take a trip to the High-Low Country courtesy one of the more intriguing bits of casting news: Michael Shannon as General Zod in Zack Snyder’s MAN OF STEEL.

No, he’s not Dexter.

Kentucky born Shannon has had quite a presence in theater and film in a wide-ranging career, and most recently he became a series regular on Boardwalk Empire. While performing in Chicago, Shannon helped form the Red Orchid Theatre, and to this day performs there when he has a hiatus from the film world.

The first high of his career could also be called his first film as he starred in the tiny part of a groom-to-be in Groundhog Day way back in 1993. If you don’t remember his presence, neither do I.

After that, he starred in a few smaller capacities throughout the nineties until Tigerland and Pearl Harbor came along. Still locked in supporting roles, usually small, Shannon also dabbled with Tom Cruise in Cameron Crowe’s remake Vanilla Sky.

Moving to his low-low moment, Michael Shannon possessed the role of the fearful villain in Kangaroo Jack. Perhaps the insanity behind Kangaroos is what pushed him to help develop and start the stage character of Peter Evans in the play Bug, which was later adapted into a feature film with Ashley Judd and Harry Connick, Jr. directed by William Friedkin. This is still a low moment for Shannon, as the film Bug was virtually unwatchable and a questionable experiment by an otherwise fine director and cast.

Shannon dabbled in a few more unheard of supporting roles in larger films (Bad Boys II, World Trade Center) and earned much acclaim for his role as Son Hayes in Shotgun Stories. Shotgun Stories revolved around a feud between brothers that erupts after the death of their father.

It must’ve been a comedy.

From this acclaim, Shannon’s rise to the High Country continued with a role in late Sydney Lumet’s final film, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. This role was immediately followed by the very showy, scene-stealing insane son of the neighbors in Revolutionary Road, which scored Shannon an Oscar nomination. The role, seen by many as the best part of the film, was a character designed to provide a deep and dark reflection of the “happy couple” portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Shannon’s character had numerous brief moments overcome with his troubles and insanities, which were troubling and uncomfortable to watch, and also were enough to propel him to the top of everyone’s “wanted” list for dark and tortured characters. Such is the difficulty of being a master character actor with a dark face.

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Since his Oscar nomination, Shannon appeared in the dreadfully panned Jonah Hex as well as two of Werner Herzog’s latest, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans and  My Son, My Son, What have ye done? , inspired by a true story about a young actor who re-enacts a personal Greek tragedy in the act of killing his mother with a sword.

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Recently, Michael Shannon has shown consistent character strength in the role of the over-zealous Federal agent in Boardwalk Empire, and he gained enough support and attention from Zack Snyder to be confidently named for the role of General Zod in the yet-to-be filmed Man of Steel.

Michael Shannon has truly walked uphill for many years to get to the High Country, and his only time dwelling in the lowlands has been on his way to the top. How long will he last? Will he take another Kangaroo Jack excursion into the valley of career detention, or remain at the top of everyone’s villain list? Will he be able to grow out of the dark territory he now rules?

I think so. I think Shannon definitely has a range, some of which we haven’t been able to see yet. If he can be dark and haunting, then he has the superior ability, like Heath Ledger, to name one, to bounce into a charming place and sweep a lady off her feet. Don’t doubt the dark and brooding types in the land of romance and heroics.

Here’s a last minute video in which Shannon discusses his “chemistry test” with Superman Henry Cavill:

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You are dismissed!

Sgt. Angle

If the power rangers were from Kansas…

Now from what I understand  the show is still on after 50 or 60 seasons now and Clark has yet to don his iconic dress and Mr. Luthor left the show — meh.  Normally I wouldn’t care enough about a megacorporation raping established cannon like this, but I heard something the other day that rattled my geeky cage; a young boy was with his mother inside of a Target, begging her for one of the seasons on DVD.  The mother denied him and he went on to say, “But I need to know if Clark and Chloe get together.”  I couldn’t help myself and butted in, “You know Lois and Clark end up together in the end, right?”  The child looked at me like I punched his mother and replied, “Maybe in the comics, but Smallville isn’t like the comics, it’s actually good!”  I then punched the child.  His mother took offense so I punched her as well.  Then I grabbed all of the Smallville DVDs, stole them, and burned them in my backyard as a sacrifice to the continuity gods.

If you didn’t know this before, I’m going to fill you in on a little secret now: Smallville is a piece of sh*t.  It’s not a piece of sh*t the way a person who sleeps with your girlfriend is a piece of sh*t, scheming and conniving.  Smallville is a piece of sh*t the way Ryan Leaf is a piece of sh*t, promising, but stingy and too self-involved.

The show started with a great idea: Bruce Wayne before he becomes Batman — Great!  Wait, huh?  That’s right Smallville was originally going to be Gotham and to be honest, I’m thankful they didn’t.  Who knows how greed-rape would’ve ruined the caped crusader for me…  Anyways, after Batman’s story got axed, Alfred Gough (Shanghai Noon, Shanghai Knights, Spider-Man 2, Herbie: Fully Loaded, and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) and Miles Millar (who partners with Gough on many of the previous titles, but also celebrates success with The Hannah Montana Movie) came up with the same formula for Superman — Clark in Smallville.  In and of itself a great idea!

While season one was freak-of-the-week, the following seasons have revolved around greater story arcs involving several DC characters, heroes and villains.  Okay.  Fine.  So what’s the problem?

The problem is that Smallville the TV show isn’t Smallville from the comics.  I know a lot of people defend the show saying, “Smallville is its own continuity,” but to me, that’s horse sh*t.  Why would you make a show about a younger version of the most famous superhero ever, if you’re not going to stick to the details?  It’s the details that make him great!  I can understand a few changes in the name of interpretation, but some of the stuff the CW has done is just bad (I’ll get to details in a second).

A show with this doesn’t need good writing.

And if you absolutely must change things around, do it for a good reason; if the word money comes up in the conversation, it’s not a good reason.  When I say “good” I mean “of moral fortitude,” in other words, if you’re going to have Lex Luthor live in Smallville (for much longer than he should’ve) there better be a good reason behind it.  What you’re doing at that point is changing cannon, not reinterpreting it.  A reinterpretation would be something like, changing the design of Supe’s suit, or making Lois a blonde, but creating a character named Chloe who will exist as one of the most significant characters in Clark Kent’s life is going to change his future, that’s something that’s hard for me to take.  Now, Ready for the list?

Lex don’t love dem hoes.

1.  Lex Luthor.  This guy should never have been in the show, well, at least not until Clark moved to Metropolis, or at least just for a brief stint according to cannon.  If you needed him to be in the show in order to give Clark a nemesis, than maybe a show about Superman before he was Superman wasn’t such a good idea in the first place!  What you’ve done instead is taken a series of events and moved them back in time.  That’s not really impressive…  We know Clark and Lex become enemies, I thought Smallville took place before all that.

Cute, but unnecessary, like munchkins.

2.  Chloe Sullivan.  The idea of Chloe is fine: a high-strung, headstrong reporter who will stop at nothing to “get the story.”  Are you f*cking kidding me?  I have an idea, let’s do a show about Superman before he was Superman and all we really have to do is write about superman with all the people he knows when he is superman, but make them teenagers and give them different names — SHENANIGANS!  We didn’t need Lois Lane in this show yet!  I THOUGHT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE BEFORE ALL THAT!  This was a cheap way to create a relationship that wasn’t supposed to happen to Clark yet…  Chloe Sullivan did not exist in the comics-proper.  I understand the need for more supporting characters in Smallville, sure you can even make some up, but do they have to be copies of people we already know and love?  PS: Allison Mack is cute.

Ginger or no, let Jimmy be.

3.  Jimmy Olsen.  You killed Jimmy Olsen?!  Clark Kent isn’t even Superman yet and you killed Jimmy Olsen?  Are you f*cking kidding me?  I know, I know:  He wasn’t really Jimmy Olsen, but Jimmy Olsen’s younger brother Jimmy Olsen.  Oh, okay.  Let me bend Ms. Continuity over a bit so it hurts less when you f*ck her!

I see: Heroes. CW sees: $$

4.  Flash, Cyborg and every other mucked up ancillary character…  Cyborg was too old, (that) Flash was too young, Aquaman, well he just sucked, Oliver Queen should’ve been the same age as Superman, Papa Kent didn’t run for Senator, and Lionel Luthor didn’t exist…  You’ve destroyed the fictional reality of Superman, please leave the rest of DC alone.

Look, I’m fine with reimaginings, I think it’s neat to see what different people do with different materials.  All I’m asking for here is a bit of discretion when referring to the “greatness” of Smallville.  If you really love the Superman mythology, go support the comic community and buy a book!  Otherwise just admit that you like the Gilmore-Girl-like writing, typical WB/CW teenage angst drama, and keep your nose out of Superman all together.  You can play with Superman, just don’t f*ck with him.

Two good things to come from Smallville?  Kreuk and Durance.  Especially Durance.

Until next time,

Mr. Wolff

**UPDATE: This video is awesome.  Thanks to broken for the heads up!

Click here to view the embedded video.