Is Smallville's version of Lex is better than movie's version of Lex

[Ultimate_Superman]

With all due respect to Gene Hackman and Kevin Spacey, not only do I like Rosenbaum's Lex more I actually liked John Shea's Lex more than the movies.

Agreed although I think Shea's Lex could have blown them all away had he come back for the second season.

 

[Mandrill]

The main problem with movie Lex is his motivation its always about land.3 movies STM ,S2 and SR his main concern was getting land for cash.Getting rid of Superman was just a sidetrack.

 

[b24]

My favorite incarnation of lex is a graphic novel called Lex Luthor: Man of Steel. I highly recommend the read. very short, but really cool IMO. in that book Lex honestly believes that he is doing everything for the good of mankind and superman is the real villian. They touched it a little bit during the NAMAN/native indian story arc, with the episode ending with lex saying, "a man with the strength of many men, can fly, and shoots fire out of his eyes, sounds like a monster to me. You ever think ________ is really the hero". That specific line made him lex luthor[/quote]

i see smallville's version inspired by this MOS lex thats in smalville lex also belive he is doing good for mankind

and he considers "aliens" threat

 

[Ultimate_Superman]

My favorite incarnation of lex is a graphic novel called Lex Luthor: Man of Steel. I highly recommend the read. very short, but really cool IMO. in that book Lex honestly believes that he is doing everything for the good of mankind and superman is the real villian. They touched it a little bit during the NAMAN/native indian story arc, with the episode ending with lex saying, "a man with the strength of many men, can fly, and shoots fire out of his eyes, sounds like a monster to me. You ever think ________ is really the hero". That specific line made him lex luthor

i see smallville's version inspired by this MOS lex thats in smalville lex also belive he is doing good for mankind

and he considers "aliens" threat[/quote]That is how SV Lex is some what but that is really how The Batman's Lex is if you watch the Batman/Superman story.

 

[M.O.Steel]

My favorite incarnation of lex is a graphic novel called Lex Luthor: Man of Steel. I highly recommend the read. very short, but really cool IMO. in that book Lex honestly believes that he is doing everything for the good of mankind and superman is the real villian. They touched it a little bit during the NAMAN/native indian story arc, with the episode ending with lex saying, "a man with the strength of many men, can fly, and shoots fire out of his eyes, sounds like a monster to me. You ever think ________ is really the hero". That specific line made him lex luthor

i see smallville's version inspired by this MOS lex thats in smalville lex also belive he is doing good for mankind

and he considers "aliens" threat

you might want to fix it cause it looks like you wrote that whole thing instead of just the bottom part.

 

[M.O.Steel]

i see smallville's version inspired by this MOS lex thats in smalville lex also belive he is doing good for mankind

and he considers "aliens" threat

That is how SV Lex is some what but that is really how The Batman's Lex is if you watch the Batman/Superman story.

We were just talking about which lex is the best. i'm not saying the MOS version inspired smallville, or that it is the definitive one, its just my favorite version.

 

[Mike_D202]

 

[Ultimate_Superman]

We were just talking about which lex is the best. i'm not saying the MOS version inspired smallville, or that it is the definitive one, its just my favorite version.

I am not saying he did. The person I quoted messed up in his posting which in turn messed up my quote. I am agreeing with you that Lex Luthor: M.O.S is a great way to view Lex and I was saying like the poster I quoted that Lex from SV is alot like him in that he believes he is doing everything for the good of man kind in terms of aliens.

 

[Vindicator]

MR from Smallville does the best Lex, partly due to talent, but mostly because his character is a 3-D representation. All of the films depict a Lex who is 2-D, not properly motivated, and not intelligent enough. I think we must also lay blame to improper direction, as these men probably wanted to infuse more into their characters – considering past projects.

Lex from Smallville has been given a clear history and clear motivations regarding all of his actions. And it’s always more interesting to watch a character fall into darkness, rather than a character who has already fallen. I imagine, the creators of the series did read “Lex Luthor: Man of Steel”. (In fact, I can’t wait to read it myself). I think Smallville really understood that for any actor to play the villain convincingly, that actor cannot see him/herself as evil or villainous. It’ll never read on camera.

But it’s difficult to judge in the end, because Smallville is about Lex’s downfall and Clark’s rise to greatness. The Superman movies are about Superman and his journey. Lex is never really part of the story-line, not really, not enough.

 

[SpideyVille]

MR from Smallville does the best Lex, partly due to talent, but mostly because his character is a 3-D representation. All of the films depict a Lex who is 2-D, not properly motivated, and not intelligent enough. I think we must also lay blame to improper direction, as these men probably wanted to infuse more into their characters – considering past projects.

Lex from Smallville has been given a clear history and clear motivations regarding all of his actions. And it’s always more interesting to watch a character fall into darkness, rather than a character who has already fallen. I imagine, the creators of the series did read “Lex Luthor: Man of Steel”. (In fact, I can’t wait to read it myself). I think Smallville really understood that for any actor to play the villain convincingly, that actor cannot see him/herself as evil or villainous. It’ll never read on camera.

But it’s difficult to judge in the end, because Smallville is about Lex’s downfall and Clark’s rise to greatness. The Superman movies are about Superman and his journey. Lex is never really part of the story-line, not really, not enough.

Excellent points throughout
Now that i think about it, Hackman's version wasn't really an 'evil' character. He was more like a theft or a con artist that uses his wits to conceive a plan where he won't get caught. but he wasn't really evil. Aside from his attempt to destroy the California fault line, he wasn't as bent on hurting innocent people as he was on getting rid of Superman. Unlike SV Lex where we see him capturing meteor freaks and having them experimented on. He's just an early Lex but he's already showing his evil roots.

And like you said, he's more of a 2-D character that wasn't developed as much as he could have been, and i guess that's why i think he fails in comparison towards SV Lex,esp when he claims to be the "greatest criminal mind" when there really any proof or background on this. While we see Lex on SV and how he's changed over the past 7 years.

 

[darkrayaelaine]

the smallville version of lex is the better one in my opinion.

 

[M.O.Steel]

I am not saying he did. The person I quoted messed up in his posting which in turn messed up my quote. I am agreeing with you that Lex Luthor: M.O.S is a great way to view Lex and I was saying like the poster I quoted that Lex from SV is alot like him in that he believes he is doing everything for the good of man kind in terms of aliens.

oh ok, my mistake. yeah b24 needs to fix his quote.

it's one of my favorite books. i really like it also.

 

[Lex Luthor]

Agreed although I think Shea's Lex could have blown them all away had he come back for the second season.

Yeah, Shea should have been brought back for more than just one episode in the second season. And although, he finally got the familiar bald look we know so well, having him return for simply one episode following Seasn 1 clearly wasnt enough for a character like Lex.

 

[Prison Mike]

 

[user123456789]

my ONLY problem with superman movies have been portrayel of lex

they make him tooo cartooooooooonish i mean he is the guy who is going against the most strongest person on earth and yet they showed him in Superman movies goofing around making lame jokes

i hated gene hackman's version and although in SR kevin spacy downplayed some goofiness but still he was inspired by genek hackman's version of lex

IMO MR is doing much better job in prorayel of lex

he is more serious and complex and also more faithfull to comic version of lex

two completely diff interpretations

i love rosen's better

its also nice to have 120+ episodes to develop your character vs a 2hr movie

 

[amazingfantasy15]

The main problem with the movie Lex's is the plan, as others have said, it's all about land, not something really evil. Smallville's Lex is about becoming evil. You could see glimspes of evil in Kevin's Spacey's Lex and I think if Singer didn't feel the need to use the first Superman plot, Spacey would've done really well. When he's explaining his dislike for Superman, it's a lot like Smallville's Lex, when he's attacking Superman on the island he's showing that evil streak, those scenes are great, but there wasn't enough of them because Spacey's Luthor was too concerned about making his island.

 

[M.O.Steel]

as much as i like the smallville lex (best live-action, i don't remember L&C version), i thinks it very biased to ask that question in a smallville board.

 

[Cmill216]

as much as i like the smallville lex (best live-action, i don't remember L&C version), i thinks it very biased to ask that question in a smallville board.

Not really, because Smallville's version of Lex is better than the movie's versions.

'Tis fact.

 

[M.O.Steel]

Not really, because Smallville's version of Lex is better than the movie's versions.

'Tis fact.

thanks for proving my point .

nice avatar.

 

[Sawyer]

my ONLY problem with superman movies have been portrayel of lex

they make him tooo cartooooooooonish i mean he is the guy who is going against the most strongest person on earth and yet they showed him in Superman movies goofing around making lame jokes

i hated gene hackman's version and although in SR kevin spacy downplayed some goofiness but still he was inspired by genek hackman's version of lex

IMO MR is doing much better job in prorayel of lex

he is more serious and complex and also more faithfull to comic version of lex

Agreed.

 

[Mikelus]

Even some fanboys of SR recognize Spacey's Lex could've been better.

 

[Ultimate_Superman]

The thing with Spacey's Lex was he was still all about land. Had his motives been about something else he would have been the be version of Lex to date. I say this because even though SV's Lex is evil he is lacking something IMO that Lex has always had even in L&C and thats smarts. Lex is on or above Batman's level when it comes to how smart he is and I have yet to see SV's Lex show any signs of that. The movie versions of Lex have shown that there only problem IMO is that their motives where always about Land had they been about something else I would say they would be the best version of Lex. Which is why I say Shea from L&C is the best Lex because he was not only rich but displayed the smarts that Lex should have as well. And it will not help SV's Lex when they change Clark into Superman and Lex being around Clark for 7years now seeing him almost everyday and still can't tell he is Clark will look pretty bad.

 

[RakuMon]

To answer the question in the title: yes.

On another point, since Hackman will never be on SV, can we get a guest spot for Clancy Brown? He was great on "Lost" a couple seasons back and has done work with Rosey in the past (the JLU ep in which Lex & Flash switch bodies comes to mind).

I think that would be a great subtle nod to the Luthor legacy in other media.

 

[Serene]

^Cool. The Kurgan on SV.

 

[NHawk19]

^Cool. The Kurgan on SV.

Why not we already had Methos didnt we?