EricAD’s Comic-Con Blog Days 3 & 4

So I kinda half assed Comic Con on Friday. I admit it…but I more than made up for it on Saturday, which is traditionally the biggest day of the convention anyway! I arrived at the Convention Center around 9:30 AM, which sounds early, but not in Comic Con standard time…apparently by 7:30 AM there was already a line out to Hall H (the big 7000 seater room that houses all the biggest media panels) that stretched out to the marina. Lucky for me, I made a friend the day before and he was there since 7AM and saved a spot for me near the front of the line (never underestimate the gay geek bond) by around 11AM, they start letting us in. I am officially getting super excited now.

11:45AM  WARNER BROTHERS PANEL (Green Lantern, Harry Potter & Sucker Punch) 

I am more jazzed for this than maybe any other panel today, because this is our first live action footage of Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern. And although we only get a sizzle reel without a fully costumed Hal Jordan, we DO get to see him make a giant green fist, AND we get a glimpse of our first alien Lantern, Tomar Re.  Best moment of the panel had to be when an adorable little boy in a GL shirt, no more than 6 or 7, asked  for Ryan Reynolds to say the Green Lantern oath, which he of course he did, in full dramatic voice to this wide eyed little kid. After that, the little boy held his power ringed hand up in the air, and Ryan Reynolds responded in kind and held his own power ringed finger at the kid. There are no accurate words to describe this kind of cuteness, except “Awwwwwwwww.” And there were about  7000 awwwwwws at that moment in Hall H, I can tell you that.

An extended new trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was next, and it was pretty impressive, although only the actor who plays Draco Malfoy was present from the cast and crew of that movie. I heard a lot of mumbles and bitchy comments from some people in Hogwarts uniforms about this.

Finally, we got our first look at Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch, his all girl action/sci fi/fantasy/(burlesque?) movie. The trailer he put together was pretty awesome, or maybe I was just partial to it because it was set to the Lord of Acid’s song “The Crab Louse.” This movie get be epic or epically awful, but I will be there next March to find out.

1PM – LET ME IN 

I am a huge fan of 2008’s Swedish vampire flick Let the Right One In, so when I found out there was going to be an American remake so damn soon, I was a little dismayed.  Also, the hiring of director Matt Reeves of Cloverfield fame did not really inspire me. I liked Cloverfield allright, it just had such a typical Hollywood tone, I just couldn’t see an American director remaking Let the Right One In being any good.

Based on the footage shown in Hall H though, I could be wrong. It looks like they changed enough to make it different, but kept enough the same to keep it still the same story at heart. Maybe my most pleasant surprise at the Con so far. I am now officially looking forward to this remake instead of just dreading it.

3PM TRAILER PARK

What it sounds like…a bunch of trailers for movies, most of which you can see online or at the movie theater. OK, so some of them are in 3D. Big deal. A take this is an opportunity to get some lunch. Over piced pizza, here I come!

4:PM RESIDENT EVIL 4

Sorry, not a Resident Evil fan here folks. But I gotta stay in this room if I wanna keep my seat, right?  I decide to go get something to drink at this point, and as soon as I come back to the main hall, I see a bunch of running security gaurds and rubber necking convention goers. “What the fuck just happened in the ten minutes I was away??” Apparently, there was an altercation over saving of seats, which resulted in someone getting stabbed in the eye. Seriously….. W.T.F. I guess this kills the notion that nerds are all pushovers.  Sadly, these Jerry Springer Show antics results in Hall H being in “lockdown” for an hour, while they repeat the same stupid ass trailers as before. This is all very lame and holding things up. Now officially annoyed. Takes about an hour for things to get back on track.

5PM PAUL

I had barely heard of this movie called Paul before today, and now I can’t fucking wait to see it. Paul is the first big screen reunion of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost since Hot Fuzz, this time teaming with Superbad alumni Seth Rogen,  Bill Hader, and director Greg Mottola. All this AND Sigourney Weaver. Part taking place at the San Diego Comic Con itself, and part taking place in what appears to be Area 51 in Nevada, this movie has something to do with the Pegg and Frost as two geeks on a road trip who end up in the care of a foul mouthed alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) On a pure entertainment level, this might be the best panel so far today. These fuckers are funny, and Sigourney Weaver is Sigourney Weaver, she is a freakin’ sci fi legend. End of story.

5:30 PM  Cowboys and Aliens

Jon Favreu’s new western/sci fi hybrid starring Daniel Craig, and Harrison Ford. That’s right, Harrison fucking Ford was a mere few feet away from me. I don’t care how jaded and cynical I get, there is now way I’m not going to be psyched at seeing Han Solo/Indiana Jones himself sitting right there in front of me. And while he may seem like Granpa Joe, he still managenes to to make the best entrance so far at the Con, being escorted by security in handcuffs (remember, this is right after the stabbing incident) Totally tastless and kind of hilarious. Oh, and the movie? Looks cool so far. Essentially a straight up Western right up until Aliens attack, the whole vibe of this movie is reminding me of From Dusk Till Dawn, with one kind of genre movie becoming another kind of genre movie half way through. This was a really short panel, with Harrison Ford and company essentially coming on stage for a handful of minutes and then promptly leaving.

6PM  Marvel Studios Panel – Captain America and Thor

The can’t miss panel, at least for this comics geek. Cap came first, with director Joe Johnston, Hugo Weaving and Captain America himself Chirs Evan flying in from England after only two weeks of shooting. They only had a little bit of costume tests to show us with Chris Evens (still to early to say how good or bad the suit really looks) but one great scene with a Nazi (pre-transformed) Red Skull. Hugo Weaving was at his villanous best, and the site of the Cosmic Cube totally gave me a geekgasm. Thor had a more complete showing, as they are mostly done with their shoot. Shown was a  full 3D trailer made just for the Con;  Asgard looked cool, and not like something of 1980’s Flash Gordon as I feared it might. And hearing Anthony Hopkin say “Thor Odinson, thou art banished!” (or something along those lines) in full dramatic tone…..well, lets face it, it doesn’t get more convincing than that. Officially relived and excited for this movie. Don’t let us down Marvel!

Of course, the cherry on top of the Hall H experience was none other the first official revealing of the line-up for the coming Avengers movie. First, we watched a special trailer cut just for the Con….in it we hear a voice over of Samuel L. Jackson read aloud the words displayed upon many an old Avengers comic;  “And there shall come a day, a day unlike any other….when heroes unite against a common threat….” Ok, this shit is making me misty eyed. I admit it. The 12 year old in me just cannot believe I’m about to see The Avengers in live action. First up on stage, we get Samuel l. Jackson as Nick Fury, the the man himself, Roert Downey Jr appearing to take this shit over, announcing the rest of the cast: Chris Hemswoth as Thor and Chris Evans as Captain America (duh) followed by Scarlet Johanssen as the Black Widow, and the two sorta surprises, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and the third actor to play the Hulk in less than 7 years, Mark Ruffalo. RDJ is cracking wise every chance he gets, and we are eating up out here.

After all this fun, you would think I’d go straight home, however I am convinced to go to the Masquerade Ball, a first ever for me at one of these Cons. After seeing the Xavier School Glee Club and  Viva Las Villains (a bunch of villains from movies and comics, but wearing 50’s style showgirl outfits) I am glad I stayed. Gotta say though, saw some much more impressive outfits around the convention center floor than some of the people who entered into this thing:

It is now 11:30 PM, been at the Convention Center since 9:30Am. In other words, too damn long. Time to get to bed.

SUNDAY JULY 25th LAST DAY

1PM – I get to the Con kinda late (can you blame me for sleeping in after being at the Convention Center 12+ hours yesterday?) and I miss the Glee panel, which is the only panel I really wanted to see today. I wander the floor one last time, taking pics, getting free crap, and maybe even running into a certain speedo clad freedom fighter out on the floor. And then say goodbye to San Diego, at least goodbye until next year.

Overall thoughts? Best Comic Con in years, in terms of conetent and presentation, at least for me. Last year I was getting kind of burned out on the whole Comic Con experience, and was kind of feeling done with the whole thing….but this year at least, it felt like the old days. Comic Con 2011 can’t come soon enough for this geek.