One of the decisions I made when I first writing here was that I didn’t want it to turn into a diary, or even the slightly more masculine journal. I never wanted it to turn into “Dear Diary: Today I was pompous and my sister was crazy… Today we were kidnapped by hill folk, never to be seen again. It was the best day ever!” (extra geek points awarded for anyone who understood the last sentence) There have been a few times when I have slid uncomfortably close to that format, though hopefully still offering some type of insight/entertainment/value to you, my faithful imaginary reader. Today will be one of those times.
At the end of July I made the trek to Geek Mecca, the orgy of pop culture, sweat, and scantily clad hotties known as the San Diego Comic-Con. Since you are clearly connected to the internet and have taken the time to read at least this far into a blog, it’s probably safe to assume that you are geeky enough to have at least a basic understanding of what Comic-Con is. If not, and if I have not yet scared you back into the safer corners of the web, to return to tending your farm and taking quizzes to determine your IQ, then I guess it would probably be helpful to offer a brief explanation. Comic-Con began as a small convention for fans of comic books to come together to discuss the medium. Over time it gradually grew larger. With the dawn of the internet so-called geeks, the primary attendees of Comic-Con, quickly became an important force for deciding what would be popular. The geeks ran the internet, so if they were excited about a product or property, it would be talked about across the web where the average consumer would be exposed to it and, since everyone seemed to be talking about it, become excited about it too. The media companies took note of this and began previewing their new projects at the con, in the hope that they could get the massive boost in awareness and revenue from hundreds of thousands of geeks talking about there product on the internet. Today, everyone associated with pop culture shows off their new and upcoming products at the con – film and TV studios, videogame publishers, toy companies, and, of course, comic books. Your presentation at Comic-Con can make (District 9, Tim Burton’s Alice) or break (Solomon Kane) a project.
Since I attended the con this year, and since I am acutely aware of the reason for its existence, I feel it is my duty to report on what I was shown, given, and exposed to.
The main attraction of Preview Night is the convention show floor. This massive space is packed with exhibitors all trying to get you interested in their products, most of the time by giving away free stuff, referred to as swag. The first rule of Comic-Con is that you take absolutely anything that is given to you. Starting even before you get to the convention centre, people, usually attractive young women, will be thrusting cards, leaflets, flyers and brochures in your direction. Once you get inside, it gets even more overwhelming, with bags, buttons, books, toys, fans, posters, stuffed animals, anything you can imagine, being given to anyone who will glance in the exhibitor’s general direction. As the attendee your job is to take everything that is offered and sort the wheat from the chaff when you return to your hotel room at the end of the night. Preview Night offers access to the show floor and its myriad wonders with a slightly smaller crowd, allowing you to at least move of your own volition, rather than merely being swept along in the flow of the crowd.
On Thursday the panels begin. There are literally hundreds of panels that take place over the course of the convention, taking place in rooms with capacities between 60 and 8000 people. There is some strategy involved in attending these panels as well. At any given time there are likely between ten and twenty panels occurring, with massive lines that form outside their respective rooms, sometimes hours before the panel begins. Additionally, these rooms are not cleared between panels, meaning many people will go to panels early in the day that they are not interested in just so that they can stay in the room all day and ensure they see a panel late in the day that they actually want to see. Attending panels thus becomes a guessing game where you have to try to balance anticipating how many people will be interested in the panel you want to see, how many will come to earlier panels to see yours, how many will be sitting through your panel to try to see a later one, and what time people will begin lining up in the morning.
On Thursday, our main goals were to see the Tron: Legacy, J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World panels, both of which were in the largest venue, the 8000 seat Hall H. Since Tron was early in the day and Pilgrim was at the very end, we opted to camp out in Hall H all day. We arrived at 7:45 to line up for the first panel at 10:00, landing us roughly in the first 4000 people. Had we arrived 30 minutes later, we would not have made it into the hall. We sat through a total of seven panels.
MegaMind
I had seen the original trailer for this film, which presented it as a typical supervillian fights superhero but is ultimately redeemed story, and was very disinterested in it. The footage shown at the con, however, completely changed my mind. What DreamWorks hadn’t revealed was that Brad Pitt’s superhero character would be killed early in the movie, leaving the villain in control of the world. To me, this makes it a far more interesting story, instead of one we’ve seen many times before.
Buzz: 3/5
Tron: Legacy
This is a project that was launched at the con two years ago when Disney showed some early test footage of a Tron lightcycle race to see if there was any interest in the property. The reaction was so strong that the film was greenlit. This year a lot of new footage was shown, all of which looked impressive visually, though the acting may be a little shaky. Additionally, the audience was recorded for use as crowd noise in the finished film.
Buzz: 5/5
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
A short 3D clip was shown with Johnny Depp in character as Jack Sparrow, which revealed that the plot would revolve around the search for the fountain of youth, and that Selma Hayeck would co-star.
Buzz: 3/5
Haunted Mansion
Moderator Patton Oswalt introduced this one by asking “If there was one Disney franchise you want to see rebooted, what would it be? That’s right, Haunted Mansion.” I originally took this as a joke, as I suspect many in the audience did. The original Haunted Mansion film was such a disaster, I didn’t think Disney would want to touch the property again. The reboot is real, though, and, even better, it’s being directed by Guillermo del Toro, who should be able to bring the prefect touch to the property. This was completely unexpected and became one of the most talked about surprised of the show.
Buzz: 4/5
Battle: Los Angeles
This one is about an alien invasion that takes place in L.A. tomorrow and how we would respond to it. It differs from other alien films in that the humans don’t immediately wheel out their secret super-weapon to defeat the invaders, but instead have to make do with what we actually have. An interesting concept to be sure. The footage shown, however, was anything but. It was all very generic and dull. Hopefully that is due to the need to keep the aliens’ appearance a secret until closer to the release, forcing them to choose from a limited number of clips, but as it stands Battle: Los Angeles is not looking very strong.
Buzz: 2/5
Salt
Salt was set to open the next day and had failed to get any real buzz going through its ad campaign. The Comic-Con panel didn't help. Nothing about it looked interesting, and even having star Angelina Jolie present didn’t improve things.
Buzz: 1/5
R.E.D.
I had seen a very uninspired trailer for this film about retired C.I.A. assassins who go back into business and didn’t plan on seeing the final product. The footage shown at the convention was much more interesting, however, and now I believe it will be worth checking out.
Buzz: 3/5
J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon: The Visionaries
This panel was put on by Entertainment Weekly and wasn’t to promote any specific project. It was just two of the greatest minds working in television and film, talking about whatever they felt like. It was fantastic.
Buzz: 5/5
The Expendables
The entire cast of the film was present, which was pretty cool, as were the behind the scenes anecdotes about the filming and the number of practical effects and stunts present in the film. In fact, the panel was better than the finished film. The two best action sequences in the movie were shown in their entirety, and there were no boring, painfully acted filler scenes.
Buzz: 4/5
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Universal went all out promoting this film at Comic-Con (and everywhere else). They had a massive ad on the side of the Hilton Bayfront Hotel. They had the Scott Pilgrim Experience across the street, featuring free garlic bread, custom t-shirts made by the cast of the film, soundtrack previews, custom flipbooks, and meet and greets with the cast and crew. The panel was just as epic. Very nearly the entire cast was present, they showed tons of clips from the film, and it was incredibly entertaining. Additionally, they handed out button at the beginning of the panel and anyone who received a 1-Up button got to go with the cast and crew to see the film in its entirety immediately after the panel, followed by a mini-concert by Metric. Two additional screenings were held on Friday and Saturday. I made it into the Friday screening and was blown away. It’s a shame more people aren’t taking the time to check out this fantastic film. Universal took a risk by making it, advertised the heck out of it, and it’d be nice to see them reap the rewards so that they’ll take more risks on unconventional films. If you haven’t seen it already, go see this film.
Buzz: 5/5
On Friday we didn’t attend any panels for specific films or shows. In the morning we made our way through the Scott Pilgrim Experience, and then returned to the convention centre to line up for the Joss Whedon panel. After over two hours in line we just barely made it inside. It was an interesting panel, as his always are, and included a surprise appearance by Nathan Fillion. Finally, that evening, we got into the screening of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, where we were literally the last ones to make it inside. I really can’t recommend this film more highly, you really need to go see it, it’s great. Finally, we ended the night by attending Patton Oswalt’s stand-up show at the House of Blues. If you ever get the chance to see him live, don’t pass it up.
Saturday saw our panels split among two venues, the Hilton Bayfront and Hall H, one of the most anticipated panels of the entire convention, and a stabbing.
Leverage
I had no knowledge of the show going into this panel, but when the concept was explained – a group of con artists pull off a different heist each week – I got a little excited. It sounded like it could be interesting. Unfortunately, that’s where the excitement stopped. Their sizzle reel was fairly dull and the ten minutes they showed from an upcoming episode did nothing to encourage me to invest any more time in the series.
Buzz: 2/5
The Venture Bros.
The panel featured the show’s creators and Patrick Warburton (who, I’m pleased to report, did deliver some Kronk lines). All they really had to show from their upcoming season was a sizzle reel, but they still managed to keep the audience engaged for the full hour.
Buzz: 3/5
Let Me In
Let Me In is an adaptation of the fantastic Swedish film Let The Right One In, which was, in turn, based on a book of the same name. I’m a fan of director Michael Reeves, but was still worried the Americanization of this film would destroy it, especially when it was revealed that the studio wanted to change the age of the leads from 12 to full teenagers, which would have destroyed it. Fortunately, they eventually decided against that route, but I was still sceptical, worried that it would be dumbed down or turned into another disposable horror. After listening to the team involved in the project talk about it and watching the ten or so minutes of footage presented, I feel quite confident in saying that this is a faithful adaptation and should be a great film. Additionally, I don’t seem to be alone in having my fears assuaged by the panel, so this seems to a case of a panel really helping a film. Hopefully it’s reflected at the box office.
Buzz: 4/5
Paul
This panel was delayed an hour due to an incident in the crowd in Hall H. It seems there was an argument over a seat shortly before the panel began. Seats were in high demand, since everyone wanted to make it to the Marvel panel, which was scheduled to end the day, and there was still a huge line outside. The argument escalated into a fight, ending with one person being stabbed in the eye-region with a pen. Other attendees managed to restrain the assailant until police arrived, and then witness statements had to be gathered, resulting in the delay.
In Paul Simon Pegg and Nick Frost go on a cross country trip in a Winnebago with an alien, voiced by Seth Green. The clips shown were pretty funny, and with Pegg and Frost as the screenwriters the rest of the film should be equally so. It hasn’t gotten much press in North America yet, but this could be a sleeper hit.
Buzz: 3/5
Cowboys & Aliens
This film from Jon Favreau, starring Harrison Ford (who, in his first Comic-Con appearance, received such a long standing ovation that he appeared to be on the verge of tears) and Daniel Craig, based on a graphic novel, has a similar concept to Battle: Los Angeles: aliens come to earth and humanity must deal with them using the resources actually available to them, but instead of modern times, here the aliens come to the old west. It sounds a little corny, but, judging from the footage presented, it will be treated seriously, and seems to work quite well.
Buzz: 4/5
Captain America
There wasn’t a lot to be said about this project, as it had started shooting a mere five days before the Con, but they did show the dailies from a scene involving Hugo Weaving before he is completely transformed into the Red Skull. Also interesting was the revelation that the film will take place entirely during World War II.
Buzz: 4/5
Thor
The whole cast was present and they presented the new trailer. This is the Marvel film I was most sceptical about, since mixing the mythological elements into the existing Marvel film universe would seem to be a challenge. The trailer made me believe they may have pulled it off.
Buzz: 4/5
The Avengers
Marvel ended it’s panel with a trailer revealing the logo for The Avengers, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. After the trailer was finished, the audience was surprised by Jackson stepping on stage, with rock music blaring, to introduce the existing members of the Avengers – himself as Nick Fury, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson, and Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. RDJ then took over introduced the new members – Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, and Joss Whedon directing. The group posed for a photo op and then left, promising more in 2011.
Buzz: 5/5
That more or less wraps up Comic-Con 2010. After the convention, we did head up to Anaheim for a couple of days to hit Disneyland, and I just have to offer a quick word of praise for the new show at California Adventure called World Of Color. It is an extremely impressive show that takes place on the park’s lagoon featuring fountains, lights, lasers, projections, and pyrotechnics. To get a sense of the scale, take a look at the video below.
If you’re in the area, make sure you see this show. If you want to make it in, either get a ShowPass in the first few minutes after the park opens or, as we did, order the picnic lunch online ahead of time ($15). You can pick up and eat the lunch at any time throughout the day and you get access to the show in the evening.
Sleep well,
DTE
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Songs of the moment:
Metric - Black Sheep; Broken Social Scene – Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl; John Murphy – In The House
Music while I wrote:
The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow; The Decemberists – Picaresque
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