Comic-Con Freakout Blast-O-Rama!!!! (Pt. 2)

Before I continue my Comic-Con extravaganza, I need to correct a fatal omission about the Thursday movie panels. So, right after the Max Payne panel finishes, the moderator dude was all, "Now we have a special treat for you all...." I was intrigued! So we waited for a few minutes while this guy introduces the mystery guest who turned out to be none other than Hugh "Wolverine" Jackman! He popped in to show us the trailer for his new movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It might be too early to tell, but it looked badass.

Okay, now for the Friday festivities. The big event of the day was the Watchmen panel. We got there pretty early, and still had to wait in a huge freaking line (the lines were amazingly long, but were managed surprisingly well). It ended up being worth it though. Way worth it. Zack Snyder and the entire cast (Malin Akerman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, Billy Crudup, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, and Matthew Goode) were there to promote the flick, and Mr. Snyder showed the extended trailer not once, but twice! I think it was during this panel when I realized that the cast's interaction with one another on the panel is a good indicator of whether a movie is going to suck or not. They were all funny and charming (especially that Billy Crudup. He's so hot right now), and it made me way stoked to see the movie next year. After that, we went upstairs to peep on the Joss Whedon panel (mainly for the chance to see Nathan Fillion and Neal Patrick Harris. Joss Whedon's kind of a big nerd). We were late getting in because of all the rabid buffy fans, but they were there promoting their online musical called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, which I have downloaded from iTunes but haven't watched yet.

Upon vacating Ballroom 20 (basically everything cool happens in Ballroom 20 and Hall H. Most of our time was spent walking back and forth between these two rooms), we went back to Hall H to see the Star Wars panel, which had some cool clips from the new videogame Force Unleashed (apparently Darth Vader kills the player's father when the player is a little kid. After sensing a strong presence of the Force with the player, he takes him in as an apprentice unbeknownst to Emperor Palpatine. Why unbeknownst? Because Vader wants to overthrow the mutha' f**kin' emperor, that's why!). Then they showed a few clips from the new Clone Wars movie, which (and I know I'm gonna catch hell for this) kinda, sorta, doesn't look as cool as the one Genndy Tartakovsky did for Cartoon Network already. Still, it was cool to see some new stuff.

After that panel, we caught another installment of Entertainment Weekly's "visionaries" series. This one was equally awesome because it involved filmmakers. The panel included Kevin Smith, Judd Apatow, Zack Snyder, and Frank Miller (yet another deuce-droppingly cool lineup, eh?) Though it was cool to see Frank Miller, he appeared like he didn't want to be there too much (Like, duh. He's making his first movie ever. They shoulda had Guillermo Del Toro. That would have kicked ass). I think the best part of this panel was when Kevin Smith and Judd Apatow made fun of each other, blatantly spurning "PG-13" atmosphere that the convention tried so hard to preserve. This served as a warm up for the next panel, which belonged to Kevin Smith and the cast of his upcoming flick Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Justin Long, Jason Mewes, Traci Lords, Katie Morgan, Ricky Mabe, and producer Scott Mosier). Again, they were damned hilarious, and the clips of the movie were pretty good as well (my personal fave was one where Justin Long makes out with Brandon Routh. Not because I'm a homo or anything, but it was pretty funny to see Superman make out with a Mac). All in all, these two panels kind of made me like Kevin Smith again, despite the shit brick that is Jersey Girl.

I'd go on, but I feel that Saturday and Sunday deserve a post dedicated solely to them. Those were the days when shit got real....

Oh, and we did take many pictures, but they were with Kodak disposables. I apologize for the lack of visual stimulation within my blogs. When I get them developed, I'll throw them up here.

Comic-Con Freakout Blast-O-Rama!!!! (Pt. 1)

I'm going to be honest with you all. It is not possible for me to properly express the affect that attending the San Diego Comic-Con has had on me. At times like these, I wish that I was either a professional journalist or William Shakespeare so that I could fully utilize the power of prose to paint a vivid picture of what I have seen and heard during my time here. So before I go into this, know that the reality of Comic-Con is twenty-seven trillion times more amazing than the paltry scribblings found here.

The sheer amount of bodies was the first thing that Sheree and I noticed as we made our way to the San Diego convention center. Within the pulsing crowd, pretty much every character from every comic book, movie, TV show, video game, and anime series could be found. And as if this wasn't enough of an assault to the senses, we entered the vast geekdom of the exhibition hall. The only way I can even come close to describing the synapses and images that were being fired into my brain at many gigabytes per second is this: Imagine an enclosed space the size of three city blocks packed full of everything that you ever thought was cool in your whole life. Every major movie, comic book, TV, and video game company was present, and best of all, they handed out tons and tons of free crap. Sheree and I just kind of stood in awe of the sights and sounds that were constantly assaulting our fragile senses. After some time, we went upstairs to watch the pilot of J.J. Abrams' new show called Fringe, which looked okay, but the principle of seeing a TV show that isn't going to air until September was pretty awesome.

And thus concluded Wednesday, otherwise known as Preview Night.

On Thursday, Comic-Con officially kicked off. Now, each day at Comic-Con is packed with panels, previews, fan group meetings, and spotlights. They've got about fifteen rooms that each have full programming schedules that last from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM. So it's important that you plan your day out to maximize your chances of seeing cool stuff. Our day consisted of seeing a preview panel for the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still and Max Payne, followed by another panel for Push (some hack-job movie about psychic soldiers), Knowing (Alex Proyas' new flick about Nic Cage and disaster predictions), and Twilight (the adaptation of Stephanie Meyers' teen vampire book). Here's my critical analysis of what we saw: The Day the Earth Stood Still looks really dumb. It was cool to see Keanu Reeves, but he too is a really dumb guy. Jennifer Connelly managed to address her questions like a normal person, but Mr. Reeves had a tough time explaining what it was like to play an alien who's taken a human body ("It was like, uh, when I looked out of his eyes, I was like, looking out" his exact words. No joke). Overall, not so impressive. The Max Payne panel was much more entertaining. Mark Wahlberg was hilarious, and Mila Kunis was smokin' hot. Ludacris was awesome too. Plus, the footage they showed made me really excited to see the movie. After these two panels, we sat through one for Push, which looked pretty dumb too. The panel was kinda cool (Chris "Human Torch" Evans and Djimon "Blood Diamond" Hounsou were pretty entertaining). Then they brought out Alex Proyas (he directed The Crow, Dark City, and I, Robot) who has some disaster movie with Nicolas Cage called Knowing coming out. The movie looked okay, but I dunno.
The most surprising panel of all was for Twilight. There were a billion screaming teenage girls who were going nuts and all, but most of the cast seemed like they were either drunk or coked out of their minds. It was all very odd, and seeing them twerp it up on stage made me want to not see the movie.
When this concluded, we headed upstairs to see one of the Entertainment Weekly "Visionaries" panels. This particular one involved comic book writers/artists. Let me just give you the panel lineup, and we'll see how fast you crap your pants: Jim Lee, Mike Mignola, Grant Morrison, John Cassaday, Robert Kirkman, Matt Fraction, and Colleen Doran. All of them, in the same room, talking about how comics are awesome. On the negative side, Mike Mignola seemed like kind of an ass, which made me feel bad because Hellboy is so freaking awesome. But Robert Kirkman (he wrote the excellent Walking Dead series), Grant Morrison, Jim Lee, and John Cassaday (he draws Astonishing X-Men) were really pleasant and had some good stuff to say. The whole thing just made me feel happy in my heart.
After this, we made another trip down to the exhibition hall, and there was much rejoicing.

And thus concluded Thursday, otherwise known as day 1 of Comic-Con International.

To be continued with days 2, 3, and 4....

Only a Fortnight's Time!

It looks like it's been just about a month since I last left y'all with a mindblowing nugget of self-indulgent pop culture criticism or even a convoluted and overspecific "top 10" list. Just how in the hell have you all survived?

Sheree and I are getting married in about two weeks. Before I say anything else, I want you all to know that I am extremely excited for the actual wedding day. It's going to be so awesome that I can hardly stand it. But, in order to get to the extremely awesome wedding day, preparations have had to be made. Now, contrary to the way wedding planning goes in the movies, it takes a long time and everything about it is the worst thing in the world. I think that we're pretty much good to go at this point, save a few minor details that have to be arranged before July 18. It's going to be fun to see how everything meshes together, and it will be excellent to have these preparation pains behind us so that we can enjoy the married life among peace, quiet, and good tilled earth.

Now, for the sake of my own feelings of nostalgia about the time Sheree and I have spent together, I'd like to recount some cool moments that we have experienced:

1. So, there was this one time when we went to see The Strokes at In The Venue (which is a crappy name for a venue, bee-tee-doubleyou). On our way to Salt Lake City, a blue pickup truck spun out of control while trying to exit on to the I-215 belt route. Using my superior reflexes, I was able to dodge the oncoming vehicle, and get us safely to see one of the greatest bands in the world rock our socks off (side note: at this particular concert, The Strokes performed a cover of Lou Reed's "Take A Walk on the Wildside." Not a dry eye in the house). After the show, we walked back to my trusty VW Jetta that was docked within the bowels of Gateway Mall's parking garage, and we passed a vehicle in witch two people (or I guess it could have been one person) were copulating. It was a hell of a night.

2. Our first conversation was pretty awesome as well. It was many a year ago, in our History of Rock 'N Roll class. I noticed Sheree's amazing magenta hair and said to myself, "Wow. She's pretty much awesome." I spent most of the class thinking of something cool to say to her, but all I could come up with was, "So...how'd you get your hair that color?" Luckily, Sheree was a pretty accomplished conversationalist, and we talked about everything from John Hughes movies to the Utah Jazz while we walked to our next classes. It was this conversation that allowed Sheree to creep into my mind as one of the most fascinating people that I had ever met, which has been responsible for our continued and spine-crushingly cool relationship.

3. The first movies that we watched together helped forge us into the solid union that we are today. On our second date, we went to see The Incredibles. A short while later, I brought Kill Bill Vol. 1 over to watch on her couch. I did this because I knew that I'd have to bring Kill Bill Vol. 2 over the next night, so's we could continue getting makey-outey on her couch.
Our first full-blown movie marathon involved the Scream trilogy, a six pack of apple beer, and a chicken pesto pizza from Pier 49.
Around Christmas time, IFC was having a "very Freddy Christmas" and was showing A Nightmare on Elm Street followed by Wes Craven's New Nightmare, which we also beheld. Subsequent Christmases were dedicated to White Christmas, which is more appropriate. On New Year's, we were both in the mood to chill out rather than go down town. So we got some chips and sodas together, and we rang in the new year with a midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
And let's not forget that during the midnight showing of Batman Begins, I asked Sheree to be my wife. Now, our wedding date will coincide with the release of The Dark Knight. Here's to the movies, babe.

I could go on and on about how awesome Sheree is, and how much fun we are going to have as swinging newlyweds, but I'll close up for now. 7-18-08! Awwwww yeeeaaah.