My husband and I decided this year to take our honeymoon in San Diego, at a time which corresponded with the world famous Comi-Con. We go every year, and it never fails to impress us. This year was, of course, no different, and we sat in on many pannels and walked the floor at least twice each day. Here are some of the highlights we experienced.
The first pannel we sat in on was the Longbox pannel. Neither of us had ever heard of Longbox before, the title intrigued us though, so we decided to check it out. What we discovered is something that has huge potential to transform the comic book industry. Longbox is a program that anyone can download for free, and it gives you access to download all the issues of a comic you want, for the price of 1 dollar each. This is a brilliant concept because, as anyone who reads comic books knows, at a certain point it becomes a huge pain to have lots and lots of comics lying around, no matter how well your system of organizing them is. This program makes it so you pay to view the comic books you want, and they are stored online in their data base. This means, you can view them whenever and wherever you want, you can use their search engine to view the ones that you want, and you have your very own customized home page. Think of it as the Netflix of the comic book industry. And once you pay for a comic, it is yours and you can view it as much as you want.
Next, we sat in the famous Hall H, where we had the privilege of seeing trailers and clips from various movies. The first was Solomon Kane. This is a movie that is fantasy, horror, action. It is about a man who led a very sinful and violent life, and recieves news that if he continues on this path he will go to Hell. So, he tries to change his ways and takes up with a family. The families safety get’s compromised, and he decided to give up his chance for redemption to help save the lives of these people he has become quite fond of. It reminded me quite a bit of Constantine, but with more action, and it takes place in (I believe) the early 1700s. One of the greatest elements of this film is the fact that there is no CG in it at all.
After that we sat in on a pannel for the movie Extract. This movie features Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis and Ben Affleck, and is produced by Mike Judge. It is along the same lines as Office Space and Idiocracy. Mila Kunis plays a girl who becomes a temporary employee at the company that Jason Bateman’s character owns and runs. Ben Affleck is another employee who becomes smitten with Mila upon seeing her for the first time. The movie chronicles their personal, as well at work lives, and appears to be quite consistant with the type of humor that Mike Judge produces.
After that was the Zombieland pannel. This is, as the name would suggest, a zombie movie. But it is quite unline any zombie movie I have ever seen. This movie chronicles the lives of people who are trying to survive after a zombie apocalypse, and the main characters are played by Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg and Abigail Breslin. The thing that really sets this movie apart from other zombie movies is; it manages to maintain the horror and violence of a post apocalyptic world, while instilling a sense of humor. It is however a very dry sense of humor, and this movie is quite gruesome. But it was apparent, even in the few clips that were shown, that great pains were taken to make this movie as realistic as possible.
The next movie pannel was 2012. I will say that there is nothing really extraordinary about this movie, and it is really along the same lines as The Day After Tomorrow. This sort of movie is really either one that you love or hate, and I will admit that I am not the biggest fan of these types of movies. My sense of logic and realism can’t help but kick in, and even during the trailer I became quite pessimistic about it,. But, a lot of time and money was put in to the CG, so if you love a movie with really over the top graphics, this is the movie for you. It features John Cusack and Woddy Harrelson, and is directed and written by Roland Emmerich.
The pannel that stole the show though, and the one that everyone waited for was Iron Man 2. Directed by Jon Favreau and starring Robert Downy Jr, this movie looks to be everything that Iron Man was, and more. It is funny, witty, has lots of action, and drove the crowd crazy. At Comi-Con they showed the trailer twice, and spent more than half of the pannel showing clips. If you are a fan of Iron Man, or like superhero movies in general, this movie will definitely not disappoint. It also features Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johanssen, Samuel L Jackson, Micky Rourke, and Sam Rockwell, just to name a few. There is footage of this pannel on Youtube for anyone who wants to watch, but unfortunately no one was allowed to tape any of the clips or the trailer.
So, Comi-Con was amazing, we got lots of free stuff, including an X-Box Live t-shirt, some EA games t-shirts (Battlefield 1943, and Left For Dead 2), an Iron Man 2 t-shirt, a God of War lanyard, and a stack of DC and Marvel comics, just to name a few things. For anyone who wants to attend next year, pick up your tickets soon because they sell out quickly!
