the lasting reach of comic con 2007's influence continues...

Two nights ago my streak of finally attending movies this summer began with a crashbang! when I saw Iron Man. I enjoyed the mixed bag experience last July of seeing Jon Favreau, Robert Downey, Jr., Terence Howard, and Gwyneth Paltrow on a panel to premiere the trailer to a crowd of eager nerds. The downside of this mixed bag was that I managed to miss out on the goodie bag associated with this particular panel, and I didn't get one of their super-cool glow in the dark t-shirts. Before Comic Con, I had barely heard of Iron Man beyond peripheral nerd osmosis, and after one viewing of the trailer I was completely convinced that it had the very real possibility of becoming one of my favorite superheroes.

As someone with no experience with the comic book (or most comic books, really), my perspective on Iron Man is taken mostly from its place among other comic book adaptations. Plenty of superhero protagonists are anguished or tortured or conflicted, but Robert Downey, Jr.'s approach to Tony Stark was refreshing to see. In this post-Spiderman 3 world, watching Stark be proud and excited to be Iron Man, knowing that he's doing the right thing and having a great time doing it was invigorating, and made me root for him all the more, perhaps especially because of his alcoholism and womanizing. His transformation into Iron Man is totally believable, from his personal change to the changes in his relationships. RDJ, despite the unfortunate facial hair, is someone whose movies I'll be sure to look for (incl. upcoming Iron Man franchise installments).

My criticism of the movie is that for all of the very exciting action scenes, I didn't think there was enough. I was much more excited by the construction and gadgetry than I was by the fighting. The earlier action sequences, with Iron Man suit 1.0, Stark testing out his prototypes, and going to help the small village, built me up for a huge ending, which I felt the movie lacked. The Dude's skill in his power suit was pretty unconvincing, and I felt like we'd seen Stark become Iron Man in order to have a 1-on-1 fight that didn't excite me too much. If there had been more of a sense of Pepper Potts in extreme peril, or the terrorists thisclose to taking over everything, and a few more explosions and stuff, then I think the final set piece would have been perfect, and elevated the movie substantially.

I'd heard that the post-credits reveal would be "the coolest thing ever in a comic book movie," but it ended up being something that a comic book novice like myself would have to look up in order to appreciate. I think that the franchise that Favreau & Co. are looking into is going to be a very enjoyable addition to the genre, and I can see how a more action-packed second installment (now that the characters are introduced already) would be even stronger (a la X2). Hopefully the third movie, instead of sucking hard like so many other threequels before it, could be an Avengers exploit, which would give it the added dimension a threequel so often lacks.

And what a great state we are in, in this media-imbued society of ours, governed by a Hollywood industry of sequels and remakes, in which I feel confident enough to review films that have not even been brainstormed yet!

once more, with feeling...

Final day of my long-overdue recap of Comic Con 2007!


SATURDAY, JULY 28

This morning has been ridiculous. Esther and I got to the convention center at about 9:30 this morning - though it wasn't supposed to open until 10am, they opened up the main floor about 45 minutes early. We found our friend Brian and managed to get the freebies we wanted the most - the giant WB tote bad, the "Vote Petrelli" buttons (I wish I'd gotten more), and the 300 shield. We also got a ton of stickers and other trinkets - and Tshirts! Now we're in the longest line I've ever seen, trying to get in to see the entire cast of Heroes. It's at 12:45, we got in line at 11... and it was all the way around the building! Dear god.

*****

So, we didn't make it into the Heroes panel. I'm super bummed. We go to Hall H where we intend to camp out until the Superbad panel at the end of the day. We caught the tail end of the Rogue panel, where Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman were talking about The Strangers. Then Neil Marshall (The Descent) talked about the new movie he wrote/directed called Doomsday, which looked like a pretty cool post-apocalyptic thrilla starring Malcolm McDowell.

*****

The Disney/Pixar panel was kind of interesting... first there was a preview of some of the upcoming footage from The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, including a live video feed of the director and title character from where they were filming. Then they showed a long clip from WALL-E and character bios. The sound designer (who was the "voice" of R2D2) gave a presentation of how and why the characters sound the way they do. The main brain behind Pixar was there, to great applause.

Then, there was a Marvel panel, where they showed Liv Tyler and Ed Norton from The Incredible Hulk, followed by a panel for Iron Man with debut footage and trailer. Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow, Terence Howard, and Robert Downey, Jr. were all there, and then STAN LEE came onstage! I know I'm not the target audience for a lot of comic book movies, because I'm often not that familiar with the source material, but this movie looks like it is going to be so much damn fun.

The Columbia / Screen Gems panel was the highlight. Ali Larter and Milla Jovovich were onstage with debut footage from the new Resident Evil movie. AND BOB STENCIL WAS THERE AGAIN. Then, Josh Hartnett, Ben Foster, Sam Raimi, the director, and the graphic novel creators of 30 Days of Night came and showed an extended clip of a gruesome scene from the movie. Esther worked for Mandate pictures this summer, which worked on 30 Days of Night, and she said that the graphic novel and the screenplay were some of the scariest things she'd ever seen. I'm generally not really going to seek out non-zombie horror films, but this one looks great.

Then, of course, there was the highlight of my entire trip to San Diego. Esther and I staked out the best seats we could grab in Hall H, and we were SOOOOCLOOOOOOSE to Michael Cera that we thought we might puke. When he finally came onstage I stood up to scream, and my knees gave out. That's why all my pictures of Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Mr. George Michael Bluth are all so blurry! Esther even had the cojones to go ask a question...I almost died.

Apatow also showed clips from Walk Hard, his new musician-biopic-satire starring John C. Reilly and Jenna Fischer. It looks very funny, and I'm always happy to see Reilly given a lot of screen time. That man is a gem; he's like, second-in-line after Philip Seymour Hoffman in terms of ugly men who are super hot because of their talent.

*****

So, there are a few things that for some reason I didn't write down, but I remember happening and I have some pictures of. One is that Michel Gondry's new film with Mos Def and Jack Black, Be Kind, Rewind, looks really fun. The other is that Zack Snyder came to talk about 2009's adaptation of Watchmen. I can't wait to come to Comic Con again, because it was so much fun and I honestly feel like I can reference it every day. Also, I bought the graphic novels V for Vendetta and Watchmen, because I am really interested in learning more about this whole world, which is sure to enhance the experience the next time I go to the 'Con.

TO VIEW MY VIDEO DIARY OF COMIC CON 2007, PLEASE VISIT http://www.youtube.com/katexmachina