Tuesday, February 10, 2009

New York Comic Con Wrap Up - Saturday

Another great day at the Con!

Saturday brought us 18 minutes of Watchmen, McG having fun with the Bale Out, 12 minutes of Knowing, Seth Green talking to me (XD) and more. You should know that besides being a Fangirl, I am also a...girlie fan. As in, I get googly eyed and star struck by my celebrity crushes and enjoy talking about how cute they are. And that's just the way it is. Deal with it, Cate Blanchett.

Without further ado, Saturday!

Warners: Watchmen



As I'm sure you've all heard by now, those of us in the IGN theater Saturday morning were treated to the first 18 minutes of Watchmen, plus a very special bonus scene. This means I've now seen about 27 minutes of the film and am sure more than ever that Watchmen is going to be the greatest movie in the history of the land. At least as far as I'm concerned. Will people who haven't read the graphic novel get it? Probably not. Do I care about them? Heelllll nooooo.

Seeing the first 18 minutes for a 2nd time was just as powerful as the first time, if not more so. The opening credits are so genius, they make me cry tears of joy every time I see them, I kid you not. In fact, every bit of footage makes me cry. Is that weird? It was also great to watch the opening with a huge group of fans. We cheered when the opening scene ended, we cheered when Silhouette reinvented the Victory Day kiss, we cheered when we got a glimpse of a young, red headed boy standing in a hallway, we gasped when JFK shook Dr. Manhattan's hand, we erupted into applause during the photos of both the Minutemen and the Crimebusters (called the Watchmen in the film to make it slightly easier to understand) and by the time we heard Rorschach say, in that special bonus scene, "I'm not locked up in here with you, you're locked up in here with me," no one in that room knew what to do with themselves, they were so floored. It looks perfect. You'll never hear "The Times They Are A-Changin" the same way again. Jesus, can it be March 6th already?!



The lovely Dave Gibbons was there and fielded some questions from the fans. Here are the highlights

-He confirmed that there is indeed no squid, explaining "The MacGuffin is different, but the outcome is the same" and defends the decision by explaining that in the book, the Squid is Veidt's "special effect", but in a film already filled with fx, the impact of the Squid wouldn't be as great and wouldn't have worked as well. I tend to agree with him on this. Rest easy, fanboys. Both Gibbons and my dad (who I totally trust on things like this) say it works great without the squid and we won't be missing it.
-He has no say in whether or not there is a sequel, but believes we should "leave well enough alone" because to add to Watchmen would only dilute the story, not enhance it. Listen to Gibbons, Warners!
-Assures us that like the graphic novel, everything in every frame in this movie means something. There are tons of little background things and also like the book, the film lends itself to repeat viewings.
-Alan Moore is one of the most rational and sane human beings Gibbons has ever met. Only in Hollywood terms is he "batshit crazy" because Hollywood is about credit and cash and Moore isn't
-Loves Iron Man & the Spiderman films and upbeat, fun superhero films. Hopes that Dark Knight & Watchmen don't make studios think they can only make dark superhero films from now on
-How explicit with Dr. Manhattan's nudity be? "Total."

Only two and a half weeks to go!!!!

Warners: Friday the 13th


Oh god I kind of get a stomach ache thinking about this panel, haha. But in the best way possible. I love horror films and rarely get to see any cause none of my friends will ever come with me to see one. It was neat to get to watch the opening five minutes with such a giant group of people. And what a five minutes it was. Nothing as disturbing as anything Saw or your run of the mill disgusting torture porn, but that's what was best about the footage. Seemed like a classic, good, scary slasher movie. In the first five minutes, we see a guy get his leg caught in a bear trap with gruesome (and I mean gruesome) results, a chick trapped in a potato sack dangling over a fire, then falling in, another guy get stabbed through the floorboards all over his body, then pulled beneath them to experience god knows what, and another lady get her head chopped in half. Jason doesn't like those teens. Now, whose gonna see this with me Friday?!

Producer Brad Fuller & stars Derek Mears & Jared Padalecki


Warners: Terminator: Salvation

This panel involved McG being charming and dealing well with the whole Christian Bale eats a DP alive thing. Pretty much everything he said, he said last month at the roadshow, and can be found here. God that guy's a character. He brought three big Terminator fans on stage to sit on the panel and "field questions" but then seemingly forgot about them. But hey, they got to meet McG and sit on stage at NY Comic Con! He also brought a dude up on stage to ask his question cause he was wearing a Cyberdyne t-shirt (see right). As for new information, McG did hint that they are trying to feature the T-800 as he was in the first film, not the Arnold of today, and all but confirmed Linda Hamilton appearing in some way.


McG addressing the Arnold issue

Check out EruditeChick's write up for her thoughts on McG. Very curious to see how this film turns out.

Summit: Knowing, Hurt Locker & Astroboy



Despite a somewhat lackluster panel & turnout, I'm still looking forward to all three of these films. From Knowing, we got treated to a 12 minute piece featuring Alex Proyas introducing two scenes. For details on these scenes, check out the write up someone sent into Aint It Cool. Long story short, both scenes feature a disaster that the numbers predict. The first is a plane crash, the second a subway crash. A SUBWAY CRASH. Thanks for showing that at New York Comic Con, Proyas, you jerk. Despite the urge I always have to laugh at Nicolas Cage whatever he does (have you SEEN National Treasure? Or Wicker Man? Or any Nic Cage film from the past 6 years?) the scenes were pretty cool. I have no clue if the movie will be awesome or crap, but at this point, I'm still on board for seeing it opening weekend. Although the 80 million people running around caught on fire in the plane crash scene was a little much. You'll know what I mean whenever ya'll get to see that bit. For the subway scene, click here.

We then got to see a 15 minute scene from The Hurt Locker, a bit hit from the Toronto Film Festival, directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Took a while for me to get into it, but the clip actually ended up being pretty damn good, realistic & unpredictable. The basic premise of the scene was a soldier in Iraq disarming a bomb. It was extremely suspenseful, filled with a quiet, uncomfortable tension leaving all of us on the edges of our seats. After the clip they brought out the lead actor, Jeremy Renner. He knew what he was talking about, but I would recommend bringing out bigger guns if this film does any more convention appearences. There are some stars in the movie (Ralph Finnes, Guy Pearce, David Morse, Evangeline Lilly) and the combo of this scene plus Renner plus someone who will draw a crowd, could help the movie make quite the noise at Wondercon.

Finally we got to see some concept art, stills and a scene from Astroboy. I don't know anything about Astroboy, but thought the footage of him flying around Metrocity was absolutely adorable. EruditeChick, who does know what Astroboy is, seemed pleased.


That about does it for panels. I popped into Robot Chicken to gaze lovingly at Seth Green, who earlier asked me where I got my Watchmen button, resulting in a one minute chat. I actually saw him all the time 1997-1999, but I was a kid then, so I doubt he'd recognize me. Which he didn't. Cause we chatted. And he didn't recognize me. Anyway. Also did some gazing at Milo Ventimiglia & Ed Westwick in the greenroom. Cute boys! Teehee! Before I had to leave the Robot Chicken panel, Seth Green talked about San Diego Comic Con during Buffy season 3 and how in order to walk the floor without being mobbed, he dressed up like Spiderman. Unfortunetly, word got out that he was dressed up and suddenly he was easy to spot because he was the short Spiderman - his plan totally backfired. Oh Seth, you so silly. Also popped into Venture Brothers for a second cause I don't watch the show, but we all had befriended Mike Sinterniklaas a couple nights before and I wanted to watch him in action.

That's all for Saturday! I'll try to add some photos from the floor later and expect Sunday's report sometime within the next 24 hours.

1 comments:

Unknown said...

I have a girlie crush too and it's Joss Whedon! I got to meet him last night at an Apple Soho event where he was promoting Dollhouse with Eliza Dushku. They were both unbelievable of course. I got so giddy when it was time to sign stuff (I was the 2nd person to go and wasn't at all ready) I was so nervous I could barely tell the poor man how to spell my name for the poster. ah well, it was fun anyway.