Comic-Con ‘08: Hall H & the Year of Watchmen

Posted on July 26, 2008  12:33 am by robin
Filed Under conventions, movies, video games
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As expected, Comic-Con ‘08 has so far been The Year of Watchmen. But let me backtrack for a second.

As all good geeks know, the famed and mythic Hall H at Comic-Con is something special and wonderful. If the exhibit hall is a nerdvana feast, Hall H is the candy-flavored dessert. All of the major Hollywood panels happen here, in this vast space that will comfortably hold you and 6,499 of your closest friends.

Panels began in Hall H Thursday morning. Before the panels could begin, a major event occurred. The massive Hall H walls are always draped in black curtains, erected all the way around on giant metallic stage frames. About an hour before the panel was set to start, the curtain along the back wall fell. It started on one end, and fell like dominoes all the way to the other, bending or breaking most of the metallic frames in the process. I still have no idea what caused that first domino to drop; it could have been someone leaning on it, or just poor construction. People in the area screamed and ran for cover as the slow-motion falling began; others in the hall just laughed and cheered and took pictures.

The first major panel in Hall H was the Fox panel. There, we got to see footage from The Day the Earth Stood Still, along with some panel interviews featuring stars Keanu Reaves, Jennifer Connolly, and director Scott Derrickson. This remake of the classic scifi film about an alien who comes to earth to deliver a warning to the human race has taken flak from fans of the original, and many geeks in general who grumble about how unnecessary it is to remake this film. But listening to Derrickson and company describe the amount of thought and attention to detail and human drama at the heart of this updating of the story, my hopes and expectations for this one have been significantly raised.

Max Payne was up next, and this one I had a strong interest in, having years ago played Remedy Games’ video game title that it is based upon. Remedy has always been interested in pushing the boundaries of storytelling in video games, and Max Payne was their first big step in that direction. An atypical first person shooter, the game put you in the shoes of a hard-boiled vice cop whose family is murdered, so he goes sets out to get revenge by taking down the crime syndicate responsible. The film version stars Mark Wahlberg in the title role, and we were treated to a few extended clips. Wahlberg and his co-stars traded friendly banter with each other and the audience, and the director talked about the key to making a good movie out of this great game was to simply “not screw it up.” What I’ve seen so far leads me to believe that he may have succeeded. Can’t wait.

Just before the panel seemed to end, Hugh Jackman appeared as a surprise guest, there to promote X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He showed us the first collection of footage from the film, a special Comic-Con trailer, which delved into the history between Logan and his arch-nemesis Sabretooth, and their involvement in the Weapon X program. We also got a few glimpses of Gambit and Blob, and lots of berserker rage action. I’ve read the reports online about concerns over the script, but the casting felt right, Jackman was clearly excited about the movie, and the action was appropriately over-the-top. We’ll see how this one turns out.

Doug attended the Summit Pictures screening where the big news, of course, was Twilight. I wasn’t there so I can’t speak to it, but I know he got some video of the panel, so I’ll let him describe what he saw or just let the video speak for itself when we’re able to upload it early next week. I do recall hearing him mention the following observations: the reaction for book author Stephenie Meyer was the loudest he’d ever heard at Comic-Con before; star Robert Pattinson has gigantic, bushy eyebrows and gigantic, out-of-control hair; and all of the film’s stars couldn’t seem to stop playing with their own hair.

This morning, we attended the Watchmen panel, which had to be the most anticipated panel of the Con. Hall H filled to capacity more than an hour before the panel started — a feat I’ve never seen until now. And the panel did not disappoint: director Zack Snyder brought along his entire cast of Watchmen, showed off some new drool-worthy new footage, and entertained the crowd with lots of humor and good natured fun. Can’t wait to show you the video footage of this one; I managed to snag the entire panel, about 45 minutes in length (sans the exclusive film footage, of course).

The Watchmen hype continued to build throughout the day, with Warner Bros.’ booth giving out gigantic Watchmen bags to anyone and everyone, and all attendees of the panel being treated to some quality t-shirts with the Comedian’s blood-stained happy face pin/logo on the front and “Who Watches the Watchmen?” on the back.

I’ll discuss the Star Wars panel in a separate post.

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