Comic-Con 2012: Day Three

Saturday meant setting the alarm for 5:30.  After having missed the first couple panels on Friday, I couldn’t let that happen for panels I actually wanted to see -- starting with Quentin Tarantino and Django Unchained.  It was amazing to see Tarantino, and the panel also had Jamie Foxx, Don Johnson, Christoph Waltz (THE MAN), Walton Goggins (Boyd!), and Kerry Washington (who was awesomely articulate and very deep about this movie).  We saw 8 minutes of footage and it was amazing.  Definitely looks funny too.  It’s Jamie and Christoph off on adventures together and we barely even got to see the Leonardo DiCaprio plantation stuff.  The footage we saw was put together from the first half of the movie; they still have a week or 2 of shooting left.  I really can’t wait.  It’s simply going to be epic Tarantino, per usual.

Next up was a look at a Silent Hill film sequel.  I know nothing about that video game and movie series, other than that it’s creepy.  They did drop the nugget that there will be a Silent Hill maze at both Halloween Horror Nights locations this year.  Huzzah!  We also got a look at End of Watch, which looks to be a riveting cop drama.  A lot of it is shot in first person POV and ends up kind of looking like a video game.  Very realistic looking.  I’m in.

The Warner Brothers panel was nothing short of epic.  They unveiled 2 side screens down the walls of Hall H, which has never been done before, and was quite the spectacle.  We started with Pacific Rim – giant robots v. giant monsters, directed by Guillermo del Toro.  Can’t go wrong there.  And del Toro is always amazing at Comic-Con – funny, f-bomb-dropping.  Love.  The footage looked awesome.  We really only saw the robot parts, the monsters must take longer.

Next, we got a quick teaser and announcement of a new Godzilla movie.  Then Zach Galifianakis and Will Ferrell showed up to do a surprise panel for The Campaign.  They mostly made fun of audience members.  It was hysterical.



We got a look at Man of Steel, which looks like it’s trying to be a realistic superhero movie in the way of the new Batman movies.  Does dark work for Superman?  Superman always seems a little ridiculous and campy to me.  But it looked good.  Last up for the presentation was The Hobbit.  Honestly, I was underwhelmed by the footage, just in terms of -- haven’t we already done this?  I think I liked The Lord of the Rings movies, but who can remember?  They were all too long and ran together.  And now we get even more.  OK, sure, why not.  We got Peter Jackson, Sir Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis, and Elijah Wood.  I got to hear Gollum drop the f-bomb a few times.  Only at Comic-Con!






The final panel of the day was Marvel.  They opened with a big thank-you/Con-retrospective video showing them talking about maybe one day doing The Avengers, announcing Thor, etc.  I was there for all of them (except the Avengers cast unveiling) so that was cool to see.  Edgar Wright came out and showed us test footage he had shot for Ant-Man, which was very cool.  Not sure how an Ant-Man movie would play out, but Wright is awesome so it will be cool if it happens.  They announced the titles and release dates for the Thor and Captain America sequels.  They they announced Guardians of the Galaxy for 2014.  I know nothing about this, other than that there is literally a raccoon with a big gun in the group, and what appears to be a walking, talking tree.  Looks pretty far out there.  Not sure how it’ll fit in with the other Marvel movies.  We’ll see; they seem to know what they're doing.  But a raccoon?  Finally, Robert Downey, Jr. came out as only he (or Tony Stark) would – through the back of the room, dancing down the aisle to Luther Vandross, giving high-fives.  He’s a god here too.  Don Cheadle, Jon Favreau, and director Shane Black were there, and all hilarious.  The Iron Man 3 footage was quite amazing too.  Marvel knows how to get Hall H psyched.