Well, it was an absolute pleasure taking part in this year's Comic-Con in San Diego. Yesterday I reflected on the Pacific Rim, Man Of Steel, and Django Unchained panels. However, as you guys probably noticed that wasn't everything that was presented in the "magical" Hall H last Saturday.
Everything felt a bit surreal, mainly because so many great things happened...one after another.
Warners Bros. ended their panel with Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. Trust me this was the one panel where you could literally feel the ground shaking. I initially thought everybody was more excited about the Superman, and Marvel panel. I was naive to think that.
The Hobbit panel was a lot of fun, I'm not such a huge fan of middle earth, but I got excited because of the atmosphere that Hall H embodied. I do have to say they pull out the big guns at Comic-Con. Peter Jackson had arrived with some cast members, including Frodo (He was just in town). Jackson showcased an impressive video blog of the last days of The Hobbit set, and then continued with a good chunk from his upcoming LOTR project. What I can say is, that the film is up there in the big leagues (once more), judging by the footage that was shown. I do have to once more point out the amazing atmosphere in the room. Especially the atmosphere of the people that waited all night in line (like yours truly). Now why is that? Well…Ian Mckellen…Gandalf/Magneto stopped by to greet the still sleepy fans, and those fans vividly remembered that. One guy came all the way from Brazile to witness this panel. The young man even seized the moment to ask a question, and express his happiness, by dragging his soccer-player signed jersey as a gift for Gandalf. As the previous panels, even this one ended rather quickly.
What followed was a "Trailer Park" that showcassed the different upcoming animated features, such as
Finding Nemo 3D, Ice Age 4, and more.
What after that happened was "the cherry on top of the whiped cream"…the "Creme de la creme".
The Marvel Studios panel was about to begin. The moderator Geoff Boucher (Herocomplex) invited Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige on the stage. The head of the studio kicked off with a couple of really big announcements. The second phase of the Marvel cinmatic universe was set in motion, following the great success of all the previous films since 2008. Sequels for Thor and our favorit first Avenger, Captain Ameirca, were up and running.
There were besides these already great announcements, two more that would blow a lot out of proportion. A teaser concept art image for Rocket Racoon was shown, and the crowd went wild. Next up was a concept art still of the entire team for the
Guardian's of the Galaxy feature film, which was bound to happen.
All this was great, but something was missing, the fans new it, and so did the host of the panel. What with Mr. Edgar Wright, and his film about the the coolest and smallest superhero ever, Ant-Man. Without further adieu Feige called out Edgar Wright. Now that was something, because the man came out holding an Ant-Man comic. This man knew how to tease people. He was "professional". He asked us more than three times a question, to which the answer was more than obvious. Do we want to see some test footage for his upcoming
Ant-Man film? What in god's name was that for a question?! Before we could fully reply the clip was already running.
Ant-Man Footage Description:
Two men dressed as agents, standing in front of an elevator door.
Camera pans backwards into an airventilation shaft in which the small Hero looks directly into the frame.
Ant-Man jumps through the shaft bars, and upon landing tranforms into a normal size.
Both agents pull out guns.
Ant-Man leaps… minituarizes, and runs on top of the gun of the right agent. He knocks him out with a sweet punch.
Next up we see Ant-Man grabbing the tie of the remaining agent, and with a flip throughs the agent through a window.
Both agents are down, Ant-Man transforms himself into normal size, and enter the elevator.
Ant-Man looks into the camera, and before you know it he transforms to insect-size.
The stunning footage featured also a couple of shots of blue screens, and Edgar Wright promised us that
Ant-Man would kick our asses "One inch at a time". The footage was a little short, we wanted more! Wright asked us if we wanted to see it again, but left the stage as soon as we replied. What a tease! What a day it had been until the man himself, Robert Downey Jr. entered. Trust me his entrance was marvelous, everyone stood up (on their chairs), and cheered. Equiped with an Iron Man armor prop on his right hand, the fans were probably anticipating some announcement in the direction of "Extremis". We had to first tell him how much we loved him before the panel could proceed. Every minute of it was amazing. Shane Black, Jon Faverou, and Don Cheadle came on stage, and we were ready to see some first footage of the third Iron Man installment. Ben Kingsley is the Mandarin! It's final Shane Black confirmed it, and he looks stunning.
All in all it was an amazing day…one to be remembered. You guys have to once in yourr lives attend this convention. Let's face it we're all geek that visit this site, and it's by no means a bad thing. You get to meet so many people with common interests. You get to enjoy an atmosphere in your own little geeky ecosystem. It was a pure mad house, and waiting in line for Hall H is totally worth the wait. I can honestly say that I've never witnessed so many epic events, that kept topping themselves. If anything else would have been that day, my mind would have exploded. Everything was simply amazing. Be sure to head to San Diego, because after each day of the convention, the party starts on the streets, and trust me those are packed streets!