Monday, April 21, 2008

Microwaved Comic Con Bites

Some random bits to wrap up last weekend's "adventure" and I use the term lightly. If you missed anything we already talked about super women as cheap whores, The Incredible Hulk's collateral damage and enticing Wall•E footage.


* The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian panel didn't skimp on the film's stars but it did skimp on footage. We were shown only the trailer, twice...not that it mattered. The only way to watch it if you hope to suss out anything about how anybody looks or what's happening is to watch it on your PC or Mac and pause it every third frame. Edited with a blender it is although I always appreciate a good shot of a centaur. William Moseley who plays the big ego'ed Peter Pevensie (currently King of Narnia right? I barely remember that movie) is either a total natural or he's been very well groomed for the job of talking about headlining movies. He looked completely comfortable, was well spoken, and he even jumped up from his seat to hug a needy fan. I'm actually surprised he wasn't trampled to death by stampeding horny fangirls after that one. Peter Dinklage was also in top soundbite form.


And the poster doesn't lie. Prince Caspian (aka Ben Barnes) is this gorgeous in real life. If that's possible. Well done Mr & Mrs. Barnes. The Q & A with the fans was hilarious. There's obviously going to be a lot of slash fanfic about Peter and Caspian's "rivalry" --almost every question seemed to circle back to their boys-to-men tussling.

* Lightsaber toy technology has really come a long way. When I was a kid they were like huge plastic fake looking things that vaguely lit up. This was back in the mesozoic era.

* Why would anyone... and I do mean anyone... want a miniature sculpture of the vampires from 30 Days of Night? It comes complete with severed body parts and heads strewn about their feet. I mean it's totally gross AND the movie was terrible. Terrible. T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E. I'm still mad about how inept that movie was considering the strong concept it sprung from. In truth I don't understand a lot of merchandise for movies. Although I deeply covet that Fargo snow globe from the 90s. And though I can't imagine springing for a life size anime statue of Princess Leia (previous post), I understand it. I mean, if I could buy a lifesize reclining Michelle Pfeiffer to keep on top of the piano, money would be no object (except for the piano part. How much $ do grands go for these days?)

* I love it when 'superheroes' seem totally bored.


You never see that in the movies and fighting evil probably gets old. All work being drudgery and whatnot.

* The much buzzed about unscheduled screening of a new The Dark Knight trailer was not as exciting as you've read elsewhere. It's a commercial for crying out loud and we've already seen a couple. I'm not trying to be the cranky hard-to-please type . I totally feel the thrill of the first teasers of anything... but once you've seen several clips and you're on the second full trailer? calm down! It's basically a lot of the same footage as the first trailer, remixed, with more about the plot thrown in (Ledger's Joker convincing crime bosses to kill Batman). There's also more Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes and the strong hint that she might be dying, or at least dropped like some Green Goblin/Gwen Stacey well-worn hero's nightmare. We also get our first moving images of Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent. People were excited: 'OMG a guy in a suit!' He does get to utter what will surely be an important underlined line o' dialogue (if I know my Christopher Nolan) and it goes a little something like this
You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
Have I mentioned I enjoy a little Eckhart?

* I went to one panel on fan-made films that was kind of fun. They talked about Green Goblin's Last Stand (made all the way back in 1992 for only $400. Pretty cool/funny for 1992 ... long before the days of YouTube), Iron Fist: The Dragon Unleashed and the brilliant mashup Run Leia Run. Apparently others have now ripped off this idea for newer films but it's awesome if you're a fan of the über fun German movie Run Lola Run starring the wonderful Franka Potente.

* Sometimes fan costumes border on the obscene.


Civilians.. they just don't wear cups.

* We saw the teaser to Will Eisner's The Spirit --hardly a scoop as it was on YouTube that very day and The Spirit panelists assembled including lovely Eva Mendes (for whom the crowd whooped and whistled) all kissed comic-legend-turned-director Frank Miller's (Sin City/300) ass with precision and purpose. But I'm not convinced. Now I turn you over to the blog Forces of Good who express their Spirit concerns with greater pinpoint comedy than I can muster.

And now I must take a break from the spandex & tights crowd.


Only a 10 day break mind you. Iron Man will be rocketing into box office history very soon. I shall gladly part with a little green for Tony Stark's hot rod red.
*

13 comments:

adam k. said...

Caspian is gorgeous indeed, but I still prefer the Caspian of the little tiny BBC Narnia films of yore... he of the curly golden locks and royal glow. Anybody remember?

And truth be told, in this Narnia incarnation, I'm all about PETER. Constantly ogling him is all that got me through the first film, and I hope it'll get me through the second as well. Of course I'm planning to see it. I was a Narnia nut as a kid... I have to.

Mmmm, William Moseley...

Beau said...

Eva Mendes - to me
what
Swank - to you.

NATHANIEL R said...

i'm not sold on her either ;) but she is pretty

i didn't buy for a minute her response to a fan question

"did you always like comic books before doing this movie?"

"yes please" She said laughing / flirtatiously --eager to please them. yeah right Eva. I bet she never picked up one in her life ;)

Anonymous said...

"once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia" as said the wonderful Professor at the end of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!

So yeah, Peter's still a king of Narnia, but this movie will be about placing the current "rightful" king on his throne: Prince Caspian (whose evil uncle Miraz killed his father and usurped the throne way back when). This is like over a thousand years after the original story (kind of a "return of king Arthur big deal), -although only a year has gone by in England for the kids.

I am sooooooo looking forward to this!!! Hehehe... and I saw a couple of locations where it was filmed in in New Zealand last Feb (close to the location of Boromir's death... and they were then filming parts of Wolverine in the area, cool motorcycle!), so I am hoping to try and spot them in the movie! :p

Adam... can you tell I was also a Narnia nut as a kid? ;o)

Glenn said...

That poster for Prince Caspian is identical to the poster for Beowulf. As much as I hated the original, I gotta give the makers props for improving the visual effects in the sequel. At least in the trailer, it looks far far better.

adam k. said...

Well, they certainly should have a higher budget this time, what with the other one outperforming King Kong.

And yeah, CrazyCris seems to have me beat on the Narnia front... I don't remember QUITE that many details.

Mmm, William Moseley...

Robert said...

Oh paunchy men, please stick to appropriate super-hero costumes. If you're a bit too hefty to fill out Spider-Man, why not go with Doc Oc? Make your man boobs work for you.

Anonymous said...

Off- topic: since we were talking about Tracey Ullman and Miss Z a while back, Defamer has a clip of Tracey as Cameron Diaz:

http://defamer.com/382374/cameron-diaz-finally-finds-her-oscar+worthy-line-drop-that-clitoris

RedSatinDoll

Anonymous said...

Adam K. I think the Caspian you're thinking of was played by Sam(uel) West. He was the perfect Caspian, setting all the grade 1 girls' hearts aflutter as our year level, en masse, gathered around the school's lone VCR player to watch. I've heard he grew into a really great stage career over in the UK and has notched away a few notable directorial stints as well.

And I agree with your preference Adam K. I'm still not used to the idea of Caspian as anything other than a blonde, jolly Edwardian schoolboy of a King, sailing around the seas in the Dawn Treader under an inevitable second wave of slashy attention in the form of Caspian/Edmund.

Joe Reid said...

Man, Christian allegorical fantasy really is the gayest thing in the universe. Awesome.

NATHANIEL R said...

it really is

Anonymous said...

I saw Brideshead Revisited, and you're thoughtless not to have Emma Thompson in your Supporting Actress lineup.

NATHANIEL R said...

hmmm. that's a good possibility. But it's hard to remember all 3,731 supporting roles when you're making a list of 25 ;)

peace out.