Comic-Con 2009: The Rundown!

This was the 40th year for Comic-Con, and my 5th year in attendance! Because of my severe lack of work due to the economy, we had to make one change to our original plans; combine rooms so that Rebecca and I plus Bill all shared the same room. Ultimately everything worked out and we were able to fully enjoy the complete event, breathing a sigh of relief after weeks of stress. So let's do the rundown, day by day, right now!

WEDNESDAY, PREVIEW NIGHT

Entering the Exhibit Hall is always a joy for me that first time each year because you know you have the entire event ahead of you! Actually there are two other things I savor about getting to San Diego; arriving at the hotel, and most importantly of all, getting into the room and opening those curtains the first time to survey the convention center at my feet, happily exclaiming "IT'S BEAUTIFUL!!!" like Belloq at the end of "Raiders Of The Lost Ark". Something my friend Kevin in Boston inspired me to do years ago.

Badges could be picked up at 3pm, although we found that the membership area had opened early (around 1:30) to accommodate the crowds. 6pm quickly approached, and we gleefully entered the Exhibit Hall to dive into the cornucopia of fanboy joy!

Thinking quickly, we decided to head 'downtown', a term I chose for the area of the Exhibit Hall where the studios, comics, and game companies are located. This is usually the busiest district with incredibly high foot traffic, hence the term 'downtown'. The area that's more dealer exclusive I call 'uptown'. That's usually a bit less congested, although still heavy with traffic throughout the four days. So we decided to head 'downtown' first because we knew that area would clog quickly and we wanted to get in and see stuff before the hordes descended.

Our first stop was the Marvel booth where they had a display of the now four Iron Man suits as seen in Tony Stark's workroom from "Iron Man 2". They included the Mark I, II, and III from the first movie, as well as the new Mark IV! This area filled pretty quickly because everyone was eager to see the new armor. Later, Jon Favreau would sign autographs here after an interview with Jimmy Fallon for his show.

Moving through the Warner Bros. booth we saw an incredible 1/4 scale figure of Christopher Reeve as Superman! I'll let the photos in my Flickr album do the talking, because it was really amazing and perfectly captured his likeness and character appearance. Some of the other items on display were a large sized Batwing model from the 1989 "Batman" movie, along with a reproduction of Michael Keaton's cowl and belt from the costume.

Suddenly the rush of people had us deciding to quickly head 'uptown' to the dealers area where we started perusing a lot of cool stuff and making our attack plans for the next full day. The crush of the crowd is what it is and we usually deal with it. But the opportunity to get there and walk around freely was pretty appealing during those first few moments.

THURSDAY



This was our first full day, and without delay Rebecca and I headed down to get in line for the first of our scheduled programming selects in Hall H at 11am. Bill in turn headed for the Exhibit Hall to start his buying sweep. Thursday would be a fairly full day, and there was an added element to the burgeoning line of fans eager to sit in the 6,000 seat auditorium; The "Twilight" Tweeners, and they came by the truck load! 1pm was the "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" panel, complete with an appearance by stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, and we were seriously considering just hanging in there through all of that to get to our second panel at 3pm. These tweeners were everywhere in line, and later some indignant fans would bemoan their presence. Chris, a producer friend I've worked with at New Waver Entertainment, and a friend of his we were introduced to last year, Scott, joined us in line.

That 11am panel was the Disney 3D presentation, the first 3D event at Comic-Con ever. After a two hour and fifteen minute wait to get in (win line at 8:15) we finally entered the doors of Hall H to be greeted by people handing out pairs of Disney 3D glasses to view the clips. Awesome! The panel featured Robert Zemeckis' "A Christmas Carol" starring Jim Carrey, Tim Burton's "Alice In Wonderland" starring Johnny Depp, and the main reason we were there, "Tron: Legacy"!!

The host for all three of these was comedian Patton Oswalt who began by speaking with Robert Zemeckis, as well as doing some Q&A with the audience. Originally after seeing the advanced 1-sheet for "A Christmas Carol" I felt we didn't really need another screen take on this classic story. Especially with Jim Carrey who, even though I like him, has been wearing out his welcome a bit. However, after viewing the extended scenes they showed we were completely blown away by the CG animation! Most notably the eye movements on the characters that were spectacularly life like! Zemeckis even mentioned they had new software that could capture eye movement like never before. Just amazing, and the movie in general looks great!

Next up, Patton introduced "Alice In Wonderland" director Tim Burton who also talked about the film and took some questions, as well as roll out a brand new trailer. The movie stars Johnny Depp, which became an added attraction for the "Twilight" Tweeners. After the trailer ran twice amongst questions from the audience, Patton asked Burton if that was all he had with him. Tim said he did have an imaginary friend who always managed to hang around him who might want to come out. Suddenly Johnny Depp took the stage and the room was filled with blinding flashbulbs and squeals of women everywhere. We were amazed to see Depp as well, whom I never thought would come to something like this. Yet there he was, and all he needed to say (and did say) was a hand full of words, waved to the audience, and exited with Burton. Just a very cool, surprise moment for us and everyone lucky to be there.

Finally the "Tron: Legacy" panel rolled out with it's director, Joseph Kosinski, whose previous work spans commercials and video games, stars Jeff Bridges and Garrett Hedlund, plus "Tron" director Steven Lisberger who is one of the producers on the new film.

They showed several CG stills and artist's renderings from the movie, as well as once again running the teaser trailer I missed at last year's event. This time they showed it in 3D, and we were all mesmerized! Check it out in HD here! They also premiered a cut scene from the real, non-computer world where Kevin Flynn's (Jeff Bridges) son (Garrett Hedlund) enters the original arcade from the first movie, now a boarded up old building. The director said there would be tidbits for fans, and the scene did not disappoint. Inside was recreated the exact layout of Flynn's arcade, including his loft apartment, now covered in sheets and tarps. There's definitely a lot of love and respect for "Tron" going into this movie and it absolutely showed! Here is a full article with details and photos of the conceptual drawings they presented during the panel.

Now it was time to wait out the "Twilight: New Moon" panel and get to the next big event of the day in Hall H: James Cameron's "Avatar"!

With a short introduction, Director James Cameron took the stage to intro the film. But instead of giving a long winded ramp up, he acknowledged that a lot of people online have been calling for some kind of footage, or at least a trailer that seems long overdue less than six months out from the release. So right away we were told that they would be showing 25 minutes of footage from the movie!! The entire room swelled with anticipation.

Once again we donned our 3D glasses to enter the world of "Avatar". There's so much I could say here! But in short, the fully completed, lengthy scenes were spectacular!!! The depth of 3D is truly amazing, and the CG effects and characters are so incredibly lifelike, a level truly never before seen in movie history! Check out this article that fleshes out more of the panel, storyline, and actors working with Cameron and this groundbreaking feature. Even more so, once the footage ran we were SOOOO glad we didn't leave Hall H after the "Tron Legacy" panel!!! We might have never gotten back in and I'd hear about this later and just shoot myself!

Leaving Hall H after 6 hours, we headed for the Exhibit Hall to rendezvous with Bill and see what there was to see. Sandwiches in the room back at the Marriott rounded out our dinner, as we were increasingly trying to conserve money.

Oh but wait, Thursday wasn't over yet! At the end of the "Tron Legacy" panel, they announced that there would be a 'special event' right across from our hotel around 9pm that night. So after dinner, Rebecca and I headed over to find out what the surprise was. It wasn't hard to locate because there were quite a number of people congregating on the sidewalk. As more fans gathered, a couple of event coordinators approached wearing 'Flynn Lives!' T-shirts saying we were all going on a scavenger hunt. If this were a few hours before I would have said, "cool!". But at this point I was a bit worn down by the day's events. I was certainly ready to be wowed, but thought they might be handing out some cool swag instead. I was so wrong, but in a good way. We HAD to do it, so I tried shaking off the sleepiness to get in gear.

We all had to sign an agreement that they weren't responsible if we got hurt during the hunt, etc. Then we were given bags that contained a black light, a map, and a sheet we needed to write clues down on that we found at various locations in a four-block radius. You can find a detailed rundown of the scavenger hunt, with video of the various checkpoints and destinations, right here. BUT DON'T GO THERE YET!!! YOU'LL RUIN THE SURPRISE!!!

Ultimately all the clues we found and documented led us to a line of people waiting outside an actual Flynn's Arcade they had set up a few blocks from the convention center!! Suddenly my sleepiness began to dissipate as my curiosity and excitement arose! Up on the side of a building there was a neon 'Flynn's Arcade' sign just like in the first movie! After a 45 minute wait in line we were finally ushered inside to a re-creation of an 80's video arcade, complete with Asteroids, Centipede, Galaxian, Pac Man, Tetris, as well as Space Paranoids (YES, Space Paranoids from the first movie!) and of course, Tron!!! We took pictures and gleefully played free video games for about twenty minutes!!

Suddenly the lights and music changed. Journey's "Separate Ways" began to play (the song's featured in "Tron Legacy"), and the back wall that the Tron video game was against began to open. A black suited individual motioned us to step through. We began hearing electronic music, and passed by several large artists’ concept drawings for the new Light Cycle featured in the trailer we saw earlier in the day. As I took photos, I heard Rebecca up ahead feverishly calling my name and waving her arm for me to get up where she was. Around the curtain at the end of the hall was a full sized, actual light cycle on a rotating table!!! WE SCREAMED!!! I took a bunch of photos and we began jumping up and down, dancing with excitement at what we'd found!

The Light Cycle was truly beautiful to behold, flanked by two black suited guards.

Watch this video clip a fan shot of the pathway through the back room of Flynn's Arcade which led to the Light Cycle.



Everyone giggled with wonderment upon first sight. It truly was breathtaking! And lastly, the icing on the cake: SWAG! We each collected a free 'Flynn's Arcade' and 'Flynn Lives!' T-shirt along with a 'Flynn Lives!' poster, eagerly showing off our wears to the waiting crowd as we exited the back room of the arcade. I was so happy I shouted to the crowd, "IT IS SOOO WORTH IT!!!". The night was complete! We headed back to the hotel for a much-needed good night's sleep, ready to gear up for the next day...Wow!

FRIDAY

Rebecca woke up with a case of food poisoning, and we were both worried she'd have a hard time attending the day's event panels. She decided to take a nap as Bill and I made our way down to the convention center to pick up where we left off. Today was the "District 9" panel with Peter Jackson, and I knew it was important to get in line early for Hall H once again. Being that it was scheduled for early afternoon, I felt there was time to explore the Exhibit Hall a bit more. After about an hour and half I was really feeling like I needed to start doing my time in line. Outside on the grass and concrete area just beyond Hall H, the line was growing fast. I found myself a little ways back, but no worries. Entry to Hall H would be a sure thing. I called Rebecca to see how she felt and to tell her I was nearing the front of the line. She felt good enough to get herself together and head down, which made me very happy! We both did not want to miss Peter Jackson or this highly anticipated presentation.

Right after I got off the phone with her, security came out to say that the hall was full and had been locked down. We'd have to wait for some of the previous panel's attendees to exit before more could enter. This is a standard fire marshall procedure at Comic-Con. Soon Rebecca had joined me in line as we waited in the baking sun. I got quite a burn on the back of my neck but nothing serious. As the crowd behind us waited somewhat patiently, a couple of small white blowup balls began bouncing around the crowd, kind of like beach balls at a concert. Soon there were five and six of them and we began having fun passing the time. Suddenly the crowd for the panel before us began exiting Hall H and we were up.

Waiting through one panel before, we were finally introduced to the producer of "District 9", Peter Jackson. It was great to finally see him in attendance because during a video greeting three years ago he had pledged to get to Comic-Con one day. That day was today, and the crowd greeted him with incredible enthusiasm and anticipation. After explaining that this project was born out of a delay and ultimate shutdown of production on a "Halo" movie, a lenghty extended trailer began to roll onscreen. We got a really good overview of what the story was about, as well as the dark overtones and amazing visuals in the film. This thing is a lot more violent than I realized, and early buzz / reviews have predicted that this will be the sleeper hit of the summer. After seeing the footage, I believe it! Very hard-hitting and very different from anything we've seen in the last number of years.

At the end of the panel we exited Hall H and headed for the Exhibit Hall. Along the way we heard that Flynn's Arcade would once again open that night. Only this time there would be no scavenger hunt. All you had to do was bring a game token for entry. This from a "Tron: Legacy" promotional person who was handing them out near the convention center. WE WERE SO THERE once again!!! Played more video games, took more photos, and stood in awe of the light cycle once again. And of course we had to grab some more swag on the way out the door! God bless it! Oh, and they never took our tokens. So that was a nice little souvenir to hang onto!

But before that, back inside the Exhibit Hall we once again picked up where we left off. As Rebecca decided to head back to the room to try and get over her food poisoning (turned out to be bad leftover salmon), I continued on, coming across the Disney booth where they had the actual costume worn by Bruce Boxleitner in the original "Tron"!!! I was in complete awe, as I snapped off a number of pics on my camera.

SATURDAY



Saturday was "Iron Man 2" day! And I wanted nothing better than to get down to the line waiting to enter into Hall H for the 4pm presentation. Yes, it would certainly consume almost the entire day, but this was what it was all about! Rebecca was feeling a little better, but was still having some stomach cramps. She wanted to struggle through those, so we both headed for the elevator, running into Chris from Happy Hour Creative with his son! I introduced them to Rebecca, and he told me they were there for the "Solomon Kane" panel which Happy Hour had cut the trailer for that would be screened. Very cool!

Bill continued to shop and buy stuff in the Exhibit Hall as we moved into the 6,000-seat auditorium once again. First up on the schedule was the "Lost: Final Season" panel which Rebecca's was eagerly awaiting. I'd only watched bits and pieces of the show here and there, but knew enough to enjoy the little hints and upcoming story lines to appreciate what they showed. Not to mention actors Jorge Garcia and Michael Emerson surprising everyone by showing up in the Q&A line to ask show producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof some pointed questions. At the end, they ran a 'in memorium' montage that featured characters who had died during the course of the show. The final character to appear in his own segment was Charlie. The lights dimed, coming up again on Dominic Monaghan onstage, signaling to everyone that we may not have seen the last of him on the show. The crowd went nuts...it was a very emotional moment.

We knew we'd be in Hall H pretty much all day, so with the help of one of Rebecca's friends, also in attendance, we managed to slowly move forward in the room to get as close as possible for the "Iron Man 2" panel a few hours later. The "Solomon Kane" panel rolled out and we saw the trailer Happy Hour had cut, along with some extended scenes from the movie. I was shuttling food into the room from the concession stand right outside the doors, keeping us fed and ready for the main event.

4pm struck! Time for Jon Favreau, Robert Downey, Jr., and just about the entire main cast of "Iron Man 2" to step out on stage! Jon Favreau took the stage first to wild applause, pretty quickly rolling a brief behind the scenes clip of the new movie. It was great, but the audience clearly wanted more. Suddenly Robert Downey, Jr. appeared beside Favreau decrying the footage as bullshit. After singing happy birthday to his son Max in the audience, Favreau smiled at the audience and said 'O.K., let's run the real footage'. We all cheered with enthusiasm!

An incredible extended trailer introduced us to the established and incoming characters of the new film! We got glimpses of Tony Stark's new armor in action, as well as Samuel L. Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke's Whiplash, Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, Sam Rockwell, and Don Cheadle's Jim Rhodes...and War Machine in action!!! We all screamed to deafening heights! It was an amazing presentation that will hopefully be up online (officially) in its entirety sometime soon. Favreau then called the rest of the main cast onstage; Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johannsson, and Sam Rockwell. Mickey Rourke could not make it, unfortunately. Halfway through the Q&A, they rolled the trailer once more to crazy cheers from the audience. Only this time you could hear more of the dialogue. The first time, everyone was screaming so much at any little thing happening on screen. It was especially great to see Favreau and Downey, Jr. triumphantly taking the stage again after two years when they were first trying to get the word out about the new Marvel hero in town. Towards the end of the panel we were handed a ticket that was good for some free "Iron Man 2" swag upstairs. We each picked up a T-shirt that had a 'Stark Expo '74' logo on it, pointing to some rumored flashbacks featuring Tony Stark's Father. Just an awesome climax to another amazing day!

The final thing we wanted to see was the director's cut of "Watchmen" with Zach Snyder in attendance doing running commentary. This was certainly a one time event that we had hoped to attend, but unfortunately, like everything else at Comic-Con, the line had started hours before and was capped off literally right in front of us as we tried to find our way to the end. We were disappointed, but realized that since the movie didn't start until 8:30 and had a panel squeezed in first, the movie wouldn't end until 12:30am. A bit past our bedtime since we were even now fairly exhausted.

SUNDAY

The final day of the event was a pretty low yield day. Surprisingly, there was no big studio event to end Comic-Con as there had been in the past. Although last year followed this same path. We spent most of our time scanning through the Exhibit Hall, talking to people, snapping photos of cool costumes, and generally having a great time. Suddenly the dreaded announcement came over the PA that 'the Exhibit Hall will be closing in 30 minutes'. So after we made our last round of sections of the main hall, I turned at the door before exiting to bid farewell to another year that almost seemed to end too soon. But once again, was so happy and incredibly grateful to have attended!

Sunday night we decided to finally break away from our economical cautiousness and head up the street for a proper night out on the town with dinner. We headed to our favorite Italian restaurant to consummate the end of our fanboy and fangirl spree of 2009!

To your left you'll find several Comic-Con 2009 links that include video clips of the panels and backstage interviews, as well as my photos in two parts on Flickr. Enjoy!!!