On The Precipice of Mediocrity, Teetering

Three years ago, in the fledgling weeks of Night Nurse and I's relationship, I took her to a comic book convention. Amazingly, it all worked out for the best, and we've since married eachother. As Kate said at the time, that pretty much proved she was a keeper.

Anyway, this past Saturday, we headed down to the city once again for WonderCon 2009. The schedule seemed to be fairly light compared to the previous time we went (no Bryan Singer, no Kevin Smith, McG seemed to be the big draw) so both of us assumed this year would be a little more low-key. In a word: Pshaw. WonderCon '09 was wall-to-wall jam-packed with geeks. Nearly every hourly movie screening filled up with 5,000 seats and was watched carefully by the fire marshal.

When we got there, we thought we'd have the same luck of walking right in since we had tickets already. No luck this time, as we had to get in a line that wrapped around half the Moscone Center, then re-wrapped itself around again. By the time we got in, it was about 11:15, and the Watchmen panel was scheduled to start 15 minutes later. Shockingly, when we went to get in, they informed us it was full and turned us away. Which, while it sucks we missed it, it turns out the panel was pretty much seeing the first 20 minutes of the flick, which I'd much rather experience this Saturday in IMAX (tickets already bought, bitches!).

Anyway, after doing some quick browsing on the floor, our first real stop was for a half hour discussion between Michael Chabon (Pulitzer-Prize-winning author) and Matt Fraction (rising writing guru for Marvel). It was quite entertaining, mainly focusing on Chabon, and how much he loves comics books, horror movies, and basically fandom, in general. It was quite an interesting discussion, and convinced me I really need to read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Linds' has only been telling me this for like 8 years, heh... The Matt Fraction portion was a bit of a disappointment, not much shop-talk from him (I have a feeling that occurred in the Fraction/Brubaker panel on Sunday), but overall, I enjoyed it.

Our next stop was up to the Esplanade for some movie stuff. When we got in, they were just starting the panel for a 1950's sci-fi invasion movie homage called Alien Trespass. If your a fan of these type of flicks, it looks like they are really doing it justice. Not exactly my cup of tea, but it looked fun, really bad special effects, total over-the-top acting, exactly what you'd expect, and it seems like the cast (starring Will from Will & Grace, the T-1000, The Wonder Years' dad, and some random 4400 chick) has some genuine love for it.

The next one was the biggie: Star Trek. Now, I've been quite hesitant about this prequel/sequel take off. I mean, sure, they've got Sylar and Harold (of Harold & Kumar) , plus JJ Abrahms, one of my faves is helming... but really, I've always found The Original Series stories weak... always been a TNG and DS9 fanboy. But, seeing the new trailer (that's coming out with Watchmen) made me fall in love: This. Movie. Looks. Amazing. Like leaps and bounds beyond what I was expecting. After the trailer, JJ led the panel, and reminded me why I love him so much... the guy, even when he's not a fan, totally immerses himself in a project. Zachary Quinto was there (which Night Nurse loved... I think she has a new crush) and was quite cool. The new Uhura and Kirk were there as well, but they both left me kinda cold... honestly, this Christopher Pine dude they have for Kirk seems like he was pulled directly from an Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue.

After a quick jaunt out for lunch at a great sushi place in the Metreon, we headed back for some more Hollywood love. The line was excruciating... so excruciating, we stood by while it shuffled through for 3 or 4 minutes, then slowly joined them. Yeah, I'm not proud of it, but I wasn't missing the Watchmen panel AND the Terminator: Salvation panel.

So yeah. Terminator 4. The start of a new trilogy. Directed by... McG. I'll give the dude this much: he sure seems excited about this flick. He has his canned stories to get the crowd excited, but it doesn't seem fake. Screening wise, we got to see the new trailer (also attached to Watchmen) which honestly looks amazing. It sure looks like the work ILM had done on Transformers has really stepped up their game, and the effects look fantastic. I'm not entirely sold on the cast, though (other than Christian Bale and Bryce Dallas Howard). The fact that the panel seemed to push the "diversity" more than the "acting skill" of the group is a tad sad. We then got to see two full scenes (with temporary effects). The first one was a great attack scene followed up by a chase scene that may rival Matrix Reloaded. The second scene was a bit more... I don't know, emotional? It had John Connor chatting with the good-Terminator. It kinda fell flat with me, as I think you had to be invested in both characters to truly get it.

The rest of the time spent at Wondercon had Night Nurse and I making our way through all the booths (I was within a few feet of Adam Baldwin! Sweet!), and did a little shopping. There was really only one thing I wanted, and that was volumes 1 and 2 of Mage: The Hero Defined, but after looking at half a dozen vendors, NO ONE had it. Finally, I got lucky at one, and found volume 2, but no volume 1. Then they all started to close down, and as we passed a vendor on our way out, I happen to ask him if he had it... and of course he did... but there wasn't time to dig it out. Which... sucked. Oh well, some other time.

Oh, on a totally unrelated note: I got a job! Yep, same company, pretty much same position, much better pay! I'm quite happy... plus, Loki has learned to roll-over this past week! Good times...

Labels: comics, life, movies

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