July 28, 2008

  • Comic-Con Sunday July 27 recap

    Sure enough, Saturday exhausted me out, and it's effects took a toll on what I could handle on Sunday. I woke up a little later than I wanted, checked out of my hotel, did not get to eat breakfast and took off to the last day of the San Diego Comic-Con. Originally, I was going to go to the Smallville and Supernatural panels, but since I got there so late, it was already full and I couldn't enter. I decided that this is my opportunity to finally finally walk through the whole exhibit hall, and so that's what I did. I took more photos of cosplayers and booth displays, and even bought a few things. I couldn't go through a day without at least going to some panels however, so back to the panel rooms I went.

    I caught the second half of the Harold & Kumar panel, with John Cho and Kal Penn present. Questions were mostly about the future of the franchise, and it's state as a "stoner movie."

    Did you ever want to see a reboot of the Friday the 13th movie? No? Well you might change your mind if you saw the trailer that we saw here at Comic-con. The main stars, writer, director of the upcoming new Friday the 13th movie, were there to talk about it. I'm telling you, this has potential to be really good.

    The Rogue pictures panel had Director Wes Craven present the movie "25/8." They showed a teaser trailer and it looked interestingly scary. Next up was David Goyer and the main cast presented "the Unborn," and the trailer they showed for it was definitely freaky.

    That's it. I went back to the exhibit hall to look around some more, and even though I still had about two hours left before Comic-Con is officially over, I decided to go ahead and left for home. I was tired and sleepy, which isn't the best state to be in when driving over 100 miles, as I almost hit a car when I dozed off on the wheel. I know, a bit irresponsible of me, but that woke me up for the rest of the drive.

    The San Diego Comic-Con International now has a lot of "casuals" showing up, which also brings in the female fans that normally would not go to something like this. On the flip side, it's now so crowded, it's hard to move around and freely catch everything you want to see and do. Plus, this has also resulted in the extreme for some of the fanboys, who actually camp out at night just to be first in line for certain panels. In addition, hotels are booked up months in advance of the event, which means that there are "hotel-less" people who are actually willing to just sleep in hotel lounge areas, and unfortunately means that there is an increase of un-bathe attendees.

    So another year, another Comic-con gone by. I can't believe it's already over. I can't believe at the transformation that I've witness just these past years, of this convention growing from something specifically targeted to a niche audience, into one that's become something for all of pop culture. This "secret" that I've been a part of for something like 15 years now has gone mainstream, and there doesn't look to be any sign of things going back to the way it was.