"You've got me pretty deep, baby."
I'll confess: I haven't sat through a convention panel since 2005. The opportunity cost of sitting through a panel is being unable to experience the costumes and general antics of the fellow attendee, which is more of the focus of Traveling Valentine. Also, my low attention span (not to be confused with a short attention span) during anime cons usually meant I'd forget what panel I was sitting through while I was sitting through it.
But I decided to experience panels again at Wonder Con. The reason is as classic as high school: PEER PRESSURE. After my recon of the Dealer Room and seeing enough costumes for Friday, I didn't really have much to do and was ready to head home until I saw BART Boy. BART Boy alerted me of Brendan Fraser's panel promoting Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D. Now I was no fan of Brendan Fraser, but if BART Boy, our friends, and everyone else was going there, why shouldn't I?
To ensure a seat for Brendan Fraser's panel, we had to remain in our seats and sit through a few panels before his. We met Vincent, who was dressed as the Assassin's Creed character Altaïr. Or maybe the name was John Meyer. Or perhaps Jack Bauer. I should probably play Assassin's Creed to figure out the name.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Despite Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D being science fiction and Forgetting Sarah Marshall being a romantic comedy, both movie shared a common factor: I never heard of either film until Friday. Forgetting Sarah Marshall featured the comedic talents from Superbad and Knocked Up, comedies I haven't seen. Yeah, this movie was NOT high on my "To Watch" list. But funny what a panel with exclusive trailers could do.
The panel consisted of stars including film director Nicholas Stoller, Family Guy's Mila Kunis, a "British Johnny Depp" Russell Brand, 30 Rock's Jack McBrayer, Veronica Mars' Kristen Bell, and the main actor and writer of the film Jason Segal. After showing the long and painfully funny trailer, the actors discussed various points of filming while taking questions. One trivia to note was that controlling Jason Segal's naughtiest bit during the nude scenes was of the, forgive the pun, hardest things to control. His nipples were also problematic. After much staring at Jack McBrayer, BART Boy was convinced that Jack looked like a younger, thinner, and saner Tom Cruise. And BART Boy announced that observation to the panel audience and Mr. McBrayer during the open mic questions.
Despite having no experience with 40-Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Superbad, I really enjoyed and laughed during the footage of Forgetting Sarah Marshall. This panel may even convince me to watch their previous films as a warm up. The only thing that would really convince me to watch this movie is if they changed the title to Forgetting Sarah... darn, I can't remember her last name. It's that comedienne on Comedy Central. I never liked her anyway.
Wanted
My initial intel of Wanted (the movie that may easily be confused with Jumper) came from the trailer that aired during the recent Super Bowl. As an avid gun and action movie freak, I should be a fan of this movie. But just because I should be a fan of this movie doesn't mean I am. I like movies that defy the laws of physics as much as the next action movie fan. But the law of physics involved in the art of propelling bullets towards soft, fleshy targets known as people is a sacred law to me that movies should adhere to the best of their ability, The Matrix being the exception. Seeing bullets curve translates into a poorly maintained gun, not a "Wow" effect for me.
The film director was unable to make it, so we were graced with the presence of the leading actor James McAvoy. Fresh from the Oscar nominated film Atonement, James helped set up an unfinished clip of the film for the audience to see. The clip featured Angelina Jolie's character armed with a device used to shoot from around corners while dragging James' character through a store as they were pursued by an unknown attacker. The scene climaxed with some eye-popping driving stunts and those darn curved bullets. Despite not being a finalized scene, most of the effects and sounds were excellent. I'm sure the final product will amaze many.
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
This was what BART Boy and many others waited for: Brendan Fraser. The George of the jungle. The hero in The Mummy movies. And all around nice sounding guy.
The exclusive clip shown included a trailer and a behind the scenes feature involving stunts, the history of Jules Verne and the original book, and the concept of 3-D movies and the attempt to make them more commercially viable. Brendan took questions regarding the next Mummy movie. After such a long wait for this panel, hunger pains, and the sour taste left from the previous panel, I admit that I was zoning out through this panel. How ironic that I ended up losing attention to the panel I was looking forward to attending. Oh, well. there would be plenty of panels to attend the next day.
10,000BC Panel
In order to gain access to the Get Smart panel, I had to sit through the 10,000BC panel before it. I've seen the trailers on TV already and was a little curious about this film. Director and producer Roland Emmerich, actor Steven Strait (D'Leh), and actress Camilla Belle (Evolet) were on hand to promote. Emmerich stated that Robert E. Howard served as an influence to the film's setting.
Had the promos mentioned that the producer of 10,000BC was also involved in the original Stargate movie instead of just focusing on his involvement in The Day After Tomorrow, I'd have paid better attention to this film. Well, that's marketing for you. Strait and Belle talked of the problems of acting in front of CG prehistoric creatures. Emmerich fielded questions about how familiar elements in his previous movies may affect 10,000BC. Will global warming kill the mammoths? Will we expect to see SG divisions led by Jack O'Neill arriving to save the day? Will Emmerich talk about his 2012 film? The answers are no, no, and no.
Get Smart
I used to watch Get Smart occasionally as a child. It was a nice spy parody that countered the 007 film series. Director Peter Segal, along with Anne Hathaway and Steve Carell were on hand to promote the upcoming movie based on the TV parody and treated us to yet another WonderCon exclusive trailer of the upcoming movie, featuring The Rock, Alan Arkin, Masi Oka, Terence Stamp, and Kenneth Davitian (The Fat Guy in the naked fight with Borat). It will be a challenge for the film to live up to the original Mel Brooks TV series. But with an all-star cast, this may be a fun film.
The showman of the trio was Steve. Though the idea was to promote Get Smart, quite a few questions involved The Office and the conclusion of the writer's strike. Steve was a friendly guy except for the time he shooed off me and the other Press photographers in front of the stage in a kicking fashion. And there was the time he was willing to pose with an attendee during the panel, but amid the booing of the other hundred or so attendees the WonderCon staff vetoed the request. Steve then joined in the booing and called that attendee out on such selfishness. His words echoed the thoughts of the attendees in the room. On the plus side, Steve did reveal a possible The Office plot for his character.
Iron Man Panel
I stumbled onto the Iron Man panel by chance. The seats were filling up and I was sure to not have a seat. But thankfully, OniCOurseMusha was easy to spot thanks to his large and noticeable Brainage costume prop. Out of all the recent superhero movies flooding the screens these days, I really feel that the current special effects technology is just about right to do Iron Man. Director Jon Favreau was on hand to discuss the film as well as his previous big hits like Elf and not so big hits like Zathura.
Mr. Favreau whetted the audience's appetite for Iron Man with an exclusive clip of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) developing and testing his rocket-propelled boots. The effects were very convincing. The other exclusive two and a half minute trailer fleshed out the characters better while keeping most of the major plot a secret. The biggest mystery still unsolved is the role of Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard) and the possibility of War Machine.
These were some pretty good panels. Pity I couldn't make the X-Files panel because it filled up tight and quick. At the very least, they informed me of movies I somehow didn't catch wind of. And those panels did provide nice platforms for the stars and filmmakers to promote the film. Some succeeded like Forgetting Sarah Marshall while others failed like Wanted. But the best thing about the panels were the exclusive clips and extended trailers. I understand that the studios and WonderCon forbids filming, photographing, and blogging during the exclusive content. These exclusives are a treat for the paying attendees. And frankly, they are worth the admission.
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