Hey folks, Harry here... see which of these projects most stole Foggy Nelson's attention from the screen. Sounds like the most exciting selection of panels yet! Here ya go...
The only movie I saw today was "Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Annimation Festival" and as always 30 percent bad, 60 percent passable and 10 percent knocked me on my ass funny.
The real news is as follows:
FANTASTIC FOUR: Avi Arad was adament that FF WILL HAVE the proper tone and is not a comedy but has comedy in it. It is about human connection and Story was a FF guy all his life. The actors don't know a comic book from toilet paper and they were honest about it but aparently Chiklis walked around the Con and was pretty blown away. He delivered a pretty decent "It's clobberin' time" with his Thing action figure in hand. Tim Story was clear that Doom will be Doom. I quote, "The character's name is Victor Von Doom." He said one of the actors (revealed in a week) has a wild accent and Latvia (?) will be part of the plot, although small I guess from the wording.
I was pretty livid with the casting of Alba but she is blonde and while I thought she couldn't act a lick, she either is genuinely ready and honored to do the role or she was acting it on stage well enough that I believed her, which would mean she can act a little if she was lying. The fan boys were lobbing jizz her way in the 6,000 seat auditorium when I thought she would get booed. The suits probably made a wise financial choice. The geeks were eating her up with a spoon and asking for seconds.
ELEKTRA: Avi brought perhaps a two or four minute clip and two things are clear: #1. Jennifer Garner is the hotest thing on two legs in a girl-next-door way. Just...wow. #2. This flick will have a lot of martial arts. Beyond that, who can say? I can't. The segment they showed was all promotion, no real sample of anything.
ALIEN VS. PREDATOR: Well, they showed a fight clip and it was pretty great. They showed an character clip and it wasn't pretty great. I loved Lance Hendrickson in person and he was effervescent about this film, but its just not drama. Somebody on the panel said, "We looked at a movie like "Aliens" and really wanted to do something like that that the fans will love with all the great action."
Now, Aliens DID have great action, but like any action it only means a damn thing to the viewer if it is set up with conflict and character development. I fear this will have none of that, or more accurately not enough of it. Also, I know this will sound fake but I talked to somebody about the script and its just a big rip-off; a blatent rip off of other movies and earlier drafts. Not much original stuff is left. Amusingly, lots of one sheets were printed with writing credits that have now been changed due to arbitration.
SIN CITY: Uh.........oh my bloody, bloody, bloody hell. WOW. Rodriguez was funny to listen to because he is so into this material and obviously is giving Hollywood the finger whenever he can. He repeated over and over and over and over and over and over (10 more overs) that he wanted to make Frank Miller's movie, not change it. The clips were breath-taking and original and WOW. The character sketches interspersed with movie characters were just perfect. In this flick I LOVE Alba with all of my heart. I now love Rosario Dawson who looked perfect beyond all the other perfects and Benecio and Bruce (Willis) and the lot of them. I am in love. I can't say enough sincerely good things about what were were shown and what we heard. My little geek friends (fellow geeks) of all ages and various levels of comic interest (from freakish devotee to non-readers) all had similar reactions. TO me, this kicked Star Wars in the ass. IT was the absolute opposite of the 2 hour Star Wars commercial. Speak of the devil...
STAR WARS: You all know they picked a name, but did you know Steve Sansweet (spelling) was wearing a "SITH" jersey shirt that he took off immediately after the announcement to reveal his "REVENGE OF THE SITH" t-shirt that went on sale approximately five minutes later at the Con floor? I HEAVED! Hayden Christensen was a good interview. Rick McCallum was a royal prick, pompus and self-absorbed and even paranoid. One soul asked a Jar Jar question and for that, I salute them. Then somebody else asked a question (I forget) and McCallum thought he said "FAT FARM" when he was asking a legit question. Now THAT was funny. Carrie Fisher was fiesty but a bit tightly wound perhaps, but it was nice to have her.
Did I mention Sin City stole the show?
Now go right home boys and girl, do your homework, no fighting, study hard so you can be a doctor or lawyer.
Yours,
Franklin Foggy Nelson.
He has the right to criticise who has the heart to help - Abraham Lincoln
