Culture Blues

Super Cuddly Comic-Con Coverage: Day 2

If you’re wondering why the Intern is so irrationally positive about everything, read this.

The greatest actor of all time

The big news coming out of Friday was the panel for Amazing Spider-Man, the totally necessary and long overdue reboot to one of the most successful comic book movie franchises of all time. This enlightening panel added a dimension to the trailer already online, and offered up a bunch of new footage to those lucky enough to be in attendance. The new footage confirmed what we all already knew – this is going to be the greatest comic book movie of all time. The dark, moody atmosphere adds some much needed gravity to the story of a high schooler given super powers by a radioactive spider, something Sam Raimi was completely incapable of during his trilogy. The new footage also showed off some of Peter Parker’s hilarious sarcasm, which Raimi could never get a handle on because he was too busy crafting jokey montage sequences. In terms of acting, Andrew Garfield's performance as the titular hero looks to be somewhere between Marlon Brando and Jesus. Also, all reports indicate that the POV shots from the teaser, which were already thrilling, are that much better in 3D. Haters, now would be the appropriate time to suck one.

More comic book adaptation news came in the form of a long-ass, sweet-ass, epic-ass trailer for season 2 of The Walking Dead on AMC. The first season was only 6 episodes long and packed more tension and drama than the entire runs of fellow AMC shows Breaking Bad and Mad Men (definite articles make everything better). Things look to get even crazier this season as the group face a ton of zombies, a whole mess of abandoned cars and even get at each other’s throats… more. And Norman Reedus does some seriously badass motorcycle riding. Producer Frank Darabont also gave fans some  much-needed peace of mind by confirming that the premiere picks up right where the finale left off, “so there’s none of this bullshit six months later stuff.” Thank. God. I hate it when people try to advance their narratives in unexpected ways by jumping ahead in time. It’s cheating. Pure storytelling can only be done in real time. I’m so happy Darabont understands that. Why jump ahead to exciting stuff down the road when you can just show your characters driving all the time until your show gets cancelled?

There's more?!?

The panel for TNT’s Falling Skies was a little reserved as the completely un-hokey, not-at-all-disappointing alien invasion series is still in the middle of its first season. But we did get one absolutely shocking, totally mind-blowing game changer. We got to see a new kind of alien! Whoa. I had no idea that the oddly easy-to-kill and lazy skitters weren’t the brains behind the occupation. Or that the sloth-like mechs weren’t the main offensive weapon. This is so crazy. The new alien is bipedal, just like the mechs, which makes so much sense now even though I never wondered why the skitters would make bipedal robots when they have a whole mess of legs. Well played Falling Skies, well played.

The very funny Tucker & Dale vs. Evil unveiled a red band trailer which may give away too many of the film’s gags, but is all the better for it. The set pieces in the movie may not be as shocking when we finally get the chance to see it, but with stars Alan Tudyk (A Knight’s Tale, Firefly) and Tyler Labine (the fake, funnier Jack Black from Reaper) there are sure to be plenty of smaller laughs as well. Cowriter/director Eli Craig looks like an emerging talent to watch.

Finally, check out this short trailer for the animated Conan O’Brien superhero project The Flaming C. No one, including the people behind it, know what form the final project will take, but if there’s one thing the world absolutely isn’t tired of yet, it’s Conan O’Brien.

Check back on Monday when I recap the rest of the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con. Peace and love.