Though the majority of America were preoccupied with the responsibility of placating their mischievous twerps with the release of Minions, all of the media attention was more focused on what was going down in San Diego. The San Diego Comic-Con reared its ugly head around, once again being used as the major platform of many big upcoming movies and television shows, all the while pretty much leaving the comic book industry to fade into the background.
In my previous two Comic-Con write-ups, I summarized the same thesis: DC Comics was in the main event but I feel a big bad storm is heading this way. The beleaguered company managed to pull off a hat trick with their annual presence in Hall H, as they once again conquered the media blitz with their questionable future films. However, I do think third time's the charm because there was something that they presented that had me more giddy than ever before.
The very first official trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice premiered in front of a rapturous crowd of nerds and easy marks. I was personally not moved at all by it, save for the brief scenes of Wonder Woman in action because duh, we finally get to Wonder Woman on the big screen and Gal Gadot looks alright so far. The brief snippets of its content look to be more of the same from director Zach Snyder and writer David Goyer: the return of SuperJesus, a lot of gloomy doom, and double-downing of 9/11 imagery. As for Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor: I am not impressed, especially with the lame delivery of, "The redcapes are coming! The redcapes are coming!", which sounds incredibly stupid to say out loud and is handled poorly by the more-than-capable Eisenberg. And what was with Wayne's angry fan mail? Was that supposed to be a joke or not? Though all were raving about the final note where Batman stands up in front of Batman, I was still yawning away. I'm still going to see it in theaters and give it a fair chance but this early taste is very bitter indeed.
On the other hand, I was smiling from ear to ear when David Ayer and the degenerate cast of Suicide Squad popped up out of nowhere and gave a first teaser to the crowd of the film-in-progress. Apparently, this was supposed to be a hush-hush event but some spoiled-sports were very nice to let it leak online. After threatening any and all media sites to refrain from linking to the early footage, the heads at DC and Warner Bros. eventually realized that they were idiotic enough to think that this wouldn't be made public in this day and age, so they wisely uploaded the teaser just a few hours ago. Now, as for the footage itself, let's get something off my chest: I am really, really sick of Batman being the only thing DC has to offer, I'm even more sick and tired of the proliferation of The Joker, and early test cases of the Squad (namely Batman: Assault on Arkham and the infamous group shot) had me fearing for this product. That being said, this is pure dynamite and I really hope it goes for a hard R rating. Plus, Margot Robbie continues to be amazing and yes, Jared Leto's Joker has an uniquely distinct edge.
In other DC movie news that absolutely have nothing to do with The Bat, Hal Jordan may return or be thankfully swapped out, as DC announced Green Lantern Corps.
And in more DC movie news that have to do with The Bat, it was announced by fan-favorite producer Bruce Timm that an animated adaptation of "The Killing Joke" will come out in 2016. Oh joy, another dark film from DC but this time we get to watch a woman be treated as a prop and viciously abused. Expect Alan Moore to come out from his cave and cry wolf next year. Also, Ben Affleck will team up with Geoff Johns to write the script for DC's first Batman film post-Nolan.
Marvel was a no show this year because they already announced in advance that they would forgo the weekend event and avoid the competition; why bother be thrown into a pissing contest over which slate of films look better when they have the clout and pomp demeanor to do their own event on their own stage? The company is more concerned on the expected American box office take for this weekend's Ant-Man>.
Not much really came from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. They showed some behind the scenes footage, they had the new cast come out and ended the panel with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford standing out together.
A trailer for Warcraft, the video game adaptation by director Duncan Jones, premiered but no footage is up yet. Instead, online watchers had to take in the two new film posters released for it. Most sites have chosen to put up the Human variation but I choose the Orc one because that face is so damn goofy and lovable. The word from the trailer is that the film will bring in the original strategy elements of the game series into the plot (i.e. humans need more resources, badly) and that it will be as CGI-filled as the last Hobbit movie.
Eight minutes of The Hateful Eight was made public but again nothing will be posted online; I guess the Tarantino and Blizzard fans have more respect than the Batman community. Just like Warcraft, we have to be content with another new poster for the highly-anticipated western.
Other movie news: More previews of Crimson Peak; The first teaser poster for Krampus; and a panel for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 happened to little much fanfare on Twitter but a drop in the hat for other sites and those burned by Mockingjay Part 1.
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