Lockout had one of the worst panels of the day. The moderator and star Maggie Grace droned on, having a conversation even they barely seemed interested in. I was disappointed neither moderator nor audience members when given the chance to ask questions pointed out the film is essentially Escape From New York set in outer space as Guy Pearce plays Snow, a jailed former agent who has to rescue the President's daughter from a space prison in order to earn a pardon.
It was odd to hear the term "classic characters" and Resident Evil used together, but there were fans of this film franchise that cheered. Not sure why because the scenes shown from Resident Evil: Retribution 3D didn’t impress as the action looked poorly put together and forgettable.
Writer/director Rian Johnson's Looper looked like an intriguing time-travel story starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a hitman. He works for a mob from the future that sends his assignments back to him, but things go awry when his future self (Bruce Willis) is to be executed.
The movie panels concluded with Amazing Spider-Man. Director Marc Webb and a producer had a good clip that worked with the crowd, even though all the post work wasn't fully completed. The reboot showed that Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) might have a different fate than his comic book counterpart, so I am very curious to see it.
Sunday, March 18
"Tribute to the Legends: Kirby, Simon, Robinson, and Eisner" featured comic-book guys like Marv Wolfman and Len Wein, legends in their own right, singing the praises and telling stories about some of the giants of the business. The panel was woefully under attended, which seemed very odd because if it hadn't been for these guys, there wouldn't be a WonderCon. The lack of appreciation for the history of comics by attendees was surprising and disappointing. Especially when people were filing into to a much larger room to see Jim Lee. Not that he's not deserving of a big audience, but will the next generation of comic-book readers be just as indifferent to him?
For some odd reason, the entire panel for "Cover Story: The Art of the Cover" leaned back in their chairs and refused to use the mikes. Combined with the loud hum from the projector, it made them very difficult to hear. The artists talked about their approaches to drawing and the business. I stayed long enough to Arthur Adams and Michael Golden discuss some past covers. Golden was a bit cranky when talking about the business in general, which may be warranted, but seemed a bit out of place.
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