COMIC CON: Captain America and Thor at the Marvel Studios panel!

It was perhaps the most anticipated panel of the day and the perfect way to close out the film panels at Hall H: Marvel Studios. They were there to show off CAPTAIN AMERICA and THOR but what other surprises would they have in store? Read on to find out…

CAPTAIN AMERICA

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige came out and didn’t waste much time getting started. He talked about how people were initially skeptical that they’d be able to pull off some of these films a few years when they talked about expanding the Marvel universe but he’s confident that people will be less skeptical after the panel today. He started by showing us a very brief teaser trailer for CAPTAIN AMERICA.

Not much, obviously, since the movie just began filming. It was mostly a close-up sweeping shot of the shield with an overlay of classic WWII stock footage. Toward the end it said, “One story has never been told…the story of the first avenger.”

We then cut to a silhouette of Chris Evans in costume, then a quick, but clearer shot of him in character. Smash cut to the logo and another extremely brief shot of Cap throwing his shield at the camera. Very short bit of footage (sixty seconds?) but considering filming just began, it’s the best we could ask for. How’s it look? It was really hard to judge but I’m not sure I was totally blown away. But would my mind be changed?

Chris Evans, Joe Johnston and Hugo Weaving were then introduced to the crowd. Evans looks pretty jacked up in shape for the character. His shirt looked like it was painted on over his muscles. He says he’s only been filming for five days though the film has been shooting for a little longer.

– Hugo talked Red Skull and says he spent time listening to German artists like Werner Herzog and synthesized their voices into the character’s voice. The crowd is chanting but he refuses to do it for us.

– Chris Evans on whether he was conflicted about being Human Torch and Captain America: “I’m sure some people out there had an opinion on that…” He says he just treated this like any other film.

– Kevin Feige talked about the costume and said the art that leaked online is a little more cartoonish than what we’ll see in the film. Evans has yet to even wear the costume on set. The shot from the teaser was just a costume test that they filmed and cut into the teaser to show us.

– Hugo is talking about working with the Red Skull mask and acting through it. He says he’s only been in mask one day. It’s made up of a series of lightweight pieces on his face but he’s only just started getting into making the mask work. He says it looks fantastic.

– Feige says they have some more unpolished stuff to show off to tease us. He describes it as “very rough” but the crowd is still excited…

– We got an introduction to Red Skull in the clip. It’s pre-mask but he breaks into a catacomb looks for the Cosmic Cube. It’s being protected by an older man but the Nazis are too much for him. Shmidt knows its there and he opens a tomb and sees the cube inside. He picks it up and immediately throws it to the floor. He knows it was a fake. Then he walks around trying to find it and doing a little soliloquy and discovers a secret chamber. He opens the chest that contains the cube and it glows in his face. He slams the lid down and the clip ends.

The final clip instilled me with a little bit more confidence than the rest of the film though we didn’t see anyone in character. Shmidt/Red Skull was in his Nazi uniform but that was about it. Not sure why Weaving was hesitant to do his German accent – it sounded fine to me. I was optimistic but not entirely blown away. The jury’s still out.

THOR

Kenneth Branagh is now out to talk THOR and he says he was not a comic fan as we knew them (but liked some British comics). He was drawn to Thor because he came from a dysfunctional family and as a Shakespearean guy that was perfect for him. Branagh then brought out the cast of the film: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Clark Gregg, Tom Hiddleston and Kat Dennings

– Hemsworth looked to the comics to figure out how to use the hammer, the posture involved and he worked out a number of version of how to wield Mjolnir.

– Portman apparently told the moderator she was “disappointed” by the STAR WARS series but she’s backtracking now. She seems to think that there’s more attention to acting and character in THOR and a new way to approach greenscreen acting than what she did in STAR WARS.

– Branagh is trying to explain the look of the film and he said, “Wouldn’t it be easier if I just show you?…” Of course the crowd agreed.

Opens with Thor being interrogated by Agent Coulson, He says that to take down all the SHIELD agents – intercut with scenes of Thor breaking out of a government facility and beating agents up – he must be very highly trained. So he wants to know where he came from. We then flash to Asgard, which looks beautiful in action. Odin is lecturing Thor and telling him he is petty and greedy. Thor shouts back that he is just a weak, old man and a fool. Odin says he was only a fool for ever trusting Thor. He casts him out of Asgard and we see him fall to Earth. He’s discovered by Jane Foster and her friend D’Arcy. They bring him back thinking he’s homeless.

While Thor seems to be trying to explain to Jane who he is, back in Asgard we get glimpses of Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg (plus Sif) as Odin is dying and Frigga puts Loki in charge. Back on Earth we see Thor seemingly called to action to return and save Asgard. He tries to retrieve Mjolnir out of the earth it’s stuck in but he’s unable to do so. Some quick shots of action as we get a glimpse of him battling Loki, a shot of Heimdall and final shot of Thor throwing something in a fire while posing rather heroically.

After the logo, we get Agent Coulson in the desert as he approaches an unseen foe and tries to get it to surrender. It’s Destroyer. It activates, opens its helmet and blasts fire at the SHIELD agents blowing everything to smithereens.

While the footage was presented in 3D, the format really added absolutely nothing to it. In fact, it dulled some of the colors that were shown off in Asgard. I thought it looked better than what we saw in some of the recent promotional stills but I’m still a little skeptical. I didn’t hate what I saw but it wasn’t a slam dunk along the lines of IRON MAN.

– Someone got up and asked about Edward Norton. Lots of mumbling on stage while the crowd cheers for Norton. They explain that as Norton said in his statement, Hulk is bigger than one man and the character will continue with another actor. Boos from the crowd. Turns ugly for a second but Feige says “the panel isn’t over yet….”

– A fan asks about Frank Castle and Feige says Punisher is back under the fold of Marvel Studios and they hope to bring him into the fold very soon.

That was the end of THOR and CAPTAIN AMERICA but CLICK HERE TO READ ALL ABOUT THE AVENGERS!