COMIC CON: Our final thoughts on the 2010 edition

I can’t believe our 11th year of Comic Con coverage has
now ended (who are we kidding, we still have a handful of interviews to
post today and in the coming weeks, but you know what I mean) and
hopefully you all got a kick out of our presentation, columns, pictures
and videos. If you haven’t checked out all of our coverage, you can click
on the big blue banner at the top of any of our pages until the end of the
weekend (or just CLICK
HERE) and enjoy. A big THANK YOU to the men (and
lady) who covered the Con for us this year, and here they are, with their
favorite (and not-so-favorite) things about Comic Con 2010. 

JOBLO.COM CREW’S FINAL
THOUGHTS

AMMON
GILBERT

LOVED:

• THE EXPENDABLES! From the panel featuring Sylvester Stallone, Terry Crews, Steve Austin, Dolph Lundgren, and Randy Couture (with a special surprise appearance from Bruce Willis), to the two scenes of incredible action-packed footage, to the party where Jim Law paid the bouncer to look the other way while he went into the VIP section of the EXPENDABLES party and took a picture with each of them (except Stallone). It was amazing to see some of my all time action heroes in person. I also saw Wesley Snipes in our hotel lobby… another 90s action star to mark off my list!

• Hanging out with the cast of PIRANHA 3D before checking out the “too hot for Comic-Con” footage and conducting my first-ever “TV interview” session with them (including director Alex Aja, and stars Elizabeth Shue, Jerry O’Connel, Adam Scott, Kelly Brook, Steven R. McQueen, and Paul Scheer). They all were stoked to be there and you could tell they enjoyed hanging out with the fans. 

• Interviewing MEGA PIRANHA star and 80s Pop Icon TIFFANY with the great Jim Law for the Comic Con Podcast. A very enjoyable interview on all accounts. 

HATED:

• I only had to really stand in line for Hall H once… but it was for about 3 and a half hours during the hottest time of the entire 4 days in San Diego. While Hall H managed to put up tents this year for shade (a plus!), they scheduled Saturday with so much awesomeness that the line to get in was ridiculous. 

• The guy who stabbed the other guy in the eye with a pen in Hall H. What the hell is wrong with you? I was just a few rows back from where it happened, and let me tell you… the seats weren’t that good. Definitely not worth stabbing anyone in the eye over–it was practically in the back section! I mean, if it was for a place in the front row, I could understand… but in the back? Plus, it delayed our annual JoBlo Dinner by about 3 hours. That was lame. 

• I wasn’t able to cover the WALKING DEAD panel due to last-minute scheduling delays. That was a bummer mostly because I really wanted to check out the footage and the panel as a whole. 

JIM
LAW

LOVED:

• This was easily my favorite Con so far. The nightlife was great and I really think we nailed our coverage during the day.

• Hanging out with The Expendables cast was surreal. Charisma carpenter touched my belly.

• Meeting (touching) Kelly Brook was amazing.

• Legendary Pictures had the greatest free shit of all time (a backpack filled with 5 Blu-rays and a t-shirt).

• Our Tiffany interview was Mega-awesome.

• And as always, hanging with Ammon, Moreno, Rusty, and Mike was a blast. As was finally getting to Meet Genvieve and Jason Adams.

HATED:

• Lining up for Hall H and almost falling into the water a mile away.

• The lack of super hotties.

• Gin.

• Screwing up my only chance to get a picture with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

• Hangovers.

• Forgetting I let some hot chick put a temporary tattoo on the back of my head.

• Getting caught by some bitchy woman while trying to photo-bomb Michael
  Cera.

• My 12 hour trip home and going straight to work.

• And finally, that’s all over for another year. 

JASON
ADAMS

LOVED:

• Finally getting to meet all the JoBlo.com staff in person (and Moreno for the 35 minutes he was actively conscious). Everyone was more awesome than I could’ve imagined. Except Jim Law, who was mean to me and should feel bad about it.

• We all knew it was coming, but actually seeing all THE AVENGERS on stage (plus Clark Gregg!) was unreal and really drove home the fact that this movie is actually going to happen.

• Helen Mirren holding a machine gun AND wearing a Harvey Pekar shirt. 

• Being in the same room as people like Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Bruce Willis, Angelina Jolie, and others. Surreal. 

• Guillermo Del Toro continuing to be my favorite human being.

• Seeing Daryl Sabara (the kid from SPY KIDS) get excited when I told him WORLD’S GREATEST DAD was awesome. (See that movie if you haven’t already.)

• Finally having some faith in GREEN HORNET restored after seeing the 3D Kato-Vision. And SUCKER PUNCH footage, I think.

• Getting introduced to Dick’s Last Resort.

• Being surrounded by other fans. Sure, there’s plenty of bad apples and painfully awkward stereotypes, but overall it’s nice to be in the company of so many other people who love the same things you love and are excited to be there for the same reason. Also, not being the nerdiest guy in the room. 

HATED:

• Getting horrible food poisoning Thursday night from Robert Rodriguez’s tacos at the MACHETE party and feeling like hell the rest of the week. 

• The horrible lines. I don’t know what else they can do, but I shouldn’t have to sleep outside the night before to get in to Hall H. 

• Nerd on nerd violence. Comic-Con is not the place to come if you’re worried about personal space. The only person who should get stabbed is the d-bag whose anger issues cut all the best panels short the rest of the day. 

• Missing THE EXPENDABLES panel and party a.k.a. Not getting to hug Dolph Lundgren. 

• GREEN LANTERN dropping the ball and not showing us anything exciting. Take a cue from Jon Favreau and Joe Johnston, who’ve only been filming for a couple weeks and still brought completed scenes to show.

• Missing out on lots of stuff. There’s so many amazing things happening at the Con, between the panels, the floor, the screenings and the offsite parties and events, and the best things all seem to happen at the same time. I guess it’s a good problem to have when you need to choose between a SCOTT PILGRIM screening, a Marvel panel and some cool party with famous people, but it still sucks.

RUSTY
ELTRINGHAM (videographer)

LOVED:

• The con was far more organized this year. There were still unbelievable lines, but the staff seemed to have their shit together and the security teams were vastly improved. The last few years were staffed exclusively by a company called Elite and a majority of them were power hungry assholes. A Comic-Con rep told me this year they outsourced to 19 different companies and used the top 70 employees from each. It worked. Major props. 

• Scott Pilgrim. The buzz for this movie continued to grow throughout the weekend beginning with the Scott Pilgrim Experience, an off site installation where fans could get t-shirts made by the cast. At the end of the Pilgrim panel, Edgar Wright asked the audience to check the buttons they just received. Everybody that got a “1up” button was walked out of the hall by Edgar himself straight to a downtown theater for a surprise screening of the film and a performance by Metric.

• The testosterone filled Expendables panel. Sly and company delivered some kick ass clips and some brash talk that definitely got me pumped to see this film. My only gripe, Charisma Carpenter was in town and Stallone should have brought her out. 

• Machete and Let Me In had parties that were open to the public, giving attendees some options for their nighttime activities. At the Machete party, the tacos and tequila were flowing and then attendees were treated to some never before seen footage of the film. 

HATED:

• The only thing I hated about the con this year was the wireless service. AT&T seemed to be the biggest offender. The free wifi they were touting in the convention center was virtually non-existent. Cell phone coverage was spotty at best. Text messaging wasn’t even a real option. At one point I sent a text that was received as I was standing next to that person two hours later. 

GENEVIEVE
BLABER

LOVED:

• Getting to meet the entire JoBlo.com crew, and hanging with Jenna Busch and Jimmy O. on the red carpets.

• Rusty, who wields his camera like some wield a deadly sword.

• Telling Sigourney Weaver I’d “do anything” for her.

• The From Dusk ’til Con and Machete parties. The former for the Joss Whedon dance circle my girlfriends helped start and the latter for the car guys who got us to take pics with them.

• All the great movie journos, publicists, fans, and celebs I got to meet over five days!

HATED:

• The shuttle and 90 percent of their drivers. My
  NYC-MTA sensibilities can’t deal with something that slow and poorly organized.

• Having to run everywhere because of how slow the shuttle was, only to look across the street and see I was keeping perfect pace with one when I was WALKING.

• The line to Hall H. I didn’t even have to wait on it because I didn’t cover any panels but that line can keep anyone from the Starbucks at the nearby Hilton.

• Near-stabbings in Hall H.

MIKE
SAMPSON

LOVED:

• The cool weather was a welcome break from other swelteringly hot years

• The HARRY POTTER footage

• Watching Edgar Wright greet every single fan that came to the SCOTT PILGRIM screenings

• The people who camped outside of Hall H

• Getting to hang out with all my fellow onliners

• The burst of applause when Harrison Ford came on stage

HATED:

• When all the bars shut down at 1am

• The Hall H wifi (again)

• That TMZ has invaded Comic-Con and made it impossible for me to get into my hotel

• Panel moderators who think they’re the star

I honestly didn’t hate a lot this year. There was no panel I saw that I thought looked like complete shit.
See ya next year!