Twilight fans are an ear-splittingly enthusiastic bunch.
They also seem to drive people away from the line for Hall H, one of the only times at Comic-Con that the wait to get in is under three hours. It’s counterintuitive, but true. During the panel, Kristen Stewart reaffirmed the notion that she’s a really dull human being. She failed to answer a single question in a complete sentence, often rambling for minutes without making any sense at all. Other things made clear at the panel: 1) nobody cares about author Stephanie Meyer, a.k.a. the woman culpable for this craze, 2) Twilight fans think that the actors are actually their characters, and 3) Robert Pattinson is actually a charming and funny guy. (When a fan asked him for his name plate, he signed it and gave it to her without missing a beat. Also, when another fan asked him what advice Edward from the final movie would give Edward from the first movie, he replied, “Keep it in your pants.” Everyone laughed, but truer words were really never spoken.
Next up was a three-part presentation for various Disney movies: Frankenweenie, Oz the Great and Powerful, and Wreck-it Ralph. All three looked at least somewhat interesting, although Frankenweenie looked like The Nightmare Before Christmas except with a dog, not many people seem to care about another Wizard of Oz movie, and Wreck-it Ralph is just a 10-minute short film that doesn’t have a plot or even structure. During Burton’s Q&A, a whole group of Alice in Wonderland cosplayers (complete with three different Mad Hatters) creepily confronted him with questions. Look what you did, Tim. Another fan asked Burton why he isn’t tired of Johnny Depp yet. Burton was not a fan of his fan, but hey, it’s a question that needed to be asked.
Before Sam Raimi came out, the audience was treated to a vanity reel of Raimi’s greatest hits, and at some point he was billed as director of “The Spiderman Trilogy.” If that’s what we’re going to call Raimi’s Peter Parker portrayals, what will we call the inevitable series that will follow 2012’s reboot? Maybe Raimi is just renting the tagline until it’s needed by the new franchise down the road. For his interview, Raimi brought out Oz stars Michelle Williams and Mila Kunis. One of the Mad Hatters got another shot at asking a question and accidentally referred to Kunis as a “him.” She seemed mildly offended. Fun fact: Raimi has the exact same voice as John Lovitz.
Wreck-it Ralph, an animated short by Simpsons and Futurama vet Rich Moore, was screened in its entirety. The film is about a video game villain (John C. Reilly) who feels left out of his good-guy peers’ social circles. He has a good heart but he has to show up for work every day and make life miserable for the do-good protagonist (Jack McBrayer). At some point he meets a snotty little girl played by Sarah Silverman. Then it ends. During the Q&A, Sarah Silverman was asked zero questions. I bet she wondered why she was there.
After Disney, the whole place basically cleared out for “The Greatest Action Star of All Time,” you guessed it, Jackie Chan. If this was the case, I thought, there was no point in staying to see Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jean Claude Van Damme for the Expendables 2 panel — so I left.
Comic-Con 2012 Photo Round-Up: Thursday at Hall H
