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I had planned to bring a couple of updates of Comic-Con for all of you throughout the last five days, but I quickly learned that a first time experience at Comic-Con can be overwhelming, especially when you approach from the perspective of a fan and as someone that is looking to bring that experience to other people. Regardless of not being able to bring you a minute by minute blow of my experience, I will bring you my thoughts on the overall experience and then panels I did catch.

From a total geek perspective this was a fantastic weekend, from seeing the San Diego Convention Center for the first time to seeing all sorts of fans, whether they are there for movie and TV panels, video games, comics or the entire experience it quickly becomes apparent that there is lots to process. I would quickly find out that it becomes easy to miss stuff when going after one panel, or looking for an autograph session or to looking to spend some time at a bar, it becomes easy to miss a smaller panel that features a larger star, special screening or cool parties. Going into the convention, much of the buzz was placed firmly on Tron: Legacy and the Marvel panel, but other panels ended up stealing the show (Scott Pilgrim and Cowboys and Aliens).

Tron: Legacy

If you’ve ever attended Comic-Con you know of the insanity of Hall H, an insanity I hadn’t quite prepared myself for. Upon arriving at the convention center and registering, I quickly made my way to find Hall H to attend the Tron panel. Needless to say, the line was already long. After waiting about two and a half hours and staring at the Hall H doors for about 40 minutes, they let us in after the Megamind panel was cleared and finished. Given the large presence Tron has had at Comic-Con over the last several years, I expected perhaps a slightly great reveal of footage, but the anticipation was heavy in the crowd. After bringing out the cast and crew, including Jeff Bridges, eight minutes of the film was debuted. As someone who did really enjoy Tron, but not the avid fan that some are, I have to say the footage I saw was great. It only makes sense that a film that was far ahead of the curve in terms of computer graphics be able to effectively use 3-D technology to make the world of Tron seem far more realistic than it ever has. The 3-D is easily the best I’ve seen since Avatar, and as many of have seen from the trailers, the costumes and the music are up to as par as well. Fans are certainly ready to make a huge opening weekend for this film, and the IMAX and 3-D screens should make for a large opening weekend. Whether this movie breaks out like other “geek” films is more difficult to gauge. The movie is firmly implanted in pop culture, but that has more to do with its uniqueness than anything. Still, with the marketing power of Disney the success of Tron should be interesting to track. Following the Tron panel, Jack Sparrow made a surprise appearance via video, but I can’t get excited for another Pirates movie. The real surprise came afterwards when Gullermo del Toro came out to announce The Haunted Mansion, without Eddie Murphy. Del Toro did a great job of explaining his love of the Disney ride, so combined with the popularity of the ride and del Toro’s unique vision, Haunted Mansion should be an interesting project to track.

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