Saturday in Hall H or: Why I was Underwhelmed

This was only my second year at San Diego Comic-Con and I caved. I camped out for Saturday's Hall H lineup. A lineup that included some of the biggest panels including Warner Bros. and Marvel. There were seven in our group that decided to camp out and two of them got in line at 4:30 PM on Friday. Want to know how close we were to the front of the 6,400 person room? Half way. There were over 3,000 people in line by 4:30 in the afternoon the day before. Pretty sure that set a new record.

Needless to say, it was not the most pleasant of nights.

Then came the sitting. So much sitting. The panels started at 10 or 10:30 and I stayed until about 7. And those seats are pretty terrible. I had the good sense not to send my pillow back to the hotel with the rest of our stuff, and honestly I wouldn't have been able to survive the day without it.

Obviously the lead up to the Marvel panel was not a great ordeal, so forgive me if my expectations were a little high, but I wanted to make sure it would be worth it. And there really were some great things that day.

I got to be among the first to see Wonder Woman's Xena knockoff outfit...

(So much wrong with this: one shoulder strap for no apparent reason, zero color, dangerous armored boob plate [consult google for reasons the boob plate is dangerous], over the knee boots that are not optimal for running or kicking, heels that are not optimal for anything, and I'm sorry to be critiquing her body, but Gadot is still too skinny for Wonder Woman. I like her tiara and her arm bands. And that's a good, strong pose. That's all the good I can say from this. /rant)

I got to see some pretty awesome footage from the new Mad Max movie (everyone needs to go see this)...

I got to see some absolutely AMAZING footage for Crimson Peak (which everyone also needs to see), as well as hear Guillermo del Toro swear up a storm and say "f#@k that" to the no swearing rules on the back of his name card and make sure movie studios knew that we all wanted Hellboy 3 and Mountains of Madness...

I got to see some fun footage for Boxtrolls (which everyone, again, should see)...

I got to skeptically watch the Sin City 2 footage (I have mixed feelings about the first, and the second looks just as problematic, hence the lack of picture here)...

I got to watch this awesome Women Who Kick Ass panel and hear Maisie Williams talk about how frustrating it is that no one is talking about how f@#%ed up Arya Stark is (you know, being a child and killing people and all) and Natalie Dormer talk about body image (with a hair cut that I will forever envy)...

I got this fantastic poster for being in the marvel panel...

And, of course, I was there for the Marvel panel. 

Oh, Marvel. My honeymoon with you has long been over, but I still thoroughly enjoy most of the movies you put out (despite their flaws). Maybe the honeymoon wasn't completely over until that Saturday, but I expected more. 

What did I expect? 

Something more substantial about Ant-Man.

Instead, I got to hear about Peyton Reed's nerd-cred and why he's the right man for this project. I got to hear about how Evangeline Lily hasn't seen the script yet and knows nothing about her character. I got to see some sub-par footage with Rudd and Douglas' voice overs. Worst of all, I got to hear about how Janet van Dyne is (in all likelihood) dead. The Wasp is dead. A founding member of the Avengers (and one of my favorites) is dead. Lily plays van Dyne's daughter, so she better don the costume in honor of her mother. Seriously, I'm gonna be pissed if she doesn't and is just there as Rudd's love interest. 

Something substantial about Dr. Strange.

Now, I know next to nothing about Doctor Strange, so I have no personal ties to this project at all. However, that doesn't mean I'm not excited to see what seems to be a bad ass older sorcerer on the big screen. I was hoping for at least a date confirmed or a casting announcement.

About that casting announcement, by the way. I'm not a fan of the rumored choices to play Strange. They're all great actors, but I don't want to see them in this movie. Again, I can't have that much of an opinion here, but I think this would be a fantastic opportunity for Marvel to pick someone who is older (he's supposed to be, right?) and/or a person of color. So far their rumored picks of Joaquin Phoenix, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, and Jared Leto do not fit either of those descriptors. Also, I'm suffering from a major bout of Cumber-fatigue. Regardless of who they end up choosing I'll still go see it, but that doesn't mean I won't be tired of all the white guys.

(I'm noticing a definite trend here...)

Move of all, I wanted something about a new movie that hadn't already been announced.

Isn't that the point of waiting in line all night? To be in the room when they announce new movies? To get hyped up with your fellow nerds? To feel the chills of excitement running down your neck? To scream until you go hoarse?

Yes, they announced Guardians of the Galaxy 2, but I had read a couple of days before that James Gunn was set to write and direct a second installment, and really, who thought they wouldn't be doing a second Guardians? Yes, the crowd exploded, but this was not news to me.

I wanted to hear something new.