Be sure to check out our slideshows: the celebrities at Comic-con and Comic-Con cosplay.
It seems to me there are two general ways to check out the San Diego Comic-Con. The first is for those intent on attending one or a few key Hall H events (Hall H being the largest room and reserved for only the most prestigious panels...and Twilight) or highly anticipated speakers. These are probably the folks you see with one- or two-day passes, and they tend to be the ones who spend hours in line (there were, by my estimates, about 800 people in line for the Walking Dead panel).
The second, and the fashion employed by yours truly, is to see as much as possible without devoting too many hours to one event or appearance. This being my first Comic-Con, it seemed the correct strategy at the time, though after having hoofed it for the better part of two days across most of downtown San Diego (to say nothing of last night's Walking Dead "Escape" event, but more on that later), I'm starting to think the sitting-on-your-ass-for-hours people are on to something.
First things first, and yesterday the first thing was the Resident Evil: Retribution roundtable interview at the Hilton Bay Front. This was honestly the only media event I was contacted about covering, so I figured I ought to check it out. Plus, I have waxed rhapsodic about my love of Milla Jovovich before.
Okay, actual first thing: They had a display of all the Batmobiles, past and present, so I had to take a pic of the first (and still bestest):
The roundtables were just that: five roundtables where a bunch of nerds sat while the assembled "talent" for Resident Evil: Retribution rotated among them. Before this, some nice young lady from the Umbrella Corporation handed out severed hands and feet as swag, of a sort. I was a lot more enthusiastic about the prospect of sneaking it onto the plane in my carry-on until I realized it was actually made of bread.
My friend Dave, with whom I'm staying this weekend, actually took a bite out of a foot before taking his leave (he really wasn't supposed to be there in the first place). This turned out to be the best part of the interviews, because we were able to get each of the movie folk (director Paul W.S. Anderson, Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Oded Fehr and Boris Kodjoe) to pantomime taking a bite of it themselves. Good times.
Other than that, the interviews were about what you'd expect. Questions ranged from, "How did it feel returning to this franchise?" to "What's it like shooting in 3D?" You know, hard-hitting stuff. I kept mostly mum, content to keep my smart-assedness in check, for once. I tried to keep tabs on how many times they used the word "epic" to describe the film, which Anderson half-jokingly remarked is what a zombie movie directed by David Lean would look like. That's some balls.
