Rain clouds didn't dampen spirits as thousands of comic book and movie fans descended upon the Anaheim Convention Center for day two of Wondercon. Movie studios took over the Ballroom, with over five hours of trailers, clips and interviews with stars ranging from Emma Stone and Kristen Stewart to Charlize Theron and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Before Fox Searchlight kicked things off with their panel for Sound of My Voice, a series of trailers for various studios was shown. The crowd was lukewarm on trailers for The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Moonrise Kingdom, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Titanic, Paranorman and Madagascar 3. Wrath of the Titans and Ice Age 4 drew strong applause, but The Amazing Spider-Man, The Hobbit, Prometheus and Resident Evil: Retribution drew the loudest reaction. (This is a comic book convention, after all.)
20th Century Fox was up next. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunterwas up first. A new clip was shown featuring a portion of the climactic ending which involves a train, a burning bridge and Benjamin Walker and Anthony Mackie fighting off a bunch of vampries.
Writer Damon Lindelof took the stage after that and chatted with Sir Ridley Scott for a bit before a new, stunning two-and-a-half minute trailer for Prometheuswas revealed, much to the delight of the Ballroom crowd. Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender then joined them on stage and revealed that Fassbender's character was a robot playing a human. The trailer was shown again before the panel ended.
Universal's one-two punch of Snow White and the Huntsmanand Battleshipwas up next. As she did at Comic-Con, Theron re-appeared on stage for the panel and was joined by a surprise guest, Kristen Stewart. Much of the crowd groaned when her name was announced, but flashblubs popped the entire time she was on stage and a majority of the questions were aimed at her as she mumbled her way through answering them.
We were able to watch more footage from Huntsman, which is very dark and features a lot of that shattering shard CGI effect seen in the trailer. There are also lots of CGI monsters as White and Huntsman venture into the woods. Director Rupert Sander described the dwarves in his movie as British gangsters, albeit the tiny versions.
Battleship took the stage next. Up until now, we've only seen a bunch of explosive, action-packed trailers with very little dialogue. Universal seemed clear, though, on declaring that there was more to the film than just stuff blowing up (although there's plenty of that). The first clip, introduced by director Peter Berg, Brooklyn Decker and Alex Skarsgard, featured Taylor Kitsch's character in a humorous, ill-fated sequence in which he breaks into a convenience store to get Decker's character a chicken burrito. The comedy certainly played well with the crowd.
As if sensing momentum, the next clip jumped into a tense action sequence in which the aliens have invaded the battleship and Kitsch, Rihanna and several other crew members are trying to locate and eliminate them. The scene ends with Rihanna blowing an alien's head off with a cannon.
Berg described the movie as a "big, rousing piece of summer popcorn madness," while Skarsgard recounted a story about how Berg shot him in the face with a 25-foot air cannon.
Open Road was fourth in the lineup, showcasing their sci-fi action comedy Lockout. Maggie Grace appeared on stage to chat before the trailer was shown for the audience. She didn't receive much of a reaction, though, possibly because at this point the crowd was gearing up for Sony's Spider-Man panel.
And then, it was finally time for the panel that many people had waited for the entire day – Sony.
Resident Evil: Retributionwas up first. Director Paul W.S. Anderson was joined by wife/star Milla Jovovich and revealed that Resident Evil: Retribution would pick up where the fourth film in the franchise left off before it goes into prequel-ish mode and brings back characters from previous installments.
Anderson stated that Retribution would set up a "bloody final movie" where lots of characters die. "In 3D."
We then saw a clip (a rarity since Resident Evil movies usually come to Cons with only trailers) of Alice fighting off 12 zombies in slow-motion and at times, gimmicky 3D.
Looperwas next. Most of the crowd had no idea what the movie was about or who was in it. After the teaser trailer was shown and Joseph Gordon-Levitt joined director Rian Johnson on stage, the crowd had warmed up a bit. The movie is centered on a killer (JGL) who works for the mob of the future and recognizes one of the targets as his future self (Bruce Willis). Emily Blunt and Paul Dano also star in this sci-fi time travel action flick.
Finally, the moment everyone had waited for. A packed, standing room only crowd of over 2,500 cheered, laughed and clapped as an extended clip from The Amazing Spider-Manwas shown. Emma Stone then appeared on stage with director Marc Webb and producer Michael Grillo. Most of the questions were directed at Stone, who answered them with her usual charming, self-depricating humor, including having to decline a marriage proposal from one lady in the audience.
As with Comic-Con, Sony's panel definitely played well. The crowd absolutely enjoyed everything that was shown to them. Universal's Battleship won some points as well, as folks started to see some of the storyline unfold, rather than just watching stuff blow up really, really loudly.
Sunday brings a close to Wondercon, with television shows Alcatraz, Fringe and Community taking over the Ballroom. Many of the trailer and clips that were shown this week will most likely hit the Web over the course of next week. The Battleship trailer will be attached to the March 30th release of Wrath of the Titans.
As another WonderCon comes to an end, we look forward now to Comic-Con, which is only four months away. But first, some sleep. You can follow all of Saturday's events that I didn't include in this recap on my Twitter feed. Plus, check out our WonderCon photo gallery!
Derrick Deane, Fandango Content Personnel/Movie Blogger, joined Fandango in 2010, bringing more than 10 years of filmmaking and writing experience with him. While The Godfather, Rear Window and 12 Angry Men are all favorites, he will always have a soft spot for Die Hard, Leon: The Professional and B
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