July 18, 2019: Thursday at San Diego Comic Con Travel: Between my brother and family, we stayed at 2 different locations: The Crowne Plaza San Diego, and the Worldmark San Diego, both in the Mission Valley area. We arrived the night before and, thus, probably didn't get the best start to the day on Thursday. Thankfully, SDCC has been shipping badges to attendees in advance so there was one less step for us to make. But we were still a little on the late side, getting to the area around 9:30am. Unfortunately, our parking was at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel parking lot and with Harbor Blvd being closed during the Con, traffic was deadlocked for a good twenty minutes. We didn't enter the Convention Center until closer to 10:15. Bags and Lanyards: The final step before we entered the convention proper, we went up the escalators to Sails Pavilion and went in line for our lanyards and bags. With about 23 different types, there odds were not in our favor for getting the bags we wanted, but most of us weren't too particular. Note: This year, the bags tore easily. My wife's bag tore within an hour, my bag tore just a little later. At that time, they didn't have a set plan for bag replacement, so we both just ended up tossing what we had. it was more effort than it was really worth. These were far more flimsy than in years' past. Quality is not so much, these days, so in the future, be forewarned. Looking at our 'plan' for the day, there were a few panels we hoped to get in to. Because of my bad experiences in years' past, I didn't give anyone any promises, but we headed over to Room 24ABC for the Afrofuturism Panel. We got there about thirty minutes early, but they were letting people in as seats became available. When we were able to sit, we were in the last half of the panel before: Panel #1: The Best Movies Never Made, Hosted by The Best Movies Never Made Podcast Team - The panel discussed sequels to popular movies and the subject of their derision was a script of Beetlejuice 2. - Humorous at first, they were discussing everything that was wrong with the script and idea. The most common laments were that it took all of the well established Characters and gave them nothing to do in the second. Character development was lacking, and most of the characters were acting out of character. My only take on this panel was that I thought this was supposed to be about the 'best' movies never made. Beetlejuice 2 seemed to be the polar opposite of the intentions of the panel. While humorous and sometimes witty, it grew a bit tiresome at all of the diggs they made on this one script. I think most of us got the idea after the first few minutes and were ready to move on the another, more worthy script, if any exists. Panel #2: Afrofuturism - "Black to the Future Too: The Revenge (This Time, It's Personal)" Hosted by Jimmy Diggs of House of Diggs Productions - Panel included Actors and Acresses Kevin Grevious (Underworld), La Quia Howard (Kemet), Comic Artist Denys Cowan, and Professor Ajani Brown (San Diego State University). - Topics includes current projects, the casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel in the live action Disney movie "The Little Mermaid", and Jimmy Diggs career path. - MC by Jimmy Diggs, who arrived dressed in all black, including a black mask that muffled his voice. Overall, this was a good panel, but not one I was expecting. I went into this to hopefully hear about what Afrofuturism was, and what has been going on since Black Panther. The panel addressed the second point in the discussions we could hear. My biggest issue is that we were sitting in the back half of the room and could barely hear what the MC was saying. he wasn't mic'd and his mask interfered with the projection and clarity of his voice. This was frustrating because we had to guess what the questions were based on the responses from the panel. Based on the ractions from the front of the room, there may have been some very erudite comments, but we couldn't hear them. I really enjoyed hearing Cowan, Howard, and Brown comment on Disney's decision to cast a black actress as Ariel in the upcoming live-action move 'The Littel Mermaid". I think everyone in the room was supportive of the casting and wished her well. On the screen, there was some slides with other potential casting decisions that bordered on the silly, yet potentially bankable choices. but I didn't take any notes on those. If I can find a screen shot somewhere, I'll update this entry, my apologies. Professor Howard talked about his latest comic project, called "Straight Outta Freemanville". The town name based on the setting from the move 'Posse". It is a steam punk styled comic, which he termed "Steam Funk", which makes me want to check it out even more. Ms. Howard also announced a new project she's working on with House of Diggs, called "Kemet". The topic is a historical exploration into ancient Egypt, teasing that the country was misnamed. I couldn't tell if this would be a feature project, or a comic-based one. However, I am also very intrigued and hope to hear more about it. Panel #3: Evil Exclusive Screening and Panel Hosted by Cast and Show Runner We entered Ballroom 20 a bit late because we missed our primary panel for the show The Toys That Made Us. Our next panel was to head to Ballroom 20 for the SyFy The Great Debate panel hosted by Aisha Tylor. We liked the topic and thought that it would be popular enough to attract a significant line, so we rushed over there - and we were able to walk straight in two panels early; another stroke of luck for us. - Screened the last 15 -20 minutes of the episode. - Starring Katja Herbers, with Mike Colter (Luke Cage), Aasif Mandvi (Interns), and Michael Emerson (Lost). - Psychological thriller exploring what evil means and fighting against it. - Three main characters form a triumvirate, each having a different perspective on what evil is. Colter is based on faith, Mandvi comes from a strictly pragmatic point of view, and Herbers is a position somewhere in the middle, likely being the audience's point of view. I really liked what I saw, and Emerson just plays evil really well. I see a lot of potential for this CBS show and look forward to seeing it when it airs in the Fall. Panel #4: Nancy Drew Exclusive Screening and Panel Hosted by Cast and Crew - Viewed full pilot episode, introduced town, Nancy, and supporting characters. - A lot of backstory and narrated by Nancy Drew. - Episode featured Nancy's backstory, but at the time of this episode, she chose to stop investigating. The mysterious death near her place of work draws her into the investigation and brings out her unique skill set. - One of the supporting characters will not be able to continue with the show due to scheduling conflicts, so those scenes will be re-shot with new actress. A good episode, though i'm not as drawn to it as "Evil". There were quite a few homages to the original stories by Carolyn Keene and book covers. They did a great job of incorporating prior incarnations of the character. One of the panelists was the costumer and she made deliberate choices to refer back to various colors and textures that may remind fans of the original books. This was definitely a show that was produced with love of the series, and there was also a cameo by the actress from the 1970's Nancy Drew show as well, Pamela Sue Martin. One of the most noticeable things is the diversity of the cast. This young group covers the spectrum of diversity from African American, to Asian and Latinx. There is also the hint of economic class differences that may play out in future mysteries. i think that fans of the original books and even the 1970's TV show will enjoy this iteration and should check it out. And that Panel #5: SyFy Wire's The Great Debate MC Aisha Tyler This was the panel my wife and I wanted to see the most, at least from what we planned to see. The premise, asking a panel questions straight out of geekdom promised great dialog and humor, espeically with Aisha Tyler MCing. We were not disappointed. I don't think I've laughed that much in a very long time. There is actually a great detailed write up from SlashFilm.com site that describes all of the panelists and questions. What I will say is that the humor went blue very quickly and, thankfully, most of it went over our youngest's head. But the laughs were plentiful for everyone. The main thing i will bring back from this is the image of Han Solo as just a middle-aged man that lives out of his van, in response to the question Who is Cooler, Wolverine or Han Solo? That little nugget came from Dani Fernandez (Ralph Breaks The Internet). i'll never get that image out of my head, and I love it. Day 1 Ends
And that pretty much wrapped our first day at SDCC 2019! We did try to sneak in some Exhibit Hall time, walk around parts of the floor, but it was crowded as hell that afternoon. My brother went to meet some friends and we decided to go out to eat. Then we went back to the hotel, satisfied at a productive and fun Day 1. What more could we expect?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Web Hosting by Bluehost