Archive for the ‘Comic Con’ Category

I’m sure you have all heard about the Iron Man 2 footage that played at Comic Con a few weeks ago, and we all knew it was only a matter of time before it was leaked. Well, as of right now, Gizmodo is the place you can watch it, and I would move quickly because Paramount is already on the move taking these down.

The video is a bit grainy and the sound is a bit lacking at times, but until they releases the official footage, this will have to do! Check it out at the link above!

UPDATE:Youtube is dead.

UPDATE 2: Here’s a website that has about 2 of the 5 minutes…

UPDATE 3: It looks like you can download it from this site.

I got a chance to interview the man in the golden mask during this years San Diego Comic-Con, Anthony Daniels.  He was there to talk about Star Wars in Concert, which will be coming to a city near you in the coming months.  (Tickets are on sale now.)

He’s hosting it, and it would be best to let him describe the show in his own words, because I think he describes it better than I can:

Anthony Daniels: It’s a breathtakingly, huge, spectacular, rock concert, orchestral experience.  It really does have the majesty and hugeness of an amazing rock concert.  But, on the stage is basically a symphony orchestra and conductor, a highly skilled and clever conductor, and behind them is a 100 foot LED screen that emits a huge amount of light and it’s there principally, partly it shows the workings of the orchestra as the music goes along, because we’ve got a lot of cameras within the auditorium and on stage, but it’s there also there to show 10 or 12 specially re-edited sequences from all the Star Wars films all put together to work on a certain theme.  A theme might be about…I don’t know…the Dark Side and there John Williams, scores, he’s re-worked his scores to fit together with the specially recut films.  The lighting and sound and lasers are huge and wonderful and beautiful.  And in the middle of all this, I stroll on, calm and serene, and tell the story of Star Wars in segments followed by films and music and so on.  And you follow the very, very simple theme of Star Wars.  For instance, if you’ve never seen Star Wars, this is instant story.  You get it.  You get the main theme of it.  The going to the bad, the coming good, the redemption which is basically what it’s all about that journey.  On screen you may see all the elements that may tweak your memory superbly, but we don’t necessarily talk about them.  And that makes for a very simple, very direct, rather beautiful show.

He also spoke about his connection with Threepio.  I asked him what it was like to be the one actor from the original films whose be the mainstay in the series who had done all of the ancillary properties, cartoons, video games, etc.

AD: It’s almost become… not a duty, but almost a responsibility.  I feel I should, strangley, I’ve not really thought about that.  But I think I almost feel an obligation to Threepio more than to George, certainly he wouldn’t want me to be obligated.  I feel Threepio needs me, in a way, that he’d be rather upset if I went away.  I’ll have to ask him one time.  It’s been a bit of a privelige to be able to be a part of so many things.  And of course what many people won’t realize is that Threepio’s voice is actually quite hard to do.  He’s so tense as a character and creating his voice creates a certain amount of tension and sort of uptightness and so your stomach muscles can get really–and back muscles–can get quite knotted after a recording session.  And because he is not a relaxed character, therefore you cannot reproduce his voice in a relaxed way and I often think I should have come up with a more…  Do you remember HAL in 2001?

At that point in the interview, he went into quite an impressive facsimile of HAL from 2001.

We also spoke about his favorite moments as Threepio, how he approaches the part from the perspective of being in the costume on set.  He also talks about Threepio’s relationship with Han Solo.

It was a pleasure to do the interview, and I hope it’s a pleasure for you to listen to.  You can download the full interview from The Geek Show Podcast by clicking this sentence.

I would also highly recommend subscribing to their full feed on iTunes.  (You can click that here.)

I know this post is huge, I took a lot of pictures and most of them made me laugh. I cut these down from over 30 excluding pictures that I didn’t have the heart to take. For example there was a 400 pound Wonder Woman at this years con. In fact, I mostly stayed away from funny pictures that were just funny because of someones weight.

Although I don’t know when I grew a Grinch sized heart either, so enough with the sob story and on to the show!

15. Sub-Zero

The thing I find most hilarious about taking pictures with people in costumes is to direct them into their character’s poses. As stated before, I grew a heart somewhere between this year and last, and I didn’t do it as much as I should have, but when I did the pictures would turn out like this.

I told him the real Sub-Zero would bend his knees farther, but you can only push people so far.

14./13. The Klingon and Short Riker

Surprisingly enough I didn’t have to direct Riker in the slightest, he was all action as soon as he caught sight of that damn Klingon.

Another note I would like to add is that in a way fat Klingons are normal, but he took it to the hoop.

12. Power Girl

I’ve never thought blending costumes was that good of an idea, but this Power Girl/Medusa outfit is off the chain. Earth 2 better watch the fuck out!

11. Black Canary/Green Arrow

This is just something you have in store for you when you come to Comic-Con. And it makes me ask myself who’s bright idea was this. Imagine telling your red headed, pale, skinny boyfriend you wanted to dress up as Fat Canary to his Oliver Queen. Or on the other side, asking a pig to put on lip-stick.

10. Ryu

As if you didn’t know, this isn’t just regular Ryu. This is stung by a bee Ryu! Which, as you can see, he is very allergic to.

9. Scarecrow

What I like about this picture isn’t that it looks like the Scarecrow’s costume used to be a sack of potatoes. The best part of this picture is  the dude in the background wearing rainbow spandex which, in contrast, is much scarier than the Scarecrow himself.

8. Thors

I couldn’t decide which Thor was worse so I just picked both, (actually there is another Thor higher on the list that makes these guys look like mere morons.) Fake Biceps and an aluminum foil skirt, or a man that looks like he hasn’t known where he’s been in some time? You decide.

7./6. Optimus Prime and The Kool-aid Man

How bizarre.

5. Gambits

As you all know, Remy LeBeau has had a long frustrating relationship with his fellow X-man, Rogue. He lusts after her day by day, but they are unable to kiss or even touch because her mutant power would suck his own powers away and eventually kill him. And so he cloned himself!

This inflection should obviously have thinking people such as yourselves asking other questions. Such as, “which one’s the clone?” I wish I could tell you. All I can say for certain is one (or maybe both) is a  perfect copy of the Gambit we all know and love.

4./3. Captain America’s

#4: (The idiot foiled in a costume on the left.) It is my personal opinion that this Captain America used his super solider training to drink lots of beer. That’s the only explanation.

#3: This is one of those seconds that I told my heart it couldn’t do this to me. And thank God it listened for a fraction of a second. Long enough for me to snap a picture. When I look at a guy like this my first assumption is always that he’s actually an alien wearing an imperfect human costume trying to appear normal by wearing another costume just to throw us off, thereby learning all the secrets we hide in our soft heads.

2. I can’t decide who makes the list and who doesn’t

I submit to you the worst group photo that I have ever taken. Ever. The way the top of Magneto’s helmet is as big as the rest of his head. The Beast who strangely resembles John Candy, pretending to hump Spider-Woman. The little boy who was obviously forced by his parents to get into arms reach of pedophile Thor for a picture, but just doesn’t want any part of it. And the way a normal looking girl is smashed between all of them.

This one will go down in the record books!

1. Nightwing

You’ll never recognize the full majesty of this boys nerdity without knowing who the puppeteer was behind his wily pose. Not me, when I got his picture he was standing straight as a post. But a second later a pair of broads dressed as female Spock, and a green alien chick asked if they could have his picture, and he did this. I then stole what I thought was the worst picture since the con’s conception. But I was wrong, for a moment later he stopped posing for the girls, and began to talk to them half posed. Allowing me to take the worst follow-up picture in recorded history! Just remember you saw it here on Big Shiny Robot! first.

Note the fact that he wears a black fanny pack which I always find to add another layer of loser to a person. (Also in this case, it’s possibly containing his package. It’s got to be somewhere right?)

P.S. Here’s the ladies he was showing off for, posing with Marcus, the Rear Admiral of Comedy.

Be sure to check out The 5 Loveliest Ladies of the Con and the 5 Best Costumes of the Con.

And here’s Dr. Cyborg’s first ever bad costume round-up from 2007.

Since there is an abundance of cute girls that attend the Comic-Con year after year, I decided I would profit from their luscious money makers by putting pictures of them into a lascivious post.

This should be appealing to barbaric robots whom still use phrases such as, “Them girls sure look good nakey.”

Also bear in mind I didn’t get any pleasure out of taking their pictures and it was almost completely platonic, like teaching a Mormon girl how to kiss for the first time. For this reason, this article about posteriors and mammaries only degrades my journalistic integrity in the slightest degree. Less even than running a report on yodeling midgets.

Anyway, here we go!

5. Final Fight, Poison

I will get this right out of the way. There were some other girls at the con that would have demolished this list, but I refrained from using booth babes. Aside from the fact that they are paid for their looks, they don’t even necessarily have to be nerds. Therefore, in my opinion, anyone that is willing to pay $60 to get to the con, and then dress up like an unknown character such as one of the broads you beat up in Final Fight, I think you are much more deserving to be on the list.

4. X-Men, Emma Frost

I don’t know what it is about wearing plain white panties in a public place, but there is definitely something. #4!

3. Female Han Solo

You can’t begin to guess how many fat nerds I saw dressed up as their hero, “Han Solo” at this years comic-con, but when I walked by this girl it was like a diamond in the rough. I wish that more broads decided to dress up in fat geek magnet costumes.

2. GI Joe, The Baroness

This picture doesn’t really do this girl justice. (And not just because she standing next to fat Cobra Commander.) That suit was so tight. There’s something about the Baroness that just exudes sexy, I would venture to say it could even make an ugly girl visible. It might have something to do with the black rimmed glasses. (Someone should run some tests.)

1. Final Fantasy 10 2, Rikku

I would fight anyone that said this girl wasn’t cute. If it weren’t for the fact that I’m a lover and not a fighter. Which is what they tell me is the best thing to say to get into a girl wearing a costumes pants. (or skirts, tights, shorts, panties, unitards, etc.)

Runner up: ???

I think she might be dressed up as someone from Stargate or something. That’s my best guess. She’s in the runner up spot, because I think she was very attractive, but I’m suspicious of the fact she might be a professional.

Bonus: Two pictures of Olivia Munn in a short princess Leia gown! Nuff Said!

(click to enlarge these two)

Come back tomorrow for my long awaited “Worst Costumes of the Con” list.  And be sure to check out yesterdays “Best Of” list.

At this years Comic-con I took about 300 pictures of people in costumes, (almost none of them turned out) out of the few surviving  pictures these were my five favorites.

5. Captain America Vs. The Red Skull

I like these costumes, but I chose them as number five because I hate Nazis.

4. The Killing Joke, Joker

I saw this guy at the trolley station. San Diego’s a pretty weird place. To be honest I don’t even think he was going to the con.

3. Jack Nicholson’s Joker

I didn’t like this guy because he actually got into character, but I put him as number three because he gave me a gas mask before releasing Joker gas into the auditorium.

2.Female Loki

Another unlovable character actor. She told me she was going to give me a hand job in the bathroom, but it was just a trick.

1. Cornelius and Zira from Planet of the Apes

The reason I put these guys in the number one spot is simple. Because after taking their picture I had to google “pictures of the statue of liberty” just to make sure it still had a human face.

I chose two runner ups as well, their costumes weren’t really spectacular, but I think people that dress up in appropriate buddy themes are adorable.

Runner up 1: Daddy-Daughter Stormtroopers

Runner up 2: Mario and Luigi

Make sure you come back tomorrow for “The Lovliest Costumed Ladies From the Con”. And then, on Friday, we’ll have the top 15 worst.

Catherine Taber is the voice of Padme on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and she was able to take some time out of her Comic-Con schedule to talk to me on the red carpet before the Star Wars Spectacular.

We spoke about how she got the part, Star Wars fandom, her own status as a Star Wars fan and we got to talk about a few tidbits about what we can expect in Season Two. The most interesting thing she had to say about that was that we’d be seeing Padme in some very interesting, Noir-like episodes. Going back to the trailer for Season Two, I seem to recall some very good shots of Anakin getting jealous of Padme embracing another man in a very noirish lighting scheme.

Click here for our interview with Dee Bradley Baker, voice of all the Clones.

Click here for our interview with Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka Tano.

During our stay at Comic-Con, I was asked by the good people at IN Magazine for an article about the con.

It appeared in the July 30 issue which is on stands now.  Pick one up and frequent their website.

They’ve been kind enough to let me reprint the page here:

If you want to read the article, you can click the picture for a larger version, or read the online version here.

Derek and Marcus (pictured in the article) deserve links.  We spent quite a bit of time hanging out at the con.

Marcus: The Vice-Comptroller of Comedy

and

Derek Hunter’s Pirate Club

Miracle man Paul W.S. Anderson had the nerve to show up to this years comic-con, and got literally no applause while walking onto the stage. He was there promoting the upcoming film he’s producing, “Pandorum” which he instantly compared to “Ridley Scotts Alien movie”

After a few hype words from Paul (Kick ass chicks!, Bad ass!, Totally off the chain man!) they showed the trailer, which didn’t look as bad as…let’s say, Death Race…but that’s not really hard to do. His sum up of why he was interested in this film was “As you know I like seeing hot chicks kicking ass” or something equally chauvinistic. In his defense though, he doesn’t seem as pretentious as he seems ignorant. (I believe you can extrapolate a compliment from that sentence.)

Ben Foster, Cung Le, and Antje Traue also showed up. To be honest I didn’t really listen to the panel after Paul W.S. Anderson showed up on stage, I was just there so I could watch the Kick-Ass panel. (Which looks amazing!)

Keeping in mind that Paul W.S. Anderson has his name on this film, I think we can all safely not be excited for this project.

Dee Bradley Baker has the unenviable task of voicing every single Clone on The Clone Wars cartoon and is tasked in making them each sound slightly different. At the panel I saw him on, he gave a demonstration of about 6 different Clone voices and I have to say I was astounded. There isn’t anything like it I’ve ever seen in person.

He also makes some of the most preposterous and bizarre animal noises. Aside from his work on Clone Wars, you’ve heard him on plenty of shows. He’s done The Brave and the Bold, American Dad, Teen Titans, Justice League, and a whole hell of a lot of video games… Hell, he’s the current Daffy Duck and Tasmanian Devil.

In this interview, we talked about the show, his favorite Clone and what Bounty Hunter he might be playing in the second season.

Here’s a tidbit:

Q: Are you voicing any of these new Bounty Hunters?

A: I am voicing one of the Bounty Hunters but I don’t think I can tell you what it…who that might be. Or anything about it. I might get in trouble.

Q: You seem like a good fit for Bossk.

A: Oh. Uh…. That’s an interesting conjecture. (Grins broadly and laughs.) I like Bossk.

So, it’s nothing firm, but he certainly had an interesting reaction to the question.

Click here to watch Ashley Eckstein’s (Ahsoka Tano) video interview from Comic-Con.

Immediately after the Zombieland panel, Roland Emmerich jumped up on stage presenting his new movie 2012. (I’m not certain he was supposed to be there.) And strangely, even though Woody Harrelson was in both movies, he left the stage. 2012 stars John Cusack, Danny Glover, Woody Harrelson, and Thandie Newton.

It looks God Awful.

The scene they showed was of John Cusack, a limo Driver, calling his family and essentially yelling “You’ve got to get out of the house! The worlds falling apart” (And I just started to like John Cusack.) He then drives his limo to his house and screeches to a stop. (He’s there because they couldn’t leave without him, presumably?)

So he rallies his family out the door and into the limo, the world is actually falling apart around them, but they are outrunning it. He drives past an exploding gas station, and weaves around rows of cars that just can’t seem to get their acts together, and then it starts to get ridiculous.

A skyscraper is falling down right in front of the limo, the world is falling around on both sides. What can John Cusack (the best limo driver in town) do? Drive right through the window of the falling building with a makeshift ramp! Of course as the expression goes, out of the frying pan and into the fire.

He manages to get his family onto one of the last airplanes seemingly on the planet. It seems safe for a moment, but then the world is still falling down around them, and they are barely able to take off. But thank god they are able to by the skin of their teeth. Then a skyscraper is falling down, and they have to dodge the falling building in the airplane! End of clip.

The plot line for this movie is, “An epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors.” I’m going to go out on a limb here and say if your movie has the courage to “End the World” it should have the decency to refrain from “Heroic Survivors”.

This just might end up the worst movie of the decade. But to my surprise, while I was laughing through the clip, others were wowed. People went to the Q&A mic and made comments like, “You’re the ultimate master of disaster films!”, “How do you make them so good?” drooling, with their mouths wide open looking like degenerates.

A film critic from Entertainment Weekly hosted the panel and he said (completely dead pan), “Wow, how do you keep making these movies better and better, first Independence Day, then the Day After Tomorrow, and now this? Which makes your other films look like Woody Allen films.” He actually got booed for insulting Woody Allen, but the point is, some people actually like these movies.

I was just surprised what an idiot the director was.  H e said that before they started work on this movie, they were working on a “Flood” movie, (That’s right all of his movies can be summed up in a single word.) but this 2012 thing just dropped in their laps. Which is such a gimmicky, stupid idea. The director is actually not an ass-hole, he just lacks I.Q.

Roland Emmerich at Comic-Con

This movie is going to be bad. This is going to be the same movie Emmerich has tried to push on us over and over again. The difference is the effects keep getting better. If I’m being completely honest the effects in the scene they showed were amazing. But that was the only thing amazing about it. Now here I am on my robot knees begging all of you, don’t go see this movie!

Maybe he won’t make another one.