I missed the panel for “Heroes” (primarily because RopeofSilicon is not much of a TV site), but I was sitting just outside the doors as the panel played and was ushered inside just as it ended. However, you can now watch the whole thing right here in the video player below or at this link.

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Pixar presented some rough, unfinished footage of Up at Comic Con and even as is, the footage impressed. No surprise there. Pixar can do no wrong in my eyes. Co-director Pete Docter dropped some info on the plot and it sounds like a heartwarming tale with an epic visual scope.

According to Docter, the film follows a cranky old geezer  and widower named Carl (voiced by Ed Asner) who promised his life-long love that they’d have a life of adventure in South America. But it never happened. And with her gone and the city trying to throw him into a retirement home since he’s the last holdout in the neighborhood to sell his house for commercial development, Carl does what anyone would: strap five billion ballons to his house and fly off to South America.

The first footage Docter showed was the scene of Carl’s house taking off, right before two men come to drive him off to the retirement home. After the house lifts off, it floats down the city streets as people watch through the windows. What really struck me about the scene was how enjoyable the character of Carl is. He’s a cranky coot. And it’s funny stuff. But since this is Pixar, we get a few touching character bits as Carl kisses the picture of his dead wife once he’s well on his way. Whimsy is plentiful here, but it’s not overbearing.

However, apparently Carl isn’t the only one on this journey. Somehow a spazoid Boy Scout, who has earned every badge except the one for aiding the elderly, snuck on the house before lift off. Docter rolled another, but much shorter, clip of the Boy Scout and Carl walking in the jungle pulling the floating house above them. It’s essentially a scene of slap-dish comedy as the Boy Scout gets distracted, unstraps himself from the house, and Carl starts to float away. Quite amusing.

Apparently, Carl’s destination is a particular type of mountains in South America, which are mile-high plateaus made of the oldest rock in the world. And for research the folks of Pixar made the rather difficult trip out to these mountains in Venezuela for research. Dedicated artists to the very end. Up comes to theaters next May

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After sitting through The Spirit panel and seeing some new footage, one fact stands out: This movie looks shitty. Director Frank Miller, producer Deborah Del Prete, Samuel L. Jackson, Jaime King, and Gabriel Macht sat on the panel and re-showed that awkward-ass trailer. Maybe they should have left it at that. Or just gone the Watchmen route and present a music video of sorts. But instead they tossed us two full scenes, which, admittedly, is what I slightly knocked the Watchmen panel for failing to do.

But damn, even after that trailer I was still willing to have some hope for The Spirit, but that’s been drained away. The first scene involved Eva Mendes swimming in a skeleton-tight swim suit while trying to recover a treasure on the bottom of a lake. Meanwhile a cackling Samuel L. Jackson stands above the water zipping bullets at her. The footage has no sense of immediacy. It’s distant, detached as if it was shot in the vacuum of outer space.

Producer Del Prete mentioned how they wanted to capture the underwater feel of the comics where everyone still looks beautiful when submerged in the wet stuff, as opposed to make-up dissolving off their faces and such as it would in reality. So they developed a high-tech way to film the scene without using any water. Well I guess I understand the logic behind this. But it just doesn’t work. The shots of Mendes underwater feels like amateur hour at the visual-effects shop. She appears to be in a completely different environment than the background suggests. It’s just one of those things that demonstrate why a 100 percent cut and paste from one medium to another isn’t viable. What works in comics often looks like ass in live-action.

The other scene shown was a flirty bit between The Spirit and his true love Ellen (in the trailer, it’s the footage with The Spirit grinding on some chick in front of window blinds). Miller juggles a few tones in this scene. Or tries to juggles may be the better phrasing. Imagine a juggler with his hands amputated and that captures the flat, jarring nature of this scene that goes from quirk to romance to screwball comedy in a matter of seconds. And just like the previous scene, it feels hollow and stiff.

The only compliment I can give the film (other than Scarlett Johansson and the other ladies in it look smoking hot) is that it comes off as the best fan film ever made–and their were some truly touching moments during the panel as Miller talked about his late friend and mentor Will Eisner, creator of “The Spirit.” It’s obvious that the filmmakers care for this property. And if this film was something that a couple of fans made and released online, I’d be impressed. But this is a big motion picture. Millions of dollars thrown in the mix. And it just looks horrible.

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Sure, seeing the Watchmen footage was pretty cool, but it was basically just a mild extension of the trailer giving it something of a “Scene it” impression. Also, seeing the first bit of footage from Wolverine was pretty cool (details here), but it was just more of the same. Outside of seeing the VERY impressive teaser trailer for Tron 2 (details here), the Comic Con panel hosted by Entertainment Weekly with directors Kevin Smith, Judd Apatow, Zack Snyder and Frank Miller was easily the most enjoyable thing I have seen so far.

To be 100% honest with you I have no idea what the ultimate goal behind this panel really was. It was called “Visionaries” but it really boiled down to an extended Q&A session beginning with moderated questions and ending with several questions from attendees. It was filled with humor and Kevin Smith’s inner fanboy leaked out all over the stage, as did his belly, but I am not here to judge (but I will say someone needs to talk to Smith because he is looking unhealthy).

The first question asked of the entire panel began and basically ended with Smith. When asked, “Why did you get into filmmaking,” the answer from Smith was simple, “I just wanted to get my cock sucked sir.” The place erupted. Judd Apatow basically reiterated Smith’s sentiments with a personal story from his past, but when Zack Snyder had a hard time verbalizing his answer Smith blurted out, “Thank God your visuals are so good man!” Laughter once again affording Smith the opportunity to begin gushing over Watchmen.

Earlier that morning was the panel for Watchmen hosted by Warner Bros. and featuring Snyder and all of the principals from the film. Previewed was Watchmen footage of which I already commented on, but to say Kevin Smith was impressed would be an understatement. Smith then began leading the charge to try and get the footage shown one more time to no avail. His comment on seeing the footage and his anticipation of seeing the movie was, “[Once I see the Watchmen movie] I’ll be ready to die… my life will have been fulfilled.” He considers his words and rolls his eyes, contemplating what he just said. His excitement was fun to watch.

More questions popped up.
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I haven’t taken a look to see what other websites are saying about the Max Payne portion of Fox’s Comic Con panel on Thursday, July 24, but you can consider me completely unimpressed. Dollied out for the presentation were director John Moore and stars Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and the panel was moderated by producer Erwin Stoff.

Stoff began the panel quoting Moore saying what he believed to be the best description of what a film adaptation of Max Payne really is. He said, “John [Moore] put it best when he said ‘It’s not minimum pain, it’s not medium pain, it’s Max Payne.’” Sorry, but cheese dick taglines like that sound gimmicky every time you hear them.

Following a bit of banter they previewed the first clip from the film, which looks like it may be the opening of the film as Wahlberg as the title character, Max Payne, is searching what appears to be an abandoned house searching for someone named Alex. As he shouts like bulbs flicker in his face and a mirror in the distance is banging around with a dead body lying on the ground in front of it, half-way in a doorway, the other half in the hall. Payne nears the body when he is attacked from behind. Max Payne is getting his ass kicked. Crawling slowly across broken glass and about to be hit once again, he turns and fires several shots from an ankle holster and kills his attacker. End scene.

This clip was mildly atmospheric, but it wasn’t impressive by any means. It felt like any other glossy teen thriller. It lacked substance and it lacked any kind of real originality. A zombie could have appeared or vampires could have fallen from the ceiling and it wouldn’t have been shocking. The scene really brought nothing to the table in terms of giving the audience any reason to get excited, and it appeared it worked to that end.

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