SDCC Highlights: Day 3 (Part 1)

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Ah....Day 3 of Comic con.  Saturday is the day where you camp out all night before and hope to get into Hall H and never leave until at least 6pm.  Hall H line on Saturday is no joke folks.  Saturday is the biggest day of Comic Con - panels, attendance, cosplayers, you name it.  It used to be that if you didn't show up between 4-6am you will not get into the first panel of the day but still have hopes to make into the last panels.  This year you had to camp out starting at midnight to "guarantee" yourself a spot.  Next year it might be 8pm the on Friday night, who knows!

Map Image is a screen shot from Google Maps.

The map above shows the line up for Hall H.  You start near the Chute area of Hall H and snake through those tunnels.  A lot of people bring sleeping bags and air mattresses to keep warm through the night so the lines are shoulder to shoulder but it seems to be an understood rule among con goers that you can spread out to sleep and spend the night.   The line continues across the street and snakes around the lawn area.  My friends got to the line about midnight (blue star on the map) and got a pretty good position.  I was fortunate enough to sleep in the hotel for an extra 3 hours.  By the time I arrived at 3am the line had worked itself down the marina and towards the embarcadero are where the symphony hall was set up.  I'm not sure what the line looks like after that, but just know that if you're anywhere near that area you won't be getting into Hall H on Saturday.

You'll be lucky to get into the last panel of the day if you're standing out by by the marina area lawn.   Another thing to understand about Hall H is that they don't clear the rooms in between panels so once you're in you're in - along with the other 6,500 or so people.  If you're still outside then you just have to wish and hope that someone who had squatted in line was there for an early panel and will leave after (which is what happened after the Lionsgate Hunger Games panel).  Around 5 or 6am the security guards start walking through the line saying good morning to everyone and give them a wake up call to pack their stuff up because the lines are about to be compressed.  Once the line goes through the first compression and you're inside the awnings zig zags towards the beginning you have a very very good chance of getting in for the whole day.

So why do people go crazy and line up??  Some say it's due to the hype and teenage fanatics from movies such as Twilight and now Hunger Games, and others say it's because Hall H reveals greater and more amazing things year after year.  I'm thinking the early line ups are due to the rising popularity of comic books in movies.  People who wouldn't otherwise be interested in comic books are now coming out to see and swoon over the movie stars, such as Hugh Jackman.  I must admit that I am also one of those fans that have recently gained a love for comic books through movies, and the help of my boyfriend, but even if there weren't movie stars around I'd still be going to panels.  :)  Alright, so enough talk and more photos of panels (yes, lots and lots of photos)!


Oh, one last thing before the photos start, I promise.  I forgot my camera that morning because I had left it charging so all these photos are from my phone.  Sorry for the low quality, but I hope you enjoy them regardless.

Legendary & WB

Jeff Bridges was there to promote his new movie Seventh Son.

We got a really cool trailer that revealed Godzilla.  Pretty excited for this movie.  Of course I would love to see a Pacific Rim vs. Godzilla movie too ;)

Sometime during the Legendary panel we got a sneak peek of the World of Warcraft teaser trailer.  Which you can't find anywhere online right now.  One of the benefits of waiting in line for Hall H.  You're rewarded with exclusive clips and the die hard fans will always be appreciative and give an uproar of approval and applause in return.  

Next, Sandra Bullock made her very first Comic-Con appearance to promote her film Gravity.  It's a movie with 2 people (Bullock & George Clooney) floating around in space.  Sounds interesting yet I can't see myself watching it as a full length movie.  One impressive thing we got out of it was a nice clip of director Alfonso Cuarón's magic one shot scene during the major accident that leads to the rest of the movie.  

Chris Hardwick, who was moderating the majority of the panels, made an appearance as a lego!  For the Lego Movie of course.  The trailer that they showed at Comic-Con was pretty hilarious.  I wasn't expecting much from the movie but after watching the trailer I'm really looking forward to the movie.  Trailer linked is not the same trailer as the one showed at Comic-con but just as cute and funny.

OMG, Tom Cruise??  Yup, Tom Cruise showed up to talk about his film Edge of Tomorrow.  There was a super cute moment between Chris Hardwick and Tom Cruise.  I have a video, but here's a video from Nerdist.com because their quality and length of video is better than my own.  As Chris tried to moderate the panel I saw Tom Cruise just smiling and waving at everyone in the crowd, he was definitely stealing the show!  He really knows how to work the crowd.  

The movie trailer was really cool too.  It's kind of similar to Grounds Hog Day (1993 Movie) where the main character gets stuck repeating the day over and over again.  Throw in Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, and a mecha war and you have Edge of Tomorrow.

Chris Hardwick photobombing the cast and crew photo of Edge of Tomorrow

Tom Cruise Photobombing Chris Hardwick + Edge of Tomorrow Cast & Crew

At the end of the WB panel Zack Snyder brought out Harry Lennix who was in Man of Steel to do the a reading that will help us understand what the Man of Steel sequel will be about.

  

Lionsgate

Next, Lionsgate presented starting with I, Frankenstein.   I went to the restroom during this panel since I was glued to my seat for the past ~3 hours.  They have time in between panels for restrooms but I would rather brave the darkness than the crowds at the restrooms.  I made it back to my seat at the end of I, Frankenstein but I did get a cool picture from my boyfriend of Aaron Eckhart showing off his guns.  Someone had asked for him to prove that he was still fit after the movie filming.

Next, the panel that a lot of teens were waiting for.  May the odds be ever in your favor.

Willow Shields and Lenny Kravitz

Jeffry Wright and Liam Hemsworth

Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence

Lenny talked about how excited he was to have a new generation of fans.  :)

Jennifer told us about her snotty kissing scene with Josh.

It was a great panel but a little lacking in exclusive footage.  We were the first to see the new trailer though. What made the panel enjoyable was hearing Jennifer Lawrence speak.  She has a way with her words that just draws you in and you can't help but find her blunt honesty a bit charming.

EW: Women Who Kick Ass

This was a different kind of panel that you normally wouldn't find in Hall H.  I've been getting the feeling that Entertainment Weekly has been inserting these random but great panels into the bigger halls in order to bring more awareness to them.  The next panel brought out a handful of women who portray women who kick ass for an open discussion panel.  I didn't mind the panel and I thought it was interesting at first but then it dragged on a little too long and became a little repetitive   I think if they had a better moderator it would have kept me interested from start to finish.

My favorite lady of the panel: Maggie Q.  So happy that I got to see her although I missed the Nikita panel.

Michelle Rodriguez dominated the talks and was very opinionated.  One women you don't want to cross.

So that sums up the first 5 hours inside Hall H.  Fox & Marvel are the last panels to come out and it's what everyone is really waiting for inside of Hall H.  Check back later this week for Part 2 of my Day 3 recap.  Even though there are only 2 panels there are a lot more photos that I want to share for those panels.  ;)