San Diego Comic-Con 2015: A Movie Recap
Saturday 11th of July
Batfleck Begins
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Image Source: Getty Images
Saturday at the Con saw a Warner Bros./DC Comics takeover culminating in the much anticipated panel and new trailer for ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’, with Henry Cavill returning as the “Man of Steel” and the birth of the “Batfleck” with Ben Affleck donning the Dark Knight’s cowl for the first time, they were joined on stage by director Zack Snyder and an impressive supporting cast featuring the likes of Holly Hunter and Jeremy Irons among others.
The cast and an exclusive new trailer also revealed a clear lineage between the events in 2013’s ‘Man of Steel’ and this film with a darker tone being set and a sense that the battle between Batman & Superman is as much an ideological as it is a fist fight… and a battle of wits which gives the Dark Knight a fighting chance.
We fully expect this film to launch an integrated DC “multiverse” the way ‘The Avengers’ did for Marvel only darker and more brooding, it will be interesting to see how Lex Luthor, Aquaman and Wonder Woman fit into the dynamic, but with the March 2016 release date more than 8 months away we’ve seen enough “leaks”, teasers and trailers for now, really.
Watch the exclusive Comic-con trailer
Watch the full panel video, courtesy of Flicks & The City:
The Bad Guys are Here
Suicide Squad
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“DC Saturday” also featured a very short and moderately sweet visit by the cast of ‘Suicide Squad’ direct from the set and with over a year to go until its release there were understandably no teasers or trailers on show, there was however is a slightly confrontational speech from director David Ayer that sounded like the beginning of a rap-style media feud with Marvel comics.
Watch the exclusive Comic-con first look trailer
Watch the full panel video, courtesy of Flicks & The City:
Tarantino is in the house
The Hateful Eight
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In a welcome change of pace the “Tarantino train” rolled into town for his latest highly anticipated film and second Western ‘The Hateful Eight’, fans were treated to exclusive teaser footage as well as a panel of stars that featured Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Madsen and Bruce Dern among others.
Among the discussion about the film and its characters, Tarantino made a salient point about shooting this movie in 70mm, harking back to cinematographic classics like ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and ‘Ben-Hur‘… and compared watching modern digitally shot and projected films in the cinema to watching HBO TV in public.
So from what we know, we can expect ‘The Hateful Eight’ to be a Tarantinoesque gritty revenge/deception Western with impressive visuals to match the dialogue, but perhaps the biggest news is that rather unusually the writer/director has hired a composer to create a completely original score, who? you may ask, none other than the absolutely legendary Ennio Morricone with what will be his first Western score in 40 years, wow!
Out on limited US release Christmas 2015, then everywhere on the 8th of January 2016
Watch the full panel video, courtesy of MoviemaniacsDE:
What does the Fox say?
Deadpool
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20th Century Fox also made their presence felt at Comic-con this year kicking off with perhaps the funniest panel of the year officially unveiling Ryan Reynolds as the trash-talking mercenary superhero “Deadpool” as well as the supporting cast and 1st time director Tim Miller.
Unlike the first underwhelming time we saw this character in ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’, the crowd were treated to an exclusive teaser trailer showing Deadpool as the character he is in the comic-books in a film that will be a rare “R-rated” superhero movie taking advantage of its star’s comedic timing, the result looks like an X-rated Judd Apatow comedy with non-stop action and for those complaining that all comic-book films are the same, this one’s for you, out in February 2016.
Watch the full panel video, courtesy of Flicks & The City:
X-Men: Apocalypse
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Fox followed and virtually overlapped the ‘Deadpool’ panel with the one for ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ featuring one of the largest casts ever assembled on a Comic-con stage plus director Bryan Singer, the established stars of this new generation Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence were flanked by so many youngsters they looked like teachers in a high-school class picture.
All these new young actors will be playing younger versions of established characters like Storm and Jean Grey in a story set in 1983 after the events of ‘Days of Future Past’, with society in a delicate balance for man & mutant kind which is threatened by the arrival of an ancient and manipulative force in the form of “Apocalypse” played by Oscar Isaac.
The masses in Hall H were also treated to a few minutes of exclusive footage which was understandably rough since they are currently in the middle of filming but sets the context and tone for the story, not to mention James McAvoy’s bald “Professor X” as he should be, ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ is scheduled to be released in 2016 on the 19th of May in the UK and 27th of May in the US.
Watch the full panel video, courtesy of Flicks & The City:
Cameo anyone?
Image Source: Getty Images
With the casts of ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ , ‘Deadpool’ and the earlier ‘Fantastic Four’ panel all present, it would not be 2015 without the obligatory group selfie only this time moderator Chris Hardwick managed to wrangle up the creator of many of these superheroes, the legendary Stan Lee, for his obligatory cameo which he references to the delight of the crowd.
Watch the moment, courtesy of Flicks & The City:
What did you think of San Diego Comic-con this year?, what are you looking forward to seeing in 2016 and beyond?, let us know by commenting and please stay tuned for more movie news, reviews and recommendations.
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Soundtrack of the Month
Mad Max: Fury Road
Films by Rating
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