San Diego Comic-Con 2012 is over, and we must all get on with our boring lives. However, before we do that, let’s take a look back at this year’s “celebration of popular arts”. After the break, I’ll have a few final thoughts, as well as our second stream-of-consciousness photo gallery (see my first one here).
This was my third time both going to Comic-Con and covering for MovieViral. While I technically covered it alone, I was once again aided greatly by my friends Josh Butler and Jackie Tuttle. I met Josh at my first Comic-Con in 2010, as he was a reader of the site, and he has invaluable since. It’s a great challenge to report on the convention alone for many reasons. There’s over 200,000 attendees, not to mention exhibitors, so getting anywhere and doing anything is a great struggle that is immensely time consuming. There’s also a lot of walking and waiting involved, including camping overnight for a seat in Hall H (which is where Josh and especially Jackie come in).
Despite these challenges, I’d like to believe we had some good coverage this year. We dealt with all the big viral pushes like The Bourne Legacy and Prometheus, and we either live-blogged, live-tweeted, or recapped a good portion of the Hall H panels. I even got a few unique interviews to spice things up, and of course there are my random assortment of photos.
That being said, I want to do better. Next year, we are making a major effort to send one or two more of our writers to the convention, which will allow us to cover every Hall H panel, as well as have more interviews and cover more of what’s going on around the convention and on the exhibitor floor. Now that we have three years experience, we’re putting together some plans to maximize our efforts overall next year, and hopefully you’ll be able to see these changes in our coverage.
So, how was the convention this year overall? 2010 was pretty crazy, 2011 was definitely a slump year (at least in terms of movies), and 2012 saw a major improvement. Saturday’s line-up in Hall H alone was quite impressive, and the best Hall H day I’ve ever attended. We started off with Django Unchained, and finished up with Warner Bros./Legendary and Marvel, all of whom brought great footage and spectacle. My favorite panel was Man of Steel, of course, given my notorious love for Superman. The teaser made me feel like this finally the Superman movie the world needed to see. Overall, I was impressed with all the footage I was able to see at Comic-Con. The only panel that was a letdown for me was Game of Thrones, as it was a bit boring and they teased footage and pulled the rug out from fans.
Outside the Con, there were a few exciting moments like the screenings for Dredd and Marvel’s short film Item 47. Otherwise, it seemed like the typical fare, though I didn’t have a chance to explore as much as previous years. The Tumbler tour came to town, so it was fun to see all the different Batmobiles.
If you went to Comic-Con, let us know what parts were your favorite in the comments below. Follow all our Comic-Con coverage here. Otherwise, we’ll see you next year!
