I honestly don’t even know how to put into words what I saw and felt during the Marvel Hall H presentation. This was the only panel I really needed to see. If I had missed this, I would have been disappointed. After having been able to make it in, 4th row even, “disappointment” isn’t even the right word to use.
By now you’ve all seen the Loki footage from Hall H. When you attend Comic-Con, you expect to see the celebrities you love. You expect to see Chris Evans. You expect to see Clark Gregg. You expect to see Kit Harrington. What you don’t expect to see is Tom Hiddleston take the stage as Loki and do a whole performance in character. I can’t describe the energy that was in that room. The videos that are out there doesn’t do justice to that crowd. The best way to describe it would be that if Loki had told everyone to turn to their neighbor and punch them in the face, everyone would have done exactly that. It was insane. When he finished his performance with the line “Looks like I have an army,” he wasn’t kidding. I can’t express how amazing it was to see that in person and I’m glad I camped out with my friend Katy starting at 9PM Friday night. It was worth it. It was so worth it.
Now that I have some of my emotions out of the way, let us talk about the footage that we saw. Obviously the first trailer we feasted our eyes on was for “Thor: The Dark World.” Luckily those who missed out on Comic-Con of Hall H don’t have long to wait in order to see it. Marvel just announced that the trailer will debut during “Geek Week” on YouTube, August 7th. I’ll warn you now, prepare yourself for the final scene. It’s one of those scenes where you’re surprised but then you find yourself going, “Yup, should’ve seen that coming.” The trailer featured a fair amount of Sif which made plenty of folks happy plus a scene where Jane slaps Loki across the face. I’m not going to give a complete play by play because that’s been done. I’m sure by now you’ve read all about it!
The next footage we saw was for “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” This is what I had been waiting all night and day for. Oh and it didn’t disappoint. We see Captain America (or is he Steve when he’s not wearing the helmet) in an elevator that quickly becomes crowded with some guys that aren’t too friendly. He quickly takes notice and when the doors close, he asks “before we get started, does anyone want to get off.” It sounds like he’s been taking some lessons in sass and snark from Tony. A pretty epic elevator fight scene ensues, including Cap being hit with a stunner of some sort but still coming out on top. We then see some footage that features Black Widow, Sam Wilson, Robert Redford’s character (whose name escapes me), and of course Nick Fury. It was a pretty action packed couple of minutes but as I’m sitting there, I’m wondering where is my Winter Soldier? Surely Marvel isn’t going to skip showing the main antagonist of the film. Then it happens. We see the shield, we see a pair of black boots approach, and then the unforgettable bionic arm that belongs to none other than Winter Soldier. The camera slowly pans up then stops on the face of James Barnes, who is now of course Winter Soldier. In the footage we saw he wasn’t wearing any of the masks that we’ve seen in set photos. Instead he was wearing black face paint across the eyes, think of Oliver Queen in “Arrow.” After the footage, the cast came out for a quick Q&A that included no questions from the audience which I liked. It kept the flow going. There wasn’t anything groundbreaking asked, in fact I was a little disappointed that Sebastian Stan wasn’t asked more about playing Winter Soldier. I mean, half of the panel had played their characters at least twice before and I’m sure by now Chris Evans is tired of being asked what it’s like to put the suit back on. Melinda actually brought up a good point though and suggested that maybe Chris and Sebastian should have been seated next to each other, instead of at separate ends of the able. Maybe this would have helped in bouncing questions off the two of them.
And finally, we arrive at “Guardians of the Galaxy.” I was expecting something. I honestly thought maybe we’d get a little CGI sampling of Groot or Rocket Raccoon. I was not expecting to see a sizzle reel that was pretty much TV ready. When you think about how they’ve only been filming for a week or two, what we saw was pretty amazing and impressive. Now, I was one of those people who wasn’t sure about Chris Pratt when he was cast. To be honest, I didn’t know much about the guy. I’d like apologize because he’s the perfect Star Lord. The humor that was in this reel was hysterical and he was perfect in delivering it. I wouldn’t be surprised if this movie quickly becomes a fan favorite. It had a feeling of “Iron Man” with the right balance of action and humor. The audience really enjoyed what they saw, especially when Groot and Rocket Raccoon made their appearances. Drax looked pretty amazing as well and Gamora was beautiful as to be expected when being played by Zoe Saldana. As far as the Q&A session, it was really touching to see how much Dave Bautista really cares about this movie. We were told he auditioned 6 or 7 times for the role! When speaking about it he got a little emotional which was really sweet. You can really tell this is important to him and that he understands what goes along with taking part in a Marvel movie. It’s not just a role. It’s not just another movie. Chris Pratt brought the humor which shouldn’t be a surprise. He told us when he got the role Marvel said he was great but that he was too fat. They had faith in him, got him a personal trainer, and the rest is history. I mean, you’ve see “the” picture right? Exactly.
This post ended up a little longer than I wanted but I’m a fan. I wanted that to come across in this. Am I little biased when it comes to Marvel? Sure. But even if you aren’t a fan of their movies you can’t deny that they know how to do Hall H. They know how to keep a secret and how to impress an audience. If you were there for Marvel, what did you think? Which footage blew you away?
Photo Credits:
Gaurdians Of The Galaxy Cast: Katy Harrison
Captain America: Winter Soldier: Photo 2 & 3 Katy Harrison
All Others: Barb Staigerwald
