Why This Is Important: Getting Psyched For The New Godzilla

Alright, maybe YOUR world didn't come screeching to a halt when Legendary Pictures pulled a Comic-Con rabbit out of their hat and unveiled the new teaser for the upcoming Godzilla reboot that will be helmed by Monsters creator Gareth Edwards, but mine did. Godzilla fanatics are a long-suffering bunch, having been forced to sit through numerous attempts at remakes, reboots, and flat-out massacres of their favorite movie monster but we watched each installment, we forgave, and we kept hoping. It's enough to make anyone give up the dream of seeing him the way he was meant to be.

Enter Gareth Edwards. Sure, his resume is a little short to be handing him the keys to this massive undertaking, but one look at his brilliantly executed and engaging Monsters instantly makes me feel in my gut that he is the person to pull this off. With a reworked screenplay by David Goyer and the public's thirst for a film that will finally do justice to the mighty destroyer from the sea, I'm choosing to believe this combination can not fail.

Long before he stomped his way onto foreign shores, our Godzilla spent years rising from Tokyo Bay to the horror of millions of fleeing Japanese citizens. Terrorizing innocent people and stomping indiscriminately on breathtaking architecture while breathing fire and letting loose with that ear-shattering guttural scream was his thing, and we loved him for it. The thundering footsteps, the realization that there was nowhere safe to run, the probability that another equally destructive monster would swoop down and begin fighting to the death while the military tried in vain to fend them off--these were the movie marathons of my childhood.

Even after all these years, the idea of setting up my action figures while I wait to watch this in the ice-cold movie theater like I did as a child, sets me ablaze with excitement.

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First Look: The Walking Dead, Season 3

A trailer for the upcoming season of The Walking Dead debuted at Comic-Con. It's going to be a long three months waiting for this to start back up.

In Honor Of Comic-Con

Fellow geeks, I give you one of the geekiest videos to hit the net in a long, long time. Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Adam Baldwin, Joel Moore, Zachary Levi, Tricia Helfer, and more. This is actually part 3/3 of a series but it's the best one so just go with it.


Nerd Machine: Trailer Park Heroes Pt. 3 - Watch More Funny Videos

Stay safe at Comic-Con my geeks! (And if you win that special Dark Knight Rises screening, YOU ARE INVITING ME.)

Five Reasons You Should Be Happy You Won't Be Going To Comic-Con

This weekend is the annual Comic-Con International in San Diego. Unless you are living under a pop-culture rock, Comic-Con is THE place to be for all things pop culture: exclusive screenings and cast appearances, celebrity appearances from the obscure (Peter Mayhew shows up every year) to the huge. You may be feeling some envy for the hundreds of thousands of fans descending in San Diego this weekend.

Three years ago, after wistfully reading about all the appearances and programs for several years, I took the plunge and made the trip. A month's paycheck and half of my sanity later, I found it to be one of the most exhilarating yet one of the most exasperating experiences of my life. I can assure you of five reasons you are better off enjoying it from afar:

1. Only Bruce Wayne could afford it.
Comic-Con is a big source of tourist income for San Diego, and the hotels and restaurants know it. Not only do you have to make reservations up to a year in advance, you'll pay exorbitant prices for a hotel room. Unless you think ahead to bring your own food (and if you can find a grocery store in downtown San Diego), you'll wait in a long line for conference center concessions and eat an eight dollar slice of microwave pizza.

2. You'll get more information than Professor X's Cerebro.
Sure, all the studios and networks make sure they promote their shows, but it is information overload; do you really want to see all those panels about shows you may or may not watch? I waited in line for several hours to see the an advance showing of the of the reboot of the show V. Where is that show now?

Of course, there is the rare moment when you are present for an amazing reveal: one year, the cast of The Avengers movie was introduced and Joss Whedon was announced as director- but those moments are rare, and only if you've been patient waiting for entry. Which brings me to:

3. It's more crowded than three times the population of Gotham City.
Imagine the biggest crowd you've been in. Now multiply that by at least four. Shuffling along the exhibit hall at a rate of ten feet in ten minutes is exhausting. And considering all you've had to sustain you is the overpriced pizza.

The huge crowds mean huge lines. If there is a panel you want to see, you would have to get in line a minimum of three hours beforehand to possibly gain entry. And that's for a space at the back of the exhibit hall where the people on stage appear as small as ants and you end up watching them on the projection screens anyway. There are lines for the bathroom (yes, even for the men), lines for the water fountain, lines to enter the building, lines to exit the building, and lines to cross the street.

4. It used to be like the original 1940s Minutemen, but now it's more like the 1980s Watchmen.
Comic-Con doesn't necessarily have the same focus that it did in the past, which was originally Science Fiction/Fantasy/Comics. Sure, people love Community and Workaholics, but what business do these shows have with panels at Comic-Con? The Con used to be a large gathering for superfans with fringe interests to geek-out without consequences. Now, it seems to be a weekend in July where all of Hollywood just transplants itself in downtown San Diego.

5. The news travels faster than the speed of light.
Everything that happens at the Con is posted online the moment it happens. Twitter feeds (follow #sdcc), film and tv websites, and Facebook pages post everything as it happens. You can relax in the comfort of your non-crowded, temperate climate home, open several web browsers and follow everything. You may get a piece of news quicker than someone at a panel who looks down for a few seconds. You'll even get organized slide shows of the best cosplay costumes, and you can gawk at the pictures all you want without feeling creepy.

Then again, if you have a dispensable income, unlimited vacation time, infinite patience, ability to sustain yourself on one meal a day, and a super ability to not mind invasion of your personal space, why not go if for nothing but to have the experience. Even two years after my trip, despite the downsides, I still find myself starting sentences with "This one time, at Comic-Com..."

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First Look: Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope

Ooh! A new Morgan Spurlock film!

You Can't Stop The Zombie Invasion

It's official... zombies are the new vampires. Zombies were everywhere at this year's New York Comic Con. And not just nerds in makeup walking around the convention floor.

Earlier this year, AMC announced that it would be adapting the graphic novel The Walking Dead into a series event directed by Frank Darabont (The Green Mile, The Mist, Shawshank Redemption).

Video games get in on the undead action with Dead Rising 2 and a zombified spin off of the awesome Red Dead Redemption. In the pages of comic books, zombies will infest the worlds of Transformers, Star Trek and Ghostbusters. (Begs the question, what does a zombiefied Transformer eat? Car engines?)

The weirdest zombie sighting, however, had to be over at the Animal Planet booth, where inexplicably they have a pseudo-documentary show featuring the undead. Not sure how that fits with their brand, but I guess when in Rome... or when at Comic Con...

Personally, I think The Walking Dead looks pretty badass. But with the prevalence of zombies in pop culture, it's only a matter of time before we see a story where a sensitive zombie falls in love with a plucky human. Oh yeah, he'll probably sparkle while he's munching on brains.

Michael Jackson Invades The Wii And New York

Zombies dancing to Michael Jackson music isn't anything novel for anyone who's seen the "Thriller" video. But how about a Storm Trooper? Or Spider-Man? How about Chewbacca? I was amongst those who saw these glorious sights when first entering the convention floor of this year's New York Comic Con.

Later this fall, Ubisoft is coming out with "Michael Jackson: The Experience" video game that does for Michael Jackson fans what Rock Band did for Guns N' Roses fanatics. They took over a section of the Con with a giant booth demonstrating the game.

In the game, players hold the Wii-mote in their hand and the object is to mimic the moves of the virtual Michael on the screen. From the looks of it, they've covered most of Michael's songs and his styles from each era. (Though the emphasis appears to be on the earlier stuff when Michael was less... um... creepy.)

I'll never tell if I ended up demoing the game myself. But here's a peek at others in action from the floor of NYCC:

Flynn Lives in San Diego

Amongst all of the weirdness of the San Diego Comic Con, it stood out like a big neon beacon--a bright sign, "Flynn's" on a nondescript building.

Normally there were huge crowds lined up outside, but for some reason that evening there was nobody there. My friends and I stepped inside, where we were transported to a distant, yet familiar time.

We found ourselves in an old school '80s arcade. A vintage Pac-Man machine stood alongside Off Road, Gauntlet, Joust, and Millipede (to name just a few). No quarters necessary. We could play as much as we wanted. We were given old school plastic coin pouches filled with Flynn’s Arcade tokens.

After gorging ourselves in 8-bit goodness, we noticed another neon sign reading "Home of Tron" over a door on the back wall. That passageway led to Flynn's secret lab, where that familiar laser that first sent Flynn to the world of Tron was aimed directly at us.

After being "digitized" by the laser, we found ourselves down a dark hall lit with spinning blue lights. Finally, we ended up in a big room, glowing in the signature hue of the world of Tron.

Suddenly, the lights went out and images from Tron: Legacy popped up on the video screens around the room. It ended with the ghostly image of the man himself, Flynn.

It was an awesome bit of viral marketing that has gotten me even more excited for Tron: Legacy.