(GUEST POST) Comic-Con: Expendables, Skyline, and Super

By Kevin Taylor (@tayke2)

Expendables Panel
Probably the most pleasant surprise for me for the whole trip to be honest, and that was due mostly to the fact that I’m a guy. This movie is essentially action porn. It’s the biggest action stars of all time all on one screen and it looks just as bad ass as it sounds. The panel had Terry Crews, who got the adrenalin flowing early when he took his shirt off and flexed his pecks like in his old spice commercials. After him Stone Cold Steven Austin came out, sadly not to his iconic wrestling intro music. Following him were Dolph Lundgren, Sly Stallone, and Randy Catoure. You could have filled a sick panel with those who WEREN’T there, which included Jet Li, Jason Staham, Mickey Rourke, and the Governator.

The clip they showed was the “tunnel fight” and it was basically a bunch of bad ass kills. They included an awesome broken arm shot, a broken leg, and probably my favorite, a shot where Jason Staham breaks out of a hold by shooting his opponent in the ankle, then the head as he falls down. When they are in trouble, Terry Crews saves the day by destroying bad guys with a gun that Stallone says cuts people into pieces in real life.

This truly is a bad ass action movie. All the big guys did their own stunts, which led to a lot of injuries, including Austin breaking Stallone’s neck, loosening 3 bone spurs in it. The movie had to be shot in Brazil, because a lot of the explosions and fire power they used are illegal in the United States. Crews also commented how surprised he was that the explosions were real and realllllly powerful. Overall, it’s a movie that I’m very excited for. Not one girl will like it I’m sure, but if you are a guy, you will love it.

Some flipcam videos from the panel are below. Sorry for the poor quality, but those are the closest seats I could get:




Skyline Panel
I had not heard a single thing about this movie before this panel, and I have to say that it does look pretty interesting and might be something I check out when it comes. The movie was independently made on an extreme short budget. It is directed by Colin and Greg Strause, and the majority of the film was shot in their apartment. The story is that of an alien abduction rather then an alien invasion or extermination. The panel was Eric Balfour, Donald Faison, David Zayas, Scottie Thompson, and Brittany Daniel.

They showed the first trailer and a 2 minute scene. The movie reminds me a lot of Cloverfield, except that its not shot on handheld its actually a good camera. They said that because its an independent production that there were only about 5 decision makers on the set per day, as opposed to the standard 20 at the bear minimum. The scene was of Balfour and Faison on the roof looking at the alien abductions for the first time. It was funny because Faison said that because they shot it in their apartment that they had to be quiet as to not have the neighbors file a noise complaint. This of course was tough to do with the world being abducted around them.

Overall it seems like a pretty cool concept and it certainly looks like they did a pretty good job especially considering their extremely short budget. I would say wait for the reviews and if it gets good reviews then check it out because it certainly looks like it has promise.

Super Panel
This was once again a movie that I hadn’t heard any of and once again a pretty good surprise for me. This movie was shot on an extremely short budget as well, yet it had a star studded cast, most of whom were at the panel. James Gunn is the director, and he has with him Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, and Nathan Fillion. The story of the movie is an average every day guy, Wilson, who’s wife, Tyler, leaves him for Kevin Bacon’s character. Tired of being run over by people, he creates an alter ego that is a vigilante hero, very much along the lines of Kick Ass. When Page’s character sees him in action, she volunteers to join, even though she is extremely uncoordinated and all together not very useful.

The movie looks like it has a lot of funny moments. In one scene, a guy cuts into line for a movie, and when Wilson complains to no avail, he changes into his super hero outfit and proceeds to split his head open with a wrench. The movie is scheduled to come out later this year, and certainly seems promising. As I said before, it sounds like a more comical less action version of Kick Ass, which is a great sign since that movie was so great.