Comic-Con 2012

I want to tell you how amazing Neil Blomkamp’s Elysium will be. I sat in on the panel for the District 9 director’s next project at Comic-Con 2012, and I can’t wipe the fanboy off myself enough to give an accurate appraisal of its awesomosity, but trust me: This movie might change your freakin’ life, and I only saw like nine minutes of it.

While Jodie Foster and Matt Damon (both Comic-Con virgins) were onhand at the show, as was District 9’s Sharlto Copely, the star power really belonged to the movie, not the celebrities. As soon as it started rolling, everything else was forgotten.

Set in a dystopian future, Elysium’s world is all about a sharp line between the haves and the have-nots. The one-percent live in a perfect satellite that orbits earth. There’s no sickness on Elysium. No pain. But the rest of us (that’s you and me) live down here on the planet where everything just sucks, all the time.

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There's no place like home, especially when that home includes Oz: The Great & Powerful director Sam Raimi! This time, he's staying away from his signiature horror style and going a little more classic. He sat down with Chris Hardwick at Comic-Con 2012 to discuss his upcoming movie, Oz: The Great & Powerful, which is based on the original books by L. Frank Baum.

The film, starring James Franco as Oscar Riggs, reveals the man's origins and how he became the great wizard we known now. Raimi went on to describe how "it's a story about a selfish man and throughout the course of the journey, by the time he gets to Oz, it's like a land of second chances. He's influenced by great friends like the Good Witch Glinda, and how he becomes more of a selfless man."

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Capcom’s Resident Evil: Damnation is a feature-length DVD and Blu-ray CGI sequel to Resident Evil: Degeneration. Starring the great Leon Kennedy, Damnation puts its protagonist behind-enemy lines, with no support from the U.S., facing off with a mysterious enemy and many mutated baddies. It’s prime Resident Evil, and what better place to show it off than Comic-Con 2012?

• PREVIEW: Resident Evil 6 Co-op Hands-on Preview from E3 2012 -- Sharing in the Terror

In a packed ballroom at the con, director Makoto Kamiya answered fans questions, showed off Damnation’s trailer, and gave us a special Comic-Con peek at the beginning of the movie.

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Blair Butler gets the scoop on Hellboy in Hell and Brian Wood taking on the Star Wars universe for AOTS at Comic-Con. These titles are sure to burn up the shelves as soon as they hit the stores. Make sure that you’re not the last one to learn about the comics everyone will be talking by watching our Dark Horse Floor Report.

The stars of the new WB series Arrow, Stephen Amell And Katie Cassidy, talk to AOTS about launching their new show and going to their first Comic-Con in the video below. From having to watch their show for the very first time with the Comic-Con audience, to callbacks to the comics, Stephen and Katie talk about what it takes to star in a show that everyone at Comic-Con wants to see.

If you couldn’t make it to The Community Comic-Con 2012 panel, fear not. Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Alison Brie dropped by the AOTS Comic-Con booth to talk about the show and some of their plans for next year.

Watch the interview below to find out more about the fourth season and Alison’s alter ego, the Pink Hulk!

We finally get our greedy little hands on the 3DS game that will have you chasing after that gold stuff, New Super Mario Bros. 2. As a direct sequel, expect to find much of the same great platforming and style that made the first one so popular. But of course, the team over at Nintendo added a couple of new twists to the formula to keep you on your toes.

One of the new aspects that we got to try out was the Coin Rush mode:

“You can access Coin Rush levels after you’ve completed them on regular difficulty, and these levels just throws countless coins from every conceivable place. Coins pour down pipes. They follow jumping turtles. You can use gold flowers to turn blocks into coins. You can get a mask that makes Mario leave a trail of gold coins behind him. Coin Rush gives you one life to play three levels, and collect as many coins as possible.”

To find out more about our time with the plumber, check out the rest of our Hands-On Preview of New Super Mario Bros. 2.

The Community panel at Comic-Con 2012 was like a family reunion. The fans of NBC's comedy series are so dedicated, many of them waited outside all night for a chance to see the stars of this hit series. Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie, Danny Pudy, and Yvette Nichole Brown did not disappoint.

The cast and fans reminisced over old times, including memories of favorite episodes; the Law and Order episode, the Blanket Fort episode, and more.

And like any family gathering, it was not without its drama. If you follow the show, you know that Dan Harmon, the creator of Community, is no longer on the show, so the new co-showrunner David Guarascio was on hand to reassure the audience.

"We are fans of the show first," said Guarascio. "We understand the show deeply and love it, and want it to be the wonderful thing that it is."

"We're not going to screw it up," he added.

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If you love all things related to Tim Burton, you're in for a treat with Frankenweenie. The black-and-white stop-motion 3D animated feature was based on his original short film for Disney from 1984, and fans at Comic-Con's Hall H were treated exclusive footage from the movie, including a classroom scene that revealed the town's (New Holland) propensity for lightning and how Victor Frankenstein, the young protagonist, helps his friend, Edgar, bring a dead goldfish back to life.

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Beyond: Two Souls cemented its role as one of 2013's most highly anticipated game at Comic-Con this year, with creator David Cage joining Ellen Page and Kadeem Hardison on stage for a special discussion. Moderated by IGN's Greg Miller, the trio talked about the inspiration behind the game, how it all came together and more--all without trying to give away any spoilers of the story. Boo.

The most interesting aspect learned from the panel was how Cage began writing the story of Beyond: Two Souls. Answering a fan's question, he revealed how he was led to creating a new game after a sudden death of a close family member: "It's really a shocking experience. It was so sudden, unfair and cruel and incredible, and I've never been a religious guy, (don't really believe in god) but I needed to find some meaning to this experience."

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Epic Games has announced the Gears of War: Judgment release date: March 19, 2013.

Gears of War: Judgment will also support dedicated servers, Epic revealed during its Comic-Con 2012 panel today.

Attendees at the show can also get their hands on the newly revealed OverRun map Island. The map is set outside of Halvo Bay on an island chain crisscrossed with bridges and tunnels, which should, I’m assuming, provide plenty of picturesque and bottlenecky action. We’ll be checking out Islands for ourselves shortly, so stay tuned for more details.

• PHOTOS: Comic-Con 2012 Gears of War Judgment Screenshots

The news comes just a day after Epic's Rod Fergusson confirmed the release window of March on X-Play during Comic-Con 2012.

Zone of The Enders 2 HD opening animation delivers all the action, drama, and pulse pounding Orbital Frame madness you’ve come to expect from Kojima Productions. The HD Collection brings together the previous two Zone of the Enders titles in one beautiful HD package for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

As the war between Earth and the space colonists, known as Enders, heats up, a pair of Orbital Frames fighting on either side of the battle will ultimately determine the fate of all mankind. Gamers looking to take on combat on an epic scale with massive explosions and plenty of deadly weapons won’t want to miss this larger-than-life series when it comes out in glorious HD.

Screenshot Gallery: Zone of the Enders HD Collection

Keep an eye out for the Zone of the Enders HD Collection to hit sometime later this year.

If you thought the action movie genre was dead, then you clearly weren't at The Expendables 2 panel at Comic-Con 2012. Amidst cheers from a standing audience, Geoff Boucher from the LA Times brought out writer and star Sylvester Stallone with cast members Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Dolph Lundgren and the Governator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

• PHOTOS: Behind the scenes photos of the celebrities at Comic-Con's Hall H!

Together, the panel discussed how the first Expendables film was a tribute to the past era of action movie stars and now, Stallone is "just trying to keep it going and bring back some true badness." So what sets the sequel apart from the first movie? Stallone promises us that The Expendables 2 will be even better, especially now that each of their characters and personalities have been established.

Also, this movie would hopefully reignite interest in the old-school action movie genre. Today's stars have what Stallone calls "velcro muscles," where they "don't have to spend their lives pumping iron"--which is totally okay, he reminded us. He was jealous of today's action stars who can do even more with CG help: "Each generation has to create their own heroes. Each generation will come and redefine what they like and who they adore."

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Season three of The Walking Dead will premiere on AMC October 14.

Showrunner Glen Mazzara announced during The Walking Dead panel at Comic-Con 2012. We have boots on the ground at the panel right now, so stay tuned for more info as it becomes available.

The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman gets a taste of his own zombie-fueled medicine at Comic-Con 2012 as he joins KROQ's Kevin and Bean Show for a run through the massive Walking Dead-themed obstacle course currently set up in and around Petco Park. If you don’t plan to attend Comic-Con, or you just want to do a little research before jumping into the course yourself, you can see the course in action below. Cool detail for participants: if you end up getting touched by enough zombies, you’re deemed to be infected and they give you a temporary tattoo of a bullet hole on your forehead.

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To find out more about this and other events going on at the convenction, be sure to check out our Comic-Con 2012 Survival Guide.

Source: KROQ.com