Why So Blu?

The journey to get into the Saturday hall H was intense and hard. With long hours in the hot sun, and late nights awaiting the coveted hall H wrist bands.  But sweet mother of Mary I’d do it all over again to witness the once in a lifetime experience that is this legendary hall.  Thankfully our adopted Con family and other veterans kept us newbies in positive and hopeful spirits while we sizzled in the mid day sun.  I had been to hall H earlier in the week for the Trolls panel.  But nothing could have prepared me for what was to come on Saturday.  Once we got inside, you could just FEEL the restrained excitement vibrating throughout the crowd of more than 6500 people.  No one knew exactly what we were gonna see, but since Warner Brothers was first up to bat for the day, we knew we were in for something special.

The Director of San Diego Comic Con International, Eddie Ibrahim, comes out with a warm smile to kindly reminded us of the rules regarding the footage that we were about to see.  Ibrahim goes on to say, “As many of you know, when Warner Brothers comes to San Diego, they like to do things BIG!”.  BOOM!  The lights go out and the screen sitting before us begins to expand around the room creating a surrounding video presentation.  If every movie theater had the incredible audio and video quality of Hall H then, no would even CONSIDER staying home to “Netflix and Chill”.  The presentation opened with a “sizzle reel” of Warner Brothers recent films of the last couple years. I swear, even though I’d already seen most of these films, I still got a little glassy-eyed at the sheer awesomeness of what I was witnessing!

Conan O’Brien was our guide through our magically cinematic journey on this Saturday afternoon.  First up to blow us all away was the Justice League panel.  Zack Snyder comes out to introduce Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, and Ben Afleck.  At this point, I’m practically shaking with jubilation as I witness these comic legends brought to life emerge on stage.  As each actor came out the image of their respective character would appear on the massive extended screens.  Every character except ol’Supes was on the stage before us.  Snyder attempts to conceal the fact that (SPOILERS for Batman v Superman)……. Superman might not have died in the film and low and behold, Henry Cavill emerges on stage to a roar of cheers and applause!

The lights go down once again as we’re about to get our first exclusive look at the trailer for the film.  The room explodes with cheers and laughter as the Justice League clip plays.  It’s quite clear that they are taking a different direction in tone compared to it’s predecessor Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.  Everything about this trailer just screams fun, excitement and joy.  But at the same time it does so without loosing a sense of reverence for these iconic heroes.  Afterwards Conan chats with the cast about their own thoughts and perspectives on being the film.  I was happily surprised to hear just how jubilant Ben Afleck seems to be when he spoke of directing and starring in the as yet untitled solo Batman film.  Up until this point, he’s been kinda casual about the whole thing.  But here at Comic-Con he really let his nerd flag fly and shows us that he really is in this for the long haul, and LOVES being Batman!

Despite the fact that Warner Brothers had two hours for their presentation, they still had to keep things snappy in order accommodate the boat load of exclusives that they had in store for us.  Because of this, most of the cast wasn’t offered the opportunity to chime in on what we just saw.  For those of you who walked out of BvS with a sour taste in your mouth, fret not!  For this shall be the triumphant DC film that we’ve ALL been waiting for!