The Best and Worst Moments of Comic-Con 2010

Now that the attendees are back in their homes and San Diego has returned to its peaceful self, I’m tacking a look back at the highlights and lowlights of this year’s con. What blew SDCC away? What made every man, women, and child in Hall H shed a tear? Read on!

Best Moments:

The Avengers Assembled – Yes, it was just a bunch of actors and actresses. But it was also straight out of every Marvel fan’s dreams and encompassed what so many people have wanted to see for so long. It was not as much an appearance, as a promise to Hall H that Marvel will make their dreams come true.
Scott Pilgrim Screening – Universal could have just held a screening and people would have been happy. Instead they had the entire cast in attendance, live DJing before the screening, and a Metric performance after. Then they threw in two more screenings for good measure. Pure fan service and SDCC magic.
Big Bang Theory Theme Song Performance – The lucky few (thousand) that made it into Ballroom 20 on Friday were rewarded when the Barenaked Ladies lead a sing-along to the BBT theme. Getting the fans in on the action and creating a memorable con experience for everyone in the audience made this a must include on the list. See the video below.

Cowboys & Aliens – Most attendees were expecting Jon Favreau to come out on stage and talk about the movie. Maybe present a few images, but they were still midway through filming. Instead he brought the entire cast and an awesome 8-minute clip from the movie. Oh and that cast? It included Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig in their first SDCC appearances. This is how you bring a movie to Comic-Con.

5. Green Lantern Oath – A young fan’s request to hear the Green Lantern oath turned into the cutest thing that Hall H has ever seen. Ryan Reynolds not only filled the kids request, but also made every person in Hall H smile and applaud.

Runners-Up – Flynn’s Arcade, Walking Dead Panel, Will Ferrell’s Megamind Costume, Scott Pilgrim Experience, 6,000 People Booing M. Night’s Name

Worst Moments:

Hall H and Ballroom 20 on Friday – For the first time in many years, attendees could simply walk into Hall H and sit down. No line waiting was necessary. This would have been great if Ballroom 20 wasn’t forced to stop people from even WAITING in line because it was so popular. Hopefully next year Comic-Con will smart up and put the bigger TV shows in H and the smaller movies in Ballroom 20.
The Glee Recap – If someone is attending the Glee panel, chances are that they have seen Glee. Still, Fox decided to put a 20 minute highlight reel of the first season at the start of the panel. Not only was this a complete waste of time when fans had waited hours to see the panel, it also left very little time for Q+A or discussion of any kind before the next show went on stage. 5, maybe even 10 minutes of a clip package is acceptable. But 20? And there’s not a second of new footage? Shame.
The Green Lantern Footage – Suffering from the complete opposite of Glee’s problem, the Green Lantern panel had a teaser trailer that was only about a minute long and consisted of one effects shot and no shots of the suit. This might be at least a little understandable if C&A and Captain America hadn’t gone on the same stage hours later with tons more footage to show at the same point in production. The final nail in the coffin is that WB didn’t even play the trailer twice.
Hall H Stabbing – Who knew that SDCC-attendees could be so aggressive. A simple seat dispute left one man going to the hospital with a pen in the eye and the rest of Hall H watching the slew of trailers that were shown earlier in the day. Giving con-goers a bad name and making people suffer through the trailers for Charlie St. Cloud and Gulliver’s Travels for a second time? That HP-shirt-wearing man is the bane of this year’s con.
Resident Evil Panel – Giving this terrible panel a prime Saturday spot in Hall H was just the first transgression. Attendees then had to suffer through 50 minutes of Milla Jovovich talking about how amazing the film was, Paul WS Anderson comparing 3D to the advent of color, and Wentworth Miller looking embarrassed to even be associated with the film. The one clip they showed was so ridiculously terrible and the 3D so very awful, it made Gulliver’s Travels look like a masterpiece in story-telling and technology.