The theatrics have almost all but gone from Comic-Con. Last year it was a genuine moment between a young fan and Ryan Reynolds delivering the Green Lantern Oath that brought down the house. This year’s biggest scene was more planned out, but it was nonetheless genuine. Before the Amazing Spider-Man panel in Hall H, a crazed fan dressed up as Spidey rushed the Q&A microphone and started raving about the comic books to great applause. Then he took off his mask. And there’s video.

If you’ve  followed our coverage of Marvel Junkets in the past (Iron Man 2, Thor) then you know that those press events and I have a long and useless history. Generally speaking, everyone spends a lot of time learning very little, and sometimes things break and fall down. It seems as though Marvel may be on the upswing in terms of getting these junkets really pumping out information – or maybe we journalists are asking better questions – who the heck really knows why it happened, but somehow the Captain America junket was interesting and had stuff to learn you might actually care about. So much so, in fact, that I’ve got 15 cool tidbits right here.

Director Joe Johnston loves good old fashioned fun. The Rocketeer, Hidalgo, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and Captain America: The First Avenger don’t contain a dark or cynical bone in their bodies. While some superhero films try to go to darker places nowadays — usually by just having their hero mope around — Johnston has no interest in a sulky hero. Captain America is all about adventure, charms, and simply being a kid from Brooklyn. While many people question if Cap can reach an audience outside of the States, Johnston thinks differently. The Boba Fett and Iron Giant creator didn’t want to make a commercial about America’s awesomeness; he wanted to explore themes that nearly everyone can relate to. Like his previous films, the idea of finding one’s identity and coming of age is present in Captain America: The First Avenger. Despite being a super solider who looks the way that he does, Captain America is like any other kid trying to become the man he’s meant to be. Here’s what Joe Johnston had to say about Raiders of the Lost Ark, fully embracing the color palette of comics, the ego of Red Skull, staying sincere without being cheesy, and why he’s a true film school reject:

In the newest edition of Entertainment Weekly, Andrew Garfield is keen to point out that his work in the new Amazing Spider-Man isn’t a “replacement” for the work done by Tobey Maguire even though, by definition, it is. While Sony won’t be scouring the world destroying copies of the other movies, Garfield is undoubtedly the new face of the franchise. That status was made official with the first look at his character  in action – perched on a subway train ceiling, clinging to Emma Stone while shirtless and staring over his shoulder dramatically. Ladies and gentlemen, here’s your new Spider-Man:

A young scrappy pilot, conveniently, accomplishes what a non-freakazoid Howard Hughes (played by the Terry O’Quinn) and a few lackeys at the C.I.A. couldn’t do: create a flying man! That pilot, Cliff, becomes that gold helmeted flying phenom. This comic book adaptation is full of Nazis, a vain and villainous actor, and an ugly as hell goon. What more could you ask for?

Not too long ago Fox’s supposed filmmaker wish list for “The Wolverine” was leaked. For the most part, it was filled with fairly safe choices. To no great surprise, the studio has decided to go with one of those many easy picks: director James Mangold. While the director hasn’t signed on yet, an offer has gone out and Deadline Fukushima makes it sound like a sure deal. The idea of going from a guy like Darren Aronfosky to Mangold is disheartening and disappointing, but worse switches could happen. He’s a perfectly competent journeyman filmmaker. Walk the Line, Cop Land, Identity, and 3:10 to Yuma are all solid films, and even Knight and Day ain’t too bad. We probably won’t be getting a Wolverine film as ambitious as what Aronofsky would’ve done with the material, but I’d much rather see the director of 3:10 to Yuma than Tokyo Drift take on the Japan storyline. The Wolverine is expected to shoot this fall with the use of Christopher McQuarrie‘s (The Usual Suspects) draft.

Could have been a B-. Maybe even a C+. The point being X-Men: First Class rose to a somewhat acceptable occasion, about what was expected. Especially by analysts who realized the film wasn’t being backed by Hugh Jackman, the first time in the franchise, and was comprised of an entirely new cast. Add into that mix the idea that X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine were both such colossal disappointments, and it seems X-Men: First Class did rather well despite all it has going against it. It still opened larger than 2000’s original X-Men, but the film still came in fourth among the franchise’s debuts.

I may love most Marvel movies, but if there has been one bone of contention between them and me, it would be lackluster final battles. If there was a second, it would be completely useless press junkets. Now, press conferences are often boring no matter what the movie, but for some reason Marvel and I have never really gotten along in terms of not sucking. Unfortunately the conference for Thor was no different. While I enjoyed the movie (Rob Hunter gave it a B-) the conference failed to turn up many interesting things. Well, at least not interesting things about the movie. Here’s what I learned (with potential spoilers that you already know for The Avengers):

All this Summer, Movies We Love is transforming itself (by getting into a bikini) to celebrate the movies we love that came out in the hottest months. This week, we fall in love all over again with X2. “Have you ever tried…not being a mutant?” Synopsis After a solitary mutant who can teleport attacks the President, a secret military squad led by a man named Stryker (Brian Cox) is given carte blanche to find and capture the students and teachers at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. But the mutants, especially Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), recently returned from his trip to the North, aren’t going to go quietly. Instead, the team made up of Storm (Halle Berry), Jean Gray (Famke Janssen), Rogue (Anna Paquin), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), and Pyro (Aaron Stanford) work to seek out the squad’s base where they are holding the captured Professor X (Patrick Stewart). But the X-Men aren’t alone. Joining in the hunt is the telaporting assassin, Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), Magneto (Ian McKellan) and Mystique (Rebecca Romijn), who have called a truce with the team in what may be an inevitable war with the human race.

“Eloquent badass” is not only how one would probably describe Thor’s brother/nemesis, Loki, but also the actor who portrays him, Tom Hiddleston. At last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Hiddleston was the only cast member that wasn’t tight-lipped as if they were hiding serious government secrets. The actor spoke off the cuff, even revealing a plot twist… and he did so in that ear-pleasing British accent of his. Hiddleston’s voice is smooth, clear, and everything you’d want from a great British accent. Hearing my voice go up against his was quite an experience. My sometimes quick, Mark Zuckerberg-like mannerisms sounded even more idiotic, something I never thought possible. Hiddleston made me sound like one of those hicks from Deliverance in comparison, but that seemingly total gent would never be one to tell me so. I unfortunately didn’t have the chance to see Thor before speaking with Hiddleston, but we covered an array of topics from tone, finding humanity in a villain, what you get when angry Gods do battle, and how much of an honor it must be to have one’s face on a 7-Eleven Slurpee cup. And, no, I didn’t congratulate him on his voice, but I felt alarmingly tempted to.

Brimming with bleak melodrama, the new X-Men: First Class trailer has hit, showing off the glowering characters and huge action that will hopefully add up to a hell of a movie. It builds on the previous trailer by adding in a little more character detail and the reason why they fight. Check it out for yourself:

Not content with the level of visual spectacle in the upcoming summer blockbuster Green Lantern, Warner Bros has decided to spend another 9 million dollars over the film’s original $45 million FX budget for last minute work and additions. Despite a second trailer that largely blew people away with its visuals, Lantern producers seem to still be a little skittish about response to the film’s first trailer, where unfinished FX gave a bad first impression. Green Lantern’s problem is becoming an industry wide one, where condensed post production schedules are butting heads with more and more films demanding huge amounts of visual effects to create an environment where FX work is all rushed, all the time. Without naming names, we all know that we’ve seen a couple productions lately where the FX work just wasn’t up to the standards of modern technology, and if things keep going in the direction they are, it’s probably only a matter of time before some big film isn’t able to complete its FX work on schedule at all.

With shooting under way for The Avengers, the world is one step closer to seeing Marvel’s ultimate plan come to fruition. To celebrate the occasion, Marvel shot out a press release featuring the first official photo from the set as well as an incredibly long synopsis that nonetheless doesn’t really say anything at all about the picture. However, it does confirm casting suspicions that have been floating around as common knowledge, and it highlights the creative staff in a great way. Plus, chairs!

Drew Pearce has an uphill battle of sorts, but the climb should be a blast. According to Deadline Sinton, Pearce has just been hired to start from page one for Iron Man 3. He’ll reportedly be working closely with director Shane Black. That’s pretty standard, or at least it should be, but what’s interesting is that Black won’t be writing the script solo. He made his mark in the business treating the world to great writing in the Lethal Weapon franchise, in Monster Squad, and in The Long Kiss Goodnight. He even his directorial debut Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. So why take the writer/director, and make him direct without writing? It’s a curious move. In a way, it’s similar to what happened on Iron Man; Jon Favreau emerged as a writer and actor and soon directed his own work. However, Favreau had already directed other writers’ scripts twice before with Elf and Zathura before getting the Iron Man gig. Black on the other has never directed another writer’s work (since he’s only directed one movie). Marvel must see something in Pearce (who just finished a script for comic book adaptation Runaways). He’s a newcomer to film, but he’s worked fairly extensively in television.  Hopefully we’ll all get to see what they see soon. Like, you know, in two years when the film comes out.

There’s nothing like seeing a super hero fire a gun. It breaks all the rules but still makes sense, especially if that hero is firing a weapon against Nazi(-like) scum. There are a few things that stand out in this first trailer for Captain America: The First Avenger, but you should watch it for yourself first:

This Russian trailer for X-Men: First Class stands with its US counterpart as another reason to have high hopes for the flick. The CGI looks strong, and the acting looks formidable. That’s a hell of a combination. There’s a lot of new footage here, and it’s all stuff that continues to build expectations in the right direction. Plus, you get to hear Professor X and Magneto speaking Russian, which is actually pretty damned cool. Check it out for yourself, and feel free to skip over all the identical opening stuff:

Since the most recent character posters for X-Men: First Class were so abominably bad, we decided to sponsor a little contest to see which of our design-minded readers could do better. The bar was low, but everyone went far above and beyond the call of duty, and the result was a squad of really great posters. Some went with Saul Bass inspiration, others played off the comic books, one found inspiration in The Social Network, one changed the director (see above), and still others chose to go their own way entirely. Sadly, no one chose to improve on the floating head in crotch concept. That’ll be a new contest entirely, but without further ado, here’s the winner (who will receive a 1999 lithograph recreation of the first “X-Men” cover done by comic artist/legend Alex Ross) and a gallery of some especially great runners up:

When I was in 3rd grade, I discovered the magic of the merry-go-round at a local park. Shortly after that, I discovered the magic of throwing up after going around one too many times. I can’t help but remember heaving behind my elementary school when hearing the news that Ray Stevenson has spoken to Marvel about taking another go-round on The Punisher. It’s not that Stevenson was bad as Frank Castle, it’s that the Punisher films have been so terrible so far. Like the Keaton/Bale debate, Tom Jane brought the acting to the pain of Frank Castle while Stevenson brought the bad ass, but overall, both movies were lacking for other reason. War Zone especially. It all felt like a badly drawn cartoon from a meth addict. In a way, it feels like they already took “another shot” at The Punisher and they ended up with a worse movie, so why hop on the ride again? We all know that’s not true, though. The truth is that Columbia and Lionsgate already took a second shot at it, but Marvel hasn’t even been up to bat. That’s the real news here. With The Avengers somehow already on the horizon, Marvel is looking to branch out, and they’ve snagged the rights to Frank Castle’s story back from Lionsgate. Seeing The Punisher in house at Marvel might be the key to success. It has been for other characters so far. Now if they could only splice Jane and Stevenson together, they’ll have the [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Iron Man 2 wasn’t a mess. It was a Jenga tower that had already been played with for too long. Scenes and motivations didn’t quite fit together, but the real problem was the lack of fun. If you’re going to go all Empire on a sequel and dig your character deeper, it needs to be done with less alienation. If you’re going to keep the tone light, more power to you. Either way, watching that flick felt like carrying an elephant up a steep cliff without rocket boosters. The failure should be spread out amongst Marvel, Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr (in measures that only they personally know), but all of that is in the past, and we all look forward to a bright future where Tony Stark can come back with the energy of the first movie. Choosing Shane Black to write and direct was a massively good first move for Marvel, and he’s already saying all the right things.

One of the franchises that started the massive superhero/comic book movie trend that’s lived past a decade at this point, X-Men has proven itself as a fan favorite just as strong as the dedication to its hand drawn form. Now, it gets the ultimate reboot by going back in time to an age where Magneto was Erik, Professor X was Charles and the world was on the brink of the next evolution of man. It’s X-Men: First Class. Check out the trailer for yourself: