Hey guys, so I managed to go to WonderCon today out in San Francisco. I had never even heard of this before, not being big on conventions, but since I live in SF and there was a lot of great geek spoils to be seen and had, I spent my Saturday milling about among stormtroopers and lanterns. So anyway, here's a brief rundown of the cool shit I saw (since by now you may have already seen or heard about it already):

So unfortunately I did not get to sit in on the panel for Green Lantern, but I was able to catch the 4 minutes of footage that they debuted for fans. Needless to say, I think everyone was pleasantly surprised by it, as it shows many impressive CGI characters and action sequences, but more importantly it gives us a taste of the more serious tone of the film. We can all breathe a bit easier knowing that this won't just be a vehicle for Ryan Reynolds being his sarcastic, silly self. The footage of Sinestro, Tomar-Re, Parallax, and all the Lanterns on Oa really dropped jaws and brought hands together. This is a much needed breath of life into the Green Lantern marketing machine, as there are only a few months before the film is released and, up until now, anticipation was luke warm at best. But enough about that, watch the footage yourself!

And now for the panel that I did get to sit in on, Jon Favreau and Roberto Orci talking about Cowboys & Aliens. Everyone was going wild for Favreau, not just because of all the good geek will he has built up from his triumphs with Iron Man, but because he was a genuinely friendly and excited guy who seemed to really enjoy being there among the fans. The footage that he showed us was pretty promising, and I found it particularly fun because it was all accompanied by the soundtrack from Ridley Scott's Alien (since presumably the Cowboys & Aliens soundtrack is not yet finished).

It begins with a dirty Daniel Craig wandering into a seemingly abandoned home, treating his wounds until a shaggy Clancy Brown interupts him with a shotgun. We are then introduced to Harrison Ford torturing some poor fella tied between two horses, since Ford's cattle have been destroyed by "a bright light" and this unlucky guy is who Han is blaming. Later we see more of what was glimpsed in the trailer - Ford and his posse riding into town to collect Craig's amnesia-stricken outlaw and being interupted by some close encounters from the sky. After Craig shoots down the alien glider with his wrist rocket thingy, they go to inspect the downed ship. We get a nice look at the alien ship, which is quite large (maybe the size of a car) and has multiple wings like some sort of dragonfly.

As the townspeople discuss what just rocked their Old West, we see Sam Rockwell (who I wasn't even aware was in this film) screaming about his wife being taken. Ford also is missing his son, and with Craig in the lead, everyone sets out to find what these aliens are up to. We see more quick glimpses of men riding horses and being chased by more alien gliders, some very large and strangely shaped alien footprints in the dust, but the true money shot came at the end of the reel, where we see a young boy hiding in a rock outcropping as a very large alien tries to chomp its way into the crevice to get the kid. It is a bit difficult to describe what the alien looked like, other than saying it had an oval-shaped head and a big set of teeth. It was blue-gray colored, and may have had more than two arms.

Favreau made a point of saying that this was the true version of the alien in the final film, and that any seen in the marketing to come would be different so that there was something left to the imagination. He said the final act of the film had a lot of stuff with aliens on the ground, not just in the flying ships that we have already seen, but he didn't want to share that footage yet because what fun would be left for opening night? He also made a point to say that this film was being released "in GLORIOUS 2D," which sparked a roar of applause from the audience.

So WonderCon was a pretty great experience, I'm sure glad I got to attend in such a spur of the moment kind of way. I'll definitely make another trip next year. Anyone else get the chance to go? What do you think of the Green Lantern footage or the many descriptions of the Cowboys & Aliens panel that have sprouted up online?