canadian_turtle wrote:
In between picking up my tickets and prebooking I went to Hollywood Boulevard and Studio City, which I recommend everyone to go to as it's awesome. I was very lucky that I got there when it was dead quiet (everyone was in screenings) as I could do/see everything without queuing. I got an awesome high quality photo print of myself (holding a lightsaber) with R2D2 and C3PO. I got Star Wars masks (free) for my brother. I loved the Sherlock Holmes 2 area (decorated as the inside and outside of 221B Baker Street) that plays the trailer to the new movie on a loop. I got photos with Mater from Cars and another movie (a boxing robot?) which I can find on Facebook tonight apparently. The Paramount booth in Cowboys and Aliens style is particularly awesome with a wheel of fortune (I won a pen from the movie) and a green screen where you can get your picture taking with Puss in Boots (Shrek), Cowboys and Aliens (Daniel Craig), Tin Tin or Footloose. I did Tin Tin and they printed it off and stuck it inside a plastic sleeve which they attached to a lanyard. Veyr neat. There's also Bond cars and costumes/monsters from famous movies as part of an exhibition from the Film Museum. I am sure that on the day there will be lots more to do as well as I really caught it all only a little bit before it was closing down for the day.
Just got home and quite tired after a long day! I am going to cheat and echo all the stuff c_t said about the Hollywood Boulevard and Studio City. BUT it was quiet all day to be honest. Its Friday, today for sure would be the quietest day being a working day. It will be more busy tomorrow. But to be honest, none of the sessions really demand long queue times. th reason you need to que is if you want to ensure you get the best seats because its just like when you go to your SFF preview screenings. Diamond ticket holders ONLY get allocated seats for the the SHOWCASES. NOT for the all the other sessions, they are same as the others...ie earlier you queue the better seats you get. Since i was on my own today, it didnt matter. I could just squeeze in any single seat.
Anyway, I really enjoyed it today. I did all that C_T mentioned including OF COURSE the free photo take of C3PO and R2 (who looks remarkably like my pet droid, only little bigger). There was also the actual Delorean from BTTF which you can sit in with its funky horizontally hinged door.
The dissapointing thing for today was that, there were hardly any prime celebs, and no one giving autographs in the official (and vary vacant) Empire autograph booth. The host throughout most of the sessions, showcases and film previews was an Empire editor who thankfully is a very good and funny host. He even made jokes sarcastically right at the beginng of this morning's showcase about how awesome the system of booking tickets were...and even drew a graph of each type of ticket with spaghetti lines all around them. So funny. They knew how stupid the system was! He even jokes about how proud they are to give out the same crappy goodie bags.
There was a feature panel on the upcoming film called Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with several top British actors (in the film that is not on the panel). The producer and screenwriter presented 3 very long clips from the movie and I have to say, I really look forward to seeing it. It looks very tense and gripping. Its based on a novel and was made into a 8 hour tv series called Smiley's people with Alec Guiness, I remember this series but I was too young to understand it but it was very highly acclaimed.
Then there was the Titanic 3D presentation. Several long scenes wer shown, in fact mostly key scenes. Most of you know where I stand with 3D. And I do still stand by my argument but if anyone has the power to shut my mouth, its James Cameron. Now this is a conversion. But conversion CAN be good if done with care and a LOT OF TIME. Cameron spent a whole year personally breaking apart the original film stock and processing the 3D on each element. The result is actually impressive. But remember where 3D gives you perception of depth; you lose the scale of the canvas that you get with 2D. So it’s very much a personal preference and the fact is, I dont see movie studios spending that much time as Cameron did on conversions, so treat this and perhaps the forthcoming Star Wars 3D films as exceptions.
Tragically, I missed the 3D discussion session
sorry. Completely missed this as it was supposed to be in a gap between my showcases and I forgot, busy stuffing myself with Beates "healthy" food menu recommendation! Damn.
Another presentation at the showcase was an extended long scene of a battle sequence for the upcoming gods movie Immortals. Think 300 but with Gods and demons. It looks extremely stupid but gory fun...proper gory. not a movie with substance
Then I saw the premiere showing of the 1st episode of Terra Nova. A new Steven Spielberg produced series containing dinosaurs. I was super looking forward to seeing this. My quick verdict is..its ok. That might sound like a major disappointment. Actually it is a disappointment. Now I think this pilot has a fairly big budget and you can see most of it. But shockingly, there were hardly any dinosaurs in the episode. That comes at the end and a little bit in the middle. I'm actually all for that because less is more when you want impact. Problem is, when they did appear, they were too unfocussed and the effects didn’t look fully rendered. I suppose this maybe because its a tv series blown up onto the Sky Supercreen. The story was actually quite compelling for the first half which kind of reminded me of Crowe’s The Next Three Days. This served an exciting exposition. But the second half started to flesh out stereotypical, predictable and somewhat unappealing characters. The humour was terribly forced and performances were a little trying. Then the story just got uninteresting ending with to be concluded and leaving me not really dying to see how it concludes. Disappointing, I’m afraid.
Lastly, I ended the evening with Cowboys and Aliens! This year, I have seen some awesome blockbusters such as Source Code, X Men, Thor, Planet of the Apes, Super 8. I am afraid this film do not rank amongst them. However, I did still have a blast with it. What lets it down slightly is a lack of spark in the dialogue. Otherwise , I love the whole story and concept . Daniel Craig is super cool. Harrison Ford is a likeable a grumpy old cowboy. He actually plays an ex cornel who fought in the civil war which I think might be a nod to the Lee Van Cleef character in For a Few Dollars More, particularly when Craig at one point calls him “old man” in a way Eastwood did in the classic Leone film.
I am hearing a consensus from critics that this film would have worked purely as a western and fails when aliens arrive. I disagree, it works totally fine as a fusion of genres. It’s just, as I said, the dialogue that lets the film down. There needed to be a bit more humour as there is a bare minimum of it sprinkled in the first half. It is enjoyable and worth one repeat viewing on a blu ray rental. But that’s it. It wont have a place in your top 20 nonsensical fun films.
Well that completes my diary of the day. I forgot to elaborate on my my being thrown out incident, haven’t I?! Well its as I described earlier but it transpires that I was a bit unfairly treated but nevertheless, I aint taking risks doing that again. I’m still reeling from missing the rest of that talk. I love the BBC Sherlock series and wanted to know every bit of detail about it.
Gotta sleep now. C_T, Funthing, Auif, rawr_oxo, Evilzadi, I will be wearing Spiderman T shirt tomorrow which I got free today from the Sony Booth, would love an opportunity to say hi to you girls when you free :)
Member No. 32 of the "100 free films in 2014" club 
After reading her updates from O2 about all the confusion at the box office, decided to take a gamble and go down there this afternoon. Picked the friendliest looking girl at the desk, told her I'd won tickets, she went to look on various lists, etc.. eventually returned with standard passes for all three days! Well I wasn't going to argue with them! I just wish I'd gone earlier in the day. 
