A Random Walk Through Film Brings Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope to Pacific Place Tonight Only

Attention nerds: No need to dare venture out into the sunlight after work. You can escape to the dank bowels of a San Diego convention center circa Comic-Con 2010 via Morgan Spurlock and Seattle film blog A Random Walk Through Film.

Tugg online ticket sales are over, but $9 cash-only tix are still available at the door (not the AMC box office) at tonight’s 7:30 p.m. screening at Pacific Place. Tugg helpfully notes that the movie is expected to run precisely from 7:30 p.m.-9:18 p.m.; considering the film runtime is 88 minutes, that means there’s approximately 20 minutes allotted for commercials/trailers. Because MATH.

[A brief aside on Tugg: it seems to be a Kickstarter-esque Groupon-ish deal/scam in which someone (in this case, Rich) can bring a movie to a "real" movie theater if he can guarantee enough ticket sales/if the public demands it. For this event, 40 tickets had to be sold to secure the screening, which was obtained by a twenty-four-hour extension of the original deadline last week.]

I have never, will never go to Comic-Con, and this documentary only confirms that sentiment. Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope, is “presented by Stan Lee and Joss Whedon,” written and directed by Morgan Spurlock, and produced by Spurlock and Ain’t It Cool News troll Harry Knowles, amongst others.

Since for once, Morgan Spurlock is silent, the film becomes more of a blurbumentary with one-on one interview clips of Comic-Con veterans like Stan Lee, Joss Whedon, Frank Miller, Kevin Smith, Matt Groening, Seth Rogen, and Eli Roth, not to mention plenty of footage of all the panels and costumes.

So it’s definitely got the fanboy cred, as it takes a look at the cultural phenomenon of what is now over 140,000 strong annually via 5 attendees of the ultimate geek mecca (where “vulcans and vampires get along, where wizards and wookies can be themselves”) that was San Diego Comic-Con 2010:

Eric, an aspiring illustrator, is hoping to impress publishers and land a job;
Holly, costume and creature designer, hopes her creations will win the big prize; Chuck, a long-time comic book dealer, is looking for a big sale to pay off his debts; Skip, longtime amateur illustrator wants to be discovered at this year’s event; James, a young fan, hopes his girlfriend will accept a dramatic proposal.

The stories are okay; as always, some are more intriguing than others. Intricate animatronic costumes YES, a guy who just isn’t that good at drawing NO. And the final attendee listed above, James, is just plain pathetic. It brings up all kinds of ethical issues about what you should or should not interfere with, as a documentary filmmaker. I think that if you can save a young guy from embarrassingly proposing to his clingy girlfriend that is your moral imperative as a human being, but unfortunately the director does not share my worldview.