Movies News

Comic Con Thursday, July 22, film highlights

By Tracey Brown Jul 23, 2010, 3:54 GMT

At the Con - Angelina Jolie - CA, USA © David Gabber / PR Photos

Welcome, from Hall H, on the first official day of Comic-Con 2010. Today was one of those surrealistic days at Comic-Con, where there were a lot of big stars promoting their films, including Angelina Jolie, Jeff Bridges, Aaron Eckhart, Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren.

Angelina, photo ©M&C

This is the fun of Comic-Con – seeing big stars – sometimes REALLY big stars all in one day, one right after the other, as well as seeing exclusive clips of their upcoming projects.

Liev, photo ©M&C

Starting off the day was the cast of Tron: Legacy, who were excited to talk about the upcoming movie. Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner talked about the excitement of repeating the parts they played in the original film from 1982 and said they were especially pleased with the complex journey of their characters in the script.

Aaron, photo ©M&C

Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber were on hand to talk about Salt, which opens this weekend. Jolie talked about the opportunity of playing an action character more reality based, than compared with previous action films she has been in and that she enjoyed the acting challenge of a more “damaged” action heroine. Schreiber joked that unlike Jolie, he did as few of his own stunts as possible.

The trailer and an extended scene were show from Battle: Los Angeles. Director Jonathan Liebesman said he shot the movie from the perspective of one marine platoon because he wanted the film to feel like embedded footage that we see of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, but where the enemies are aliens. Aaron Eckhart talked about how after the cast attended boot camp, it helped make them feel more like real marines.

But the film that got the biggest audience response (and that looks the most fresh and funny) was Red, which has an stellar ensemble cast, but only Bruce Willis (unbelievably at his first Comic-Con), Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren and Karl Urban were in San Diego to represent the film. (Missing were Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Richard Dreyfuss and Ernest Borgnine.)

Despite a plotline that has been tread over many times before (retired spies being forced back into action) this cast looks like it might raise the level of this movie from ordinary to a hell of a lot of fun. Let’s face it, watching Helen Mirren shoot guns and kick ass with Bruce Willis has GOT to be worth the price of admission.