CON: Twilight

After the WOLVERINE surprise, it was time for the Summit Entertainment panel, which included PUSH, KNOWING and TWILIGHT. Turns out the folks at Summit knew they had just a couple of fans in house and decided to keep TWILIGHT until the end. Perhaps not a good idea since the poor folks at PUSH and KNOWING had to deal with catcalls of TWI-LIGHT! throughout their panels. But those TWILIGHT-teers are nothing if not enthusiastic.

I knew things were gonna get a little crazy when the crowd starting going nuts and they were just putting the name plates out. They put down a piece of paper that says “Robert Pattinson” and a group of girls behind me nearly fainted. This could get ugly.

The fans are now chanting loudly “TWI-LIGHT! TWI-LIGHT!” One of the Comic-Con representatives takes the podium and tries to quiet the crowd. “Please, please, please stay seated during the panel.” He’s begging a room of 10,000 teenage girls to maintain order.

I’ve never seen this many girls at Comic-Con since I’ve been coming here. Combined. This is insane. Now they’re ready to introduce the cast. “Ladies and gentlemen, Taylor Lautner!” YEAAAAAHHHH! YEAAAHHHHHHHH! YEAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Taylor Lautner? I’ve never even heard of this guy. I don’t think Tom Cruise would get this kind of reception at Comic-Con. I don’t think John Lennon coming back from the dead would have this kind of reception. I mean who could possibly top that insanity? Oh wait…

Robert Pattinson came out and I think a few girls spontaneously combusted. Just straight up exploded from sheer excitement. Who knows if this kid can keep up this level of interest in his career but if he can bottle 1/8 of this and take it with him, he’ll be doing OK. This is Beatles on “Ed Sullivan” excitement.

People were trying to ask questions but to be quite honest, it was a futile experiment. They were asked a question, a dude would flash a smile, the crowd would go nuts and you couldn’t hear anything. Or they’d just give up talking and wave. So let’s cut to the extended clip they showed:

Bella (Kristen Stewart) walks through a door. She looks nervous and scared. Looking around. Someone crying bella. “Mom?” In the back there is a TV showing a home video from when she was a kid. She turns around to see the evil James? “That’s my favorite part,” he says as he pushes her up against wall and starts to videotape her. “I will break Edward’s heart.” She whips out a can of mace and sprays him but he’s unphased and as she tries to escape, he just leaps and knocks her down. He throws her against a pillar. Her hand is bleeding. He’s getting a chubby (not really…) and stomps on her ankle. Edward comes flying in to save her (cue Hall H screeching). James knocks him off. They fight. James smashes his head against mirror but then Edward kicks him across the whole place. Edward tries to escape with Bella but James snags his leg and pulls him down on the ground. James grabs Bella’s wrist and bites into her vein. Edward knocks him back off. END. crowd in hysterics. Crowd in absolute hysterics.

Afterwards someone was kind enough to ask star Kristen Stewart a question but she admits she had never even heard of the book before signing onto the movie. The boy-hungry crowd does not appreciate this answer. They just want Taylor or Robert (who has perhaps the worst case of JBF hair I’ve ever seen).

I’m still not sure I get the whole TWILIGHT phenomena but it sure is impressive to see it’s force in action. Or perhaps I was just impressed that a bunch of fangirls showed up for once and put the fanboys in their place. Now that’s how you cheer on a panel boys.