Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
‘Aquaman,’ ‘Wonder Woman’ thrill Comic-Con
Warner Bros. promotes its upcoming DC movies
SAN DIEGO — Warner Bros. brought out all the stops Saturday at Comic-Con with an army of stars, surprises and new footage from films like “Aquaman,” ”Shazam!” and even “Wonder Woman 1984,” which is only 3½ weeks into production.
Jason Momoa, Gal Gadot, Chris Pratt, Johnny Depp and Nicole Kidman were just a few of the starry names to grace the stage of the comic book convention’s Hall H.
Momoa, who stars as Aquaman, seemed to be as excited as those in the 6,500-seat audience, if not more so. The actor was downright giddy speaking about the film, which is over five years in the making.
“My heart is big and open,” he said. “I’m really, really happy.”
Director James Wan, known for his “Conjuring” films, introduced some new footage from the origin story, which hits theaters in December.
“I wanted to create a superhero film that we’ve never quite seen before. I wanted our film to be more unique,” Wan said. “My movie plays more like a science fiction fantasy film than a traditional superhero movie.”
Warner Bros.’ was the most-anticipated Hall H presentation of the convention, which this year was absent of many of the big names that attendees have come to expect, like Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm (“Star Wars”) and HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”
The studio also has continued to have to prove its mettle with its DC Comics universe, which has had its share of widely panned movies, like “Justice League.”
The focus Saturday thus was not on Batman or Superman, but the new, the fresh and the proven quantities, like “Wonder Woman,” which has been best-reviewed and most beloved of the new DC universe.
It’s why, with 20 weeks of filming left to go, “Wonder Woman 1984” star Gadot and director Patty Jenkins took a break from their Washington shoot to tease brief footage from the highly anticipated follow-up to their groundbreaking superhero film.
The clip showed Diana Prince saving a young girl from some bad guys wearing their “Miami Vice” finest in a very ’80s-looking mall.
Chris Pine also joined Gadot and Jenkins onstage, but all stayed mum about how and why his character Steve Trevor is back considering his fate in the first movie (and that he looks to be the same age as he was in 1917).
Jenkins said his presence is a “very important part” of the movie and that audiences will have to see it in November 2019 to find out.
She did explain why she set the movie in the 1980s.
“It was mankind at its best and worst,” Jenkins said. “We see Wonder Woman in a period of time that is us at our most extreme. … We thought it could go on forever, everything we were doing right then.”
Another audience-pleaser was “Shazam!” and Zachary Levi was on hand to introduce the first trailer for the DC superhero film, or “Big” with superpowers. The origin story shows how a bullied 14-year-old kid becomes the superhero (and a fully grown man) after a fateful ride on the subway. It comes out in April.