Comic-Con: 20 Movies/TV Shows To Geek Out About

Not a single frame of this movie exists yet, yet we can already see it in our heads thanks to the celebrity circus staged by those Marvel Studios ringmasters at Comic-Con. The graphics-and-voice-over teaser trailer, with Samuel L. Jackson intoning the fabled preamble from the Avengers comics (''And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest heroes found themselves united against a common threat...''), literally made my geek nipples hard. Then Robert Downey Jr. walked out and introduced the cast like he was Mick Jagger introducing his fellow Rolling Stones to the fanboy Woodstock. Swoon. Joss Whedon, ever self-effacing, joked that he's going to blow it. We pray that he won't. And we don't think he will. —Jeff Jensen

JENSEN'S TAKE: 5 — I'm already prepping my blog about this.

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Creator Alan Ball drove Blood-thirsty fans into a frenzy with a never-before-seen trailer for the rest of season 3, including shots of Sookie in a hospital and confronting Alcide's ex Debbie Pelt with the line ''Get out of my house, bitch!'' —Tim Stack

STACK'S TAKE: 4 — Could this fill the ''Lost''-sized hole in my life?

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Adapted from the pocket-sized graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley, director Edgar Wright's ingenious and quirky romantic comedy is like (500) Days of Summer on Red Bull and Pop Rocks. It's like someone took your Favorite Pop Culture Things Ever and blended them into the year's yummiest, sweetest cinematic milk shake. If you don't love this movie to pieces, I don't want to know you. (Big props to Team Pilgrim for bringing the film to life at Comic-Con with The Scott Pilgrim Experience, where fans could make T-shirts and flipbooks, and to Wright for pulling off the Con's second-best act of showmanship by inviting some attendees to his panel to go see the movie at a theater up the street. For the first, see The Avengers.) —JJ

JENSEN'S TAKE: 5 — I'm already prepping my blog about this.

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All Warner Bros. did was bring the kid who plays Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton to his friends and family) and show a few minutes of footage. And that was enough. Sporting a fantasy-epic sheen reminiscent of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, the final salvo of Potter may not only be a case of ''saving the best for last,'' it could just beg some attention from a dude named Oscar. —JJ

JENSEN'S TAKE: 5 — I'm already prepping my blog about this.

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Chuck fans went wild at the Linda Hamilton-as-mom reveal, and the nonstop combo of kidding around and affection among the core cast members energized the crowd into believing that this is one cult show that's still bursting with energy and ideas. —Ken Tucker

TUCKER'S TAKE: 5 — I'm already prepping my blog about this.

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NBC screened the pilot of its new high-concept drama The Event — a multilayered thriller starring Blair Underwood and Jason Ritter that follows an assassination attempt, a government cover-up, and a kidnapping. Thanks to its shock-and-awe ending, the serialized drama from Nick Wauters (The 4400) and Evan Katz (24) has the potential to be TV's next (big?) mythology. —Lynette Rice

RICE'S TAKE: 4 — Could this fill the ''Lost''-sized hole in my life?

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The trailer of Zack Snyder's latest smashmouth fantasy was a grease fire of sizzling geek imagery, like a flipbook of Frank Frazetta Heavy Metal covers. Mad scientists and sexy chicks in leather. Zombie soldiers and mecha bots. Monsters. Swords. Guns. The seedy-sexy-scary fever dream counterpoints Scott Pilgrim's dreamy-sweet zaniness. —JJ

JENSEN'S TAKE: 4 — Could this fill the ''Lost''-sized hole in my life?

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Harrison Ford. Daniel Craig. Olivia Wilde. 'Nuff said? Not quite. Jon Favreau directs, from a script written by J.J. Abrams' Star Trek brain trust: Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Damon Lindelof. We fully expect state-of-the-art escapism brought to life with a classical storytelling approach that makes a sly, ironic point about how today's geek fantasies are really outrageous glam-rock glosses on old-school pulp/fantasy archetypes. You could say it's proof you don't need a comic-book license with established characters to make a big-budget event flick — although the movie is indeed adapted from a graphic novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. See? Sly and ironic! —JJ

JENSEN'S TAKE: 4 — Could this fill the ''Lost''-sized hole in my life?

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New Directions will be doing the ''Time Warp''! Creator Ryan Murphy says there are plans for the series to do a Rocky Horror Picture Show-themed episode. —TS

STACK'S TAKE: 5 — I'm already prepping my blog about this.

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Ryan Reynolds. Sigh. Oh, and the Comic-Con teaser looked great. Green, but great. If this movie does its job right, the power ring should become the new lightsaber. —JJ

JENSEN'S TAKE: 4 — Could this fill the ''Lost''-sized hole in my life?

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Executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman told fans that major themes in season 3 will be ''the road not taken,'' duality...and sex. We're pretty sure that last bit was a joke about Peter (Joshua Jackson) and at least one of the Olivias (Anna Torv). Oh, and we'll get to see where Astrid lives. Yay! —Abby West

WEST'S TAKE: 3 — I'm not sold but I'm intrigued.

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We wonder if this movie will produce more commentary from fanboy bloggers, or from political pundits who will use it as a hook for editorial thumbsucking about the state of the national character, how today's generation of young Americans feel about the notion of patriotism, the country's international profile, blah blah blah. Bah! We just hope it's fun as firecrackers. —JJ

JENSEN'S TAKE: 4 — Could this fill the ''Lost''-sized hole in my life?

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Generational schism. Growing old. Young people making peace with their elders; old people making peace with death. I will bet you $1,000 these will be the defining themes in pop culture over the next decade or so, and the reason is this: Baby boomers are now senior citizens, they have money and they dig pop culture and they will pay for movies and books and other entertainments that reflect their life experience. So will their adult kids, Generation Xers, who are up their own asses with nostalgia and by and large relate better to the movie stars and the pop culture of their parents than they do to those of their younger siblings and even their kids. Last year, we saw Hollywood begin to engage this culture shift via romantic dramedies: Julie and Julia and It's Complicated. Now, building on 2008's surprise Clint Eastwood hit Gran Torino, the gray wave hits the action movie, first with The Expendables, then with RED (acronym for ''Retired and Extremely Dangerous''). I like the looks of RED better. Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren (pictured above with John Malkovich) just may be the most inspired buddy (and romantic?) pairing in a long time. —JJ

JENSEN'S TAKE: 3 — I'm not sold but I'm intrigued.

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It's a geek comedy about being a geek starring Shaun of the Dead faves Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Seth Rogen voices an alien. Oh, and part of the movie is set at Comic-Con. What shameless pandering! And I'm so there. —JJ

JENSEN'S TAKE: 3 — I'm not sold but I'm intrigued.

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A digital-era remodel of an analog-era vision of the future. It's got The Dude, and it's got light cycles, and it's got Olivia Wilde...but does it have heart and relevance? We want to see more. —JJ

JENSEN'S TAKE: 3 — I'm not sold but I'm intrigued.

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With season 5's apocalypse story line over and done with, the Winchester brothers will move on to tackling an array of monster baddies this season, including pop culture's favorite creatures of the moment: vampires. ''Cut this pasty, waify s--- out,'' said costar Jensen Ackles. ''I'm looking forward to killing some vampires properly.'' And so are we. —John Young

YOUNG'S TAKE: 3 — I'm not sold but I'm intrigued.

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I didn't want to even give this movie a chance, given that it's a seemingly needless remake from director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) of the sensational Swedish art-house vampire flick Let the Right One In. But the more I see of it, the more I'm hopeful that Reeves and his talented young stars (The Road's Kodi Smit-McPhee and Kick-Ass' Chloë Moretz) have produced something special in their own right. But I do need more convincing. —JJ

JENSEN'S TAKE: 3 — I'm not sold but I'm intrigued.

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Fan favorites Chloe (Alison Mack) and Oliver (Justin Hartley, above center) will be back as a couple for the last season. And now that Lois (Erica Durance, above right, pictured with fellow castmember Cassidy Freeman on the left) knows Clark's secret, who knows what will happen, but Durance broke the news that she'll be in 22 episodes this season and that's enough to get folks excited. —AW

WEST'S TAKE: 4 — Could this fill the ''Lost''-sized hole in my life?

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The extended trailer struck the Comic-Con crowd like a lightning bolt, and they responded with thunderous applause. There was a pretty riveting scene with Anthony Hopkins as Norse highfather Odin banishing his impudent son Thor to Earth, a nice bit with a robo-baddie named The Destroyer blowing atomic fire out of its face, and plenty of Chris Hemsworth's bulging biceps. Still, even with director Kenneth Branagh classing up the joint and Natalie Portman lending her considerable glamour to the proceedings, I think Thor could be a tough sell to anyone who isn't a card-carrying member of the ''Make Mine Marvel!'' fan club. Yet as I am one of those people, I will be there opening day. —JJ

JENSEN'S TAKE: 3 — I'm not sold but I'm intrigued.

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The next great cult pop TV show? Fans of Robert Kirkman's acclaimed indie comic certainly hope so, especially with no less than Oscar-nominated writer-director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) at the helm. The most-awesome trailer for the AMC zombie show — suggesting an atmospheric, character-driven epic survival drama with a diverse band of characters à la Lost — whipped the crowd into a frenzy, only matched by news it will have a worldwide simultaneous release in more than 30 languages. The show also scored points with Comic-Con attendees for having the creepiest booth, a blood-splashed living room decimated by a zombie attack. —JJ

JENSEN'S TAKE: 5 — I'm already prepping my blog about this.

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