This is it. Every year, hordes of movie companies, pop-culture buffs, cosplayers, and of course, comic book fans, congregate at the San Diego Comic-Con to showcase upcoming movies, release new toys, be seen in the best outfits of their favourite pop-culture characters and mingle with like-minded folks.
This year saw plenty of trailers of eagerly anticipated movies and here is our pick of the top 5:
Glass (2019):
We’ve been teased the movie poster earlier this month and what a sight! To see Samuel L. Jackson, James McAvoy and Bruce Willis restrained in chairs in what seemed like a locked facility together, was not what we’d expected. Who would have thought the characters from Unbreakable in 2000 would combine with the personalities from Split to be in a movie about people with extraordinary...powers? To recount, Willis’ David Gunn was the object of Jackson’s Mr Glass’ attention in Unbreakable. David had indestructible bones, while Glass is astonishingly intelligent. Then we have McAvoy’s character in Split, or shall we say, characters? To see all three intriguing characters in the same space as Sarah Paulson just makes us more eager to catch the movie, out next year.
Aquaman (2018):
We first saw him in Justice League, as a hulking, laidback surfer dude-like character, with a speech peppered with “My man!” and “Yahoo!”. Now, we’re going way back into Aquaman (Jason Momoa)’s past, and find out how he became the reluctant ruler of the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, with a James Wan treatment. The trailer is a spectacular showcase of the underwater world, with glimmering otherworldly structures and luminescent creatures. Torn between the surface world and the underwater world, Arthur, aka Aquaman, needs to decide on where his heart lies (which is most likely with the stunning Meera, played by Amber Heard), and fight for what’s right. Suffice to say, the Aquaman trailer is a visual feast.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Midway through the trailer, we lost count of the staggering number of stars in this movie, as well as the non-stop appearance of monsters. This sequel is a major departure from the first Godzilla starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen. In an almost dream-like sequence, we see Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown reaching out to touch a monster. It seemed like these monsters have awakened and now want to take over the world. Other familiar names you might recognise are Ziyi Zhang, Vera Farmiga (The Commuter), Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water) and Ken Watanabe, who reprises his role. And there’s also Charles Dance in the movie too, and as though to pay tribute to Game of Thrones (in which he played Tywin Lannister), he uttered the words “Long Live the King” in the trailer. We’re serious.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)
It’s refreshing to see Johnny Depp out of his pirate garb and with a proper haircut. In The Crimes of Grindelwald, he plays Gellert Grindelwald, a dark wizard with a deep wish to take over the world. The movie is the sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), the second film instalment in the Fantastic Beasts film series, and the tenth book in the Wizarding World franchise which, of course, gave us Harry Potter. In the movie, we will be reunited with Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), who teams up with a youthful Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), to track down Grindelwald and stop his attempt at unleashing havoc on unsuspecting muggles.
Shazam! (2019)
This is an interesting turn from the DC Extended universe, often full of gloom and doom. In Shazam!, everything is bright, cheery and a little cheesy. Maybe this is the spark DC needed to win over fans, mostly enamoured with the big action sequences and loud characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. On paper, it didn’t look like it would work, Zachery Levi plays Shazam!, a superhero who’s basically a kid who turns into a superhero by saying the word, “Shazam!”. Having seen the trailer though, full of light-hearted scenes that endear to those of us who sympathise and empathise with kids who’re the subjects of bullies, this might just work.
