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Griselda, one of our amazing representatives at Comic-Con, has sent us her report from the event!

My Comic-con adventure began very early on Thursday. I drove to San Diego from the Inland Empire at 5am, as it is a 2 hour drive. I arrived with my friend at 7:15am to find an already increasing line of hundreds, if not thousands of people forming around Hall H, which is where the New Moon panel would be. Upon arriving, we quickly got into the snake-like line, similar to a popular amusement park ride. There was a seperate line that had formed for the ‘over-night’ people, which would be let in first. In the line you got to see tons of crazy characters from different comic-books and even ones you never heard of.

What got the most screams, however, were the Jasper, Alice, Bella and Edward from the Hillywood Show. The Jasper guy was a dead-ringer. The line was strongly dominated by Twilight super fans, who were clearly, but quitely, not respected or wanted. I stood in front of a group of 4 comic book and animation enthusiasts who continually put down Twilight, Robert Pattinson and Stephenie Meyer and their unexpected, but “temporary”, hold on teenagers. Of course, they were surrounded by women of ALL ages, few of which were teenagers. About 10:15 or so, the line FINALLY started moving in. Once inside, again we had the incredible bad luck of sitting in front of a row of very vocal comic-con followers. In a room that was filled with 90% of people there to see the New Moon panel, we sit in front of a row of frustrated boys that had to endure the craziness of Twilight girls to get to their destination of Avatar.

There were three unfortunate segments of panels that had to endure presenting their films before an obviously uninterested crowd of girls that were preparing to erupt for another movie. The biggest surprise, prior to New Moon Panel, was Tim Burton’s intoduction of Alice in Wonderland. Apparently it was Tim Burton’s first time at Comic-Con, after much speculation of him coming for the last 6 and being a no-show each time, his arrival did garner some enthusiasm amongst those comic-con followers. But, that was nothing compared to the screams that came when the power of 6000 excited girls erupted at the sight of none other than Johnny Depp. It didn’t appear as if he was planning to be there, rather he may have been talked into walking on stage and quickly walking off.

After each segment there were people that trailed out of the room, seemingly after seeing the panel they were there for. Eventually we got to Summit’s segment, which would showcase Astro Boy, Sorority Row and, of course, New Moon. At this point you could feel the anticipation in the air. The first two panels were barely on stage at all. I don’t think anyone of them actually sat down. I’m sure they were all to aware of the real reason everyone was still in the room. Eventually the Sorority Row panel walked off the stage and rumblings started. The boys behind us prepared themselves for the screaming. The New Moon logo comes on the screen and the announcer begins the introductions. He teases us and says “What would you do if I said ‘That’s it. Thanks for coming’?”. There’s a few seconds of waiting for some preparations and the he begins. He first introduces the director Chris Weitz, who is received by great applause and some screaming, then he introduces Ashley Greene, who is received by more screaming, followed by Kristen Stewart who got screams followed by gasps and whispers (she still has her Joan Jett hair from the movie she’s filming now and appears as if she rolled out of bed and on to the panel). Then the ear piercing screams started when they introduced Taylor Lautner, and finally the eruption of screams when he said ‘Edward Cullen himself, Robert Pattinson’… I think that’s what he said, because it was so loud he was drowned out. One girl in my row was screaming so loud she started to hyperventilate (kinda funny actually).

By now, you have read the transcripts of all the questions that were asked and their answers, so I’m going to give you my favorite lines. At one point the cast was asked what they brought from themselves to the characters. By the time it came to Rob, he turned to Chris Weitz and asked him if he was like his character, to which Chris responds “I’ve noticed that you are cold to the touch and have skin like marble and you glow like a diamond when the sun hits you”. One of my other favorite questions was when a girl asked Rob if he would ever consider recording more music, to which he replied “yeah, I mean I would… I ‘m just too umm.. I’m kind of a pussy I guess. That’s the problem….”. The cast was asked what they’re most looking forward to filming in the next movies… to which Rob said “I’m looking forward to the Cesearean”

The two clips that were shown were tremendously well received. The first was when Bella rides the motorcycle for the first time with instructions from Jacob. It’s out first glimpse at seeing the “appartiions” we’ve been hearing about, that would give us more of Rob’s character, Edward, in the movie. When Rob first appears, the room goes crazy with screams. the scene ends with Bella falling off the bike, hitting her head on a rock and bleeding. Jacob then takes his shirt off (pause for screaming to die down) and wipe’s Bella’s head would with it. The surprise, and more dramatic, scene we got to see is the climax of the movie when Bella rescues Edward in Volterra. This scene doesn’t have much dialogue, but makes up for it in anticipation. In this scene, which Kirsten pulls off beautifully (I was a bit doubtful that she could demonstrate the anguish and desperation Bella was in) Bella is running through the streets of Volterra anxiously searching for Edward to save him from committing suicide by stepping into the sunlight and exposing who he really is, a sure way to have the Volturi kill him. As Bella is racing against the clock you see her push through the crowds and run through the fountain to save Edward. As Edward is removing his shirt to show his skin (looooong pause for deafening screams and to catch my breath) he looks down at the line that seperates shadow from light and prepares to take a step, you hear Bella scream out “No Edward! Don’t” and it cuts off to the New Moon logo. This, of course, was my favorite. It’s what you wait for during the entire book.

The panel was dismissed shortly after the last clip and, alas, my day of being in the same room with Rob ended. Once the panel was dismissed, we left the room, along with about 6000 other people. There was a long line of true comic-con fans waiting to get in that, I’m sure, were more than excited to see us all leave. Outside were more news organziations waiting to interview fans on the Twilight and Rob-phenomenon. Most girls went on to get in line for the Twilight screening. I unfortunatly, didn’t have tickets for it, so we continued our Comic-Con adventure by bravely walking through the booths.

It was certainly an exciting day and well worth the wait to see Rob (not so) upclose.

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