In many ways, I’m a simple man. Besides being able to leap tall buildings in a simple bound, having a pre-cognitive alert response (or spidey-sense) and having an incredibly well-equipped yellow utility-belt that pretty much allows me to overcome any perilous obstacles life can throw at me… there’s nothing about me all-that out of the ordinary.

Thusly, I have to get my geek-fix via web-tube proxy, rather than having the cash or the provocation to travel to San Diego (German for Whale’s Vagina) for Comic Con 2009.

Not being particularly excited any more by grown men dresses as Storm Troopers or Klingons, I’m much more interested in what films are being previewed and the scale of excitement being generated…

According to Matthew Vaughn  - the director of Kick Ass – his film did exactly what it said on the tin. We’re talking standing ovations* here, and apparently an ‘11 out of 10’ (albeit nonsensically) on the geek-shreek-o-meter™.

For those not in the know, Kick Ass is based on a comic on the same name created by Mark Millar about a young man who decides to become a superhero, despite not having any super-powers or any real athletic ability. He gets beaten up, and stabbed, and ends up on YouTube. It all sounds amazing… shame then, that it co-stars Nicholas Cage, possibly the least ‘kick-ass’ actor in Hollywood judging his films of the last 5 or so years. So we shall see…

Also, James Cameron’s Avatar… a spacey-action-adventure starring Sam Worthington; is still set on revolutionising cinema with its oh-so-clever 3D IMAX jiggery pokery, and it seems very much on the road to completion now for its Xmas 2009 release. With Jim using admittedly bullshit sports metaphors to describe that they’re: ‘out in front now, but there’s still guys wanting to overtake us’ – or something to that effect.

Comic Con was lucky enough to see 25 minutes of it… which doesn’t seem to be available even in bootleg format, anywhere on the web. So, suffice it to say, I’m sure it looked pretty amazing… and the Jim-man seems confident, and he rarely disappoints, does he? So, other than The Hobbit films, Avatar remains to be the big one for moi.

*Do people really do so many standing ovations at film festivals / conventions? And do so many people really walk out / faint at the controversial films? I doubt it. Unless all the Comic Con sugar intake is whipping its participants into some weird glucose frenzy.

Have a look at Empire’s Comic Con interviews here: http://www.empireonline.com/features/comiccon2009/