finally, fandemic!

Highly anticipated new comic and movie convention finally hits Houston

Comic fans, rejoice: the Fandemic Tour is finally here.

The new comic convention — a three-day event — was originally scheduled for last fall. Unfortunately, that Hurricane Harvey ruined a lot of things, including this convention's launch. (Founder and former Wizard World CEO John Macaluso tried to schedule it later in the year, but several guests had scheduling conflicts.)

Nevertheless, Fandemic is here and has a lot of things in store for people who attend this pop-culture extravaganza. Here's a rundown of five major things:

The Walking Dead will represent
Since Sebastian Stan did his Fandemic appearance last month and Chuck Norris and Milo Ventimiglia have cancelled, the big stars who'll be at Fandemic are cast members from The Walking Dead. Norman Reedus, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Pollyanna McIntosh, and Steven Yeun (RIP Glenn!) will be around on Saturday and Sunday. But they aren't the only big names. Several Guardians of the Galaxy castmates, including Dave Bautista and Michael Rooker, will be in attendance.

There will also be an interesting assortment of actors and actresses from long-gone (but still adored) WB shows, like James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville). Two men who've played Superman — Dean Cain (Lois and Clark) and Tom Welling (Smallville) — will be there. And for the B-movie nerds, Bruce Campbell, star of the Evil Dead movies/TV show and cult-movie icon, will most likely be reciting beloved lines from those films to fans.

Artists abound
Since this is still a comic convention, there will be a number of well-known comic-book artists in the house, like Rob Prior, Geof Isherwood, Rags Morales, and Arthur Suydam (aka "The Zombie King"). But don't forget about such animators as Phil Ortiz, who's done layouts and character design for The Simpsons, and Tom Cook, who has worked for Disney, Hanna-Barbera, and Filmation. This convention will also have spaces available for younger artists — really, really younger artists. Thirteen-year-old Sealy resident Megan Staba will have her own booth, as well as 12-year-old Utah artist Shelbi Webb, who created the superhero comic Sugar Glider.

Thanks to conventions like these, regional artists also get a chance to shine. And over at the area known as Artist Alley, there will be a diverse array of writers, illustrators, cartoonists, pencil artists, designers, digital artists, and other creative folk —not just from Houston, but from all around the state. There will also be plenty of businesses around selling their merchandise. Our favorite that'll be there is The Flying Pig Phenomenon, which specializes in "all your aerodynamic and airborne farm animal needs." We don't know what that is, but we're sold.

A sea of cosplayers
Needless to say, expect cosplayers to swarm the place, dressed as their favorite superhero/video-game character/obscure figure you've never heard of because you're old and out of it. Pandemic will also bring in special cosplay guests Lana Marie and Maddy Lea, who is just nine years old and has been killing it in the cosplay game. But all eyes will most likely be Merly the Cosplay Dog, a five-year-old service dog whose handler has made over 40 different costumes for her.

Hot cars
Three well-known automobiles will be available for attendees to take badass photos with all weekend. First up, the Batmobile — or, should we say, a Batmobile that's coming from a family in Cypress. Someone from Kemah will bring in a recreation of the '73 Oldsmobile Delta 88 (aka The Classic) that Bruce Campbell drove in the Evil Dead universe. Finally, there's a 1995 Jeep Wrangler Sahara, which has been converted to look like one of the jeeps from Jurassic Park. Cars, celebs, and cosplay — it looks like Fandemic is making sure comics isn't the only c-word you get at this convention.

---

The Fandemic Comic Convention Tour will be this Friday through Sunday at NRG Center, 1 NRG Park. Show hours are 3 pm-7 pm (Friday), 10 am-7 pm (Saturday), and 10 am-4 pm (Sunday). Tickets are $40-$80. For more information, visit the official site.

Norman Reedus will help represent The Walking Dead.

Photo courtesy of AMC

Norman Reedus will help represent The Walking Dead.

celebrities movies media

Movie Review

Avatar: Fire and Ash returns to Pandora with big action and bold visuals

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Oona Chaplin in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

For a series whose first two films made over $5 billion combined worldwide, Avatar has a curious lack of widespread cultural impact. The films seem to exist in a sort of vacuum, popping up for their run in theaters and then almost as quickly disappearing from the larger movie landscape. The third of five planned movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally being released three years after its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water.

The new film finds the main duo, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his native Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), still living with the water-loving Metkayina clan led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). While Jake and Neytiri still play a big part, the focus shifts significantly to their two surviving children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as two they’ve essentially adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).

Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who lives on in a fabricated Na’vi body, is still looking for revenge on Jake, and he finds help in the form of the Mangkwan Clan (aka the Ash People), led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Quaritch’s access to human weapons and the Mangkwan’s desire for more power on the moon known as Pandora make them a nice match, and they team up to try to dominate the other tribes.

Aside from the story, the main point of making the films for writer/director James Cameron is showing off his considerable technical filmmaking prowess, and that is on full display right from the start. The characters zoom around both the air and sea on various creatures with which they’ve bonded, providing Cameron and his team with plenty of opportunities to put the audience right there with them. Cameron’s preferred viewing method of 3D makes the experience even more immersive, even if the high frame rate he uses makes some scenes look too realistic for their own good.

The story, as it has been in the first two films, is a mixed bag. Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver start off well, having Jake, Neytiri, and their kids continue mourning the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the previous film. The struggle for power provides an interesting setup, but Cameron and his team seem to drag out the conflict for much too long. This is the longest Avatar film yet, and you really start to feel it in the back half as the filmmakers add on a bunch of unnecessary elements.

Worse than the elongated story, though, is the hackneyed dialogue that Cameron, Jaffa, and Silver have come up with. Almost every main character is forced to spout lines that diminish the importance of the events around them. The writers seemingly couldn’t resist trying to throw in jokes despite them clashing with the tone of the scenes in which they’re said. Combined with the somewhat goofy nature of the Na’vi themselves (not to mention talking whales), the eye-rolling words detract from any excitement or emotion the story builds up.

A pre-movie behind-the-scenes short film shows how the actors act out every scene in performance capture suits, lending an authenticity to their performances. Still, some performers are better than others, with Saldaña, Worthington, and Lang standing out. It’s more than a little weird having Weaver play a 14-year-old girl, but it works relatively well. Those who actually get to show their real faces are collectively fine, but none of them elevate the film overall.

There are undoubtedly some Avatar superfans for which Fire and Ash will move the larger story forward in significant ways. For anyone else, though, the film is a demonstration of both the good and bad sides of Cameron. As he’s proven for 40 years, his visuals are (almost) beyond reproach, but the lack of a story that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater keeps the film from being truly memorable.

---

Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19.

movies film