In my opinion the whole event could not be compared to how awesome Movie Con was. It worked for three years but Empire decided to sell out and move from the comfortable and welcoming BFI to the over sized 02 Arena (The Dome). The events that Standard ticket holders had to choose from were few (the good ones anyway) but the Diamond ticket holders basically got Movie Con for triple the price. It was not what the posters and leaflets said. It was good but not great.
The first thing on the itinerary was a discussion about the greatest comic book, advertised as something different when I picked it. It was interesting the hear the discussion and better when people joined in but after the talk my sister and I had ages to wait until the Aardman presentation. So we wondered over to the stalls and Studio exhibition. Some of the things there were pretty awesome, but again, it was a huge space with not much around. There were loads of film standees and the stalls that were there were the same as the London Film and Comic Con a month earlier.
We enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes display. We sat in his chair and guessed where Moriarty was to win a prize and wondered next door to The Dark Knight Rises display. The various displays were quite fun to look around but we managed to see everything in less than an hour. Also no free stuff this year, which I thought was mean, we paid enough money to get in. Free goodies always used to be a perk at Movie Con.
The Aardman presentation was great! Their new film Pirates! In an adventure with Scientists looks amazing. After several technical problems and 20 minute late start we got to see several clips from the film, still being made, and saw the filming process. Unfortunately because of all the delays Annie and I had to leave in the middle of it because film started soon after the presentation. We were quite annoyed about that. The first film of the day was 30 Minutes or Less and it was hilarious. I don't to give anything away but its about a lazy pizza delivery guy (Jesse Eisenberg, who was great) who gets forced into robbing a bank by another nasty, foul mouthed guy (Danny McBride) who needs money to hire a guy to kill his Father. Just from that you know its going to be funny.
This is Polly, a dodo. He is the Pirate Captain's pet. Annie and I couldn't stop looking/laughing at this bird.
After the first film, we went ate plenty of food, drank some wine then ventured back to Studio City where we were accosted by two actors dressed like they were in a western film. They called Annie a fruit picking jerk face and we were off to the second film of the day and last event of the day too.
Overall we had a good day but Empire's Big Screen was most certainly was over blown, over priced and not much happening. Almost a Big Fail to be honest . . . I say BRING BACK MOVIE-CON!