Documentaries about passionate people must walk a fine line. It’s very easy to fall into the temptation to mock the fanatical — cast them as obsessive freaks worthy of pity and maybe a giggle or two. On the other hand, a film that explores a fringe interest with a straight face opens itself up to mockery whether it invites it or not.
Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan’s Hope is an entertaining, if hollow, look at the modern state of the San Diego Comic-Con. It manages to earnestly take a snapshot portrait of the dedicated fans that flock to California each year while still maintaining a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor about itself that allows the documentary to have room to breathe organically without suffocating on irony.
Morgan Spurlock directs the film — backed by an all-star producing team that includes Stan Lee, Joss Whedon and Harry Knowles. While Spurlock is known to insert himself judiciously into the documentaries he films, this is not a love letter to Spurlock’s ego. The director wisely chose to step back from the spotlight and instead let the film’s subjects speak for themselves. Thankfully, Spurlock chose a team of subjects that are just as entertaining as himself.
A series of vignettes, the documentary follows several groups of Comic-Con attendees as they prepare for and attend the world’s largest comic book convention. From Skip Harvey, a young man hoping to break into the business with his art portfolio, to James Darling, a young geek in love who met his girlfriend at the previous year’s convention and hopes to propose to her at this year’s Kevin Smith Q&A panel, the film has a nice mix of subjects to follow.
There’s the owner of Mile High Comics, the leader in back issue comic book providers. As he prepares to bring a hefty supply of books to the convention, he pensively muses about how much the convention has changed in recent years and ponders if it is truly even a comic book convention anymore.
As to drive home that point, another subject Spurlock follows is a young costume designer who spends months before the convention meticulously designing and building replica costumes from the video game Mass Effect. Some of her costumes featuring animatronics, the designer puts the same amount of work on building her suits as most parents put into raising a child. She hopes to gain some attention for her craft and possibly land a job in the industry from her work.
This focus on Comic-Con as a job market for geeks is something that separates Spurlock’s film from other movies set at conventions. It’s captivating (and a bit heartbreaking at times) to see conventioneers attempt time and time again to press flesh and court major publishers for a job as an illustrator. This focus on adult responsibility is something you don’t often get to see in a film about geekdom.
There’s plenty of fanboy humor at play in the film too, though. From the obsessive toy collectors who will stampede a small child for a chance to take home an 18-inch exclusive Galactus figure to the world’s most depressing Street Fighter cos-player, a pudgy Blanka who bemoans the fact that dressing up as a bright green monster at Comic-Con is his one chance to be noticed by others.
Comic-Con is not a particularly deep film. It does not scratch too far beyond the surface of what proves to be its most interesting subject — the changing nature of the con from comic book convention to pop culture mecca. Every time the film begins to explore this idea, the movie decides to switch strides and tell the funny if inconsequential story such as the vignette about a young geek trying to sneak away from his clingy girlfriend to buy a custom made wedding ring from a Lord of the Rings replica booth. The film frequently grinds to a halt that is admittedly fun but disappointing when teased with such a juicy topic left half-explored.
The movie is never boring, though, and its brisk editing helps to keep all the stories moving along nicely. Interviews with industry experts and a random sampling of fans are sprinkled throughout the movie to give the film’s main vignettes some context.
Comic-Con is a fun documentary and really, in a world where some documentaries could put an insomniac to sleep, a fun documentary about the communal experience that is Comic-Con is a nice gift to the thousands of fans who call San Diego their home one week out of every year.
Director: Morgan Spurlock
Notable Cast: Skip Harvey, James Darling and Chuck Rozanski
Writer: Jeremy Chilnick, Morgan Spurlock and Joss Whedon
