Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan's Hope Review

Having attacked the twin evils of McDonalds and Osama Bin Laden in previous documentaries, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock tackles a rather more innocuous subject in his latest movie: namely Comic-Con.

Revolving around mainstream entertainment's flag-ship event -- which hits San Diego for one long, hot, sweaty weekend every summer -- Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan's Hope follows the trials and tribulations of a group of disparate attendees as they visit the geek Mecca.

There are a pair of aspiring artists in the shape of "The Soldier" and "The Geek" (Spurlock gives all of his subjects heroic alter-egos), who see the event as a job fair at which they can fulfil their dreams of drawing for one of the big publishers.

There's "The Designer," a video game-loving costume maker who has her sights set on winning the Masquerade Contest. And "The Collector," on the hunt for an 18-inch Galactus figurine.

"The Lovers" started dating at a previous Comic-Con, and boy is planning to propose to girl at this one. And "The Survivor" is attending his 38th Con with plans to sell his beloved Red Raven No.1 -- for upwards of $500,000 -- in order to save his fading Mile High Comics business.

The film follows their stories, interspersed with recognisable talking heads recounting their memories of Comic-Cons past. And the assemblage of geek wisdom is impressive, with the likes of Stan Lee, Joss Whedon, Robert Kirkman, Edgar Wright, Frank Miller, Matt Groening, Guillermo del Toro, Grant Morrison and many, many more offering their two-cents worth on the subject.

Episode Four also tells the tale of the convention itself, which began in San Diego's U.S. Grant Hotel in 1970, with 500 comic buyers and sellers in attendance. In the intervening years it has become a monster, with Hollywood taking over and more than 150,000 people from all walks of life now invading the city and partying hard every July.

However, the film fails to fully address this sea-change, briefly touching on the Con's transformation into the world's largest focus group, but only viewing these events from the fan's point-of-view.

So while "Survivor" Chuck Rozanski rages that the convention is about anything but comics these days, and that the might and money of Hollywood is putting dealers like himself out of business, the studio's themselves get little opportunity to respond. If Comic-Con really has become a glorified movie trailer, with the power to sway conglomerates, it would be nice to find out how and why, and maybe speculate on what it means for the future of the convention.

Similarly, Spurlock celebrates the geek gathering without ever really questioning it. There's no doubt that Comic-Con is an incredible event -- the World Cup for nerds if you will -- but is it always a healthy one? "The Designer" Holly Conrad admits that creating and wearing video game costumes is her way of escaping her humdrum reality, and while she seems like a perfectly pleasant and well-adjusted person, it's obvious that some attendees take their obsessions to ridiculous and at times unhealthy extremes.

But the filmmaker avoids delving deeper beneath the geek surface in favour of telling the aforementioned stories, all of which are perfectly pleasant, but none of which reveal anything of any substance about the convention-going experience.

That's not to say the film lacks drama, however, with the artists' portfolio reviews providing genuine suspense, and "Lover" James Darling's attempts to slip away from his girlfriend's side in order to pick up their ring creating real tension. And when the finale of the Masquerade Contest rolls around, it's like the ending of Rocky as you root for Holly in her amazing Mass Effect 2 get-up.

The talking heads also offer light relief, discussing everything from the geek vs. nerd debate that has been raging for the last decade, to the question as to whether Comic-Con and its attendees smell bad, with Kevin Smith winning the prizes for most and best one-liners.

The result is a charming celebration of Comic-Con and the importance of its fans, with Spurlock never once deriding or poking fun at his subjects. But in failing to ever really scrutinise conventions of this ilk, it remains a superficial one; a film that entertains but fails to educate, and one that never truly gets to the bottom of this truly remarkable phenomenon.

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