Comic Con - Episode IV: A Fan's Hope - DVD Review

Comic Con - Episode IV: A Fan's Hope - DVD Review

Rating M
Released by Madman Home Entertainment

Morgan Spurlock returns in this new doco put together with Stan Lee and Joss Whedon, examining the phenomenon that is San Diego's annual Comic Con and the masses who descend upon it.

Spurlock stays behind the camera on this one, opting to use a whole heap of famous talking heads and the people who attend the nerd fest to explain its appeal. Interestingly though, he chooses to follow the Con through the eyes of some different attendees - two wannabe comic book artists, a fan wanting to propose to his girlfriend during a Kevin Smith panel, a comic seller who goes every year and is now facing the possibility of needing to sell a rare comic to stay afloat and a troop of costume designers looking for an award.

If you're a fan of the convention and know a little of it all from attending the NZ Armageddon event, you'll know what to expect in this - and to be frank, if you're au fait with it all, it offers nothing new - but to everyone else, it's a fascinating, well executed fun doco which is reverential and respectful rather than mocking and taking cheap shots at people dressed up in costumes.

From great talking heads - Joss Whedon, Stan Lee, Kevin Smith, Olivia Wilde, Robert Kirkman - there's plenty of insight and it's well paced and extremely watchable.

Spurlock's pulled together something which offers up a world some may never see and balanced it with giving fans of the genre more access to the event that they may not have had before.

Extras: Extended interviews and stuff from the cutting room floor - not much in the way of bonus content but a way of extending the experience more than anything.

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