Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope

As a diehard comic book fan myself, this sympathetic look at the iconoclastic geek world & the almost tribal significance of the Con doesn't need 2 do much more than exist 2 get my vote. Fortunately it does: primarily by wisely avoiding being "only" informative 2 the non-geek audience & giving us several fans 2 actually care about & root for. Their respective journeys 2 the Con are about far more than snagging a mint copy of Xmen 137, & may conceivably result in them changing their lives.

Positive: Spurlock lets his subjects speak for themselves, allowing these 'geeks' to express their creativity, as well as their love of fandom, without imposing any kind of narrative onto their lives. Negative: He missed the opportunity to demonstrate that the behaviour of these 'outsiders' is not really all that 'bizarre' or 'weird' in an era of reality television and the near pathological obsession with celebrity. Lack of judgement alone is not enough. He needed a better framing device

I've always enjoyed Morgan Spulock's documentaries. He finds a way to humanize every topic and make it relateable on a number of levels. That doesn't change in "Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope". Rather than making it just about the event itself, he finds various characters and perspectives, showing what the Con means to them and their lives. Though it's a love letter to the world of Comics and Sci-Fi, the human stories of triumph, love and hope can make it interesting to anyone with a heart.

Spurlock makes the largest nerd gathering in the world seem puny with this amateurish documentary. There was little actually shown of Comic-Con; the film instead preferred to show people talking about it. However, there is some humor and insight presented by various notable figures, which is somewhat redeeming.

It was entertaining enough. It didn't really show much that I didn't already know about Comic-Con, even though I've never been. It was a serviceable documentary that covered all the basics, but it wasn't really anything special. I liked hearing from certain celebrities though.

There are some feel good moments here, but in the end it's just one giant circlejerk. If for any reason you're interested in this film for Morgan Spurlock rather than Comic Con, I'd say stay away. There's no authourship here. Any fan could have made this film.

This documentary was fairly enjoyable, which may have been the point because if it was trying to inform or anything like that, it didn't do a very good job. The film didn't really do anything special which would make me actively recommend this to anyone, but if you're trying to pass some time you could do a lot worse.

As a comic book guy, this doc should've tickled my fancy, yet it never really did. Very light on content, and it shows surprisingly little of the Con itself.

"Morgan Spurlock has little to say about Comic-Con other than that its attendees value it on a par with Christmas." - Nick Schager

A simple story about people doing what they love, further helping to humanize a segment of the population that still finds itself at the receiving end of a big-assed paddle with the words "grow up, nerds" branded into the side.

Too much Kevin Smith (any is too much), not enough costume design (good and bad), I give it a few bonus points for the couple that got engaged.

There's not a whole lot of insight to be found here, and the talking head documentary wore out its welcome years ago, but it was nice to see artists trying to break into the industry. Smith and Whedon provide a much-needed jolt of humor.