BY DAVID SERVER | Hey Guys! Im back, and ready to give my take on some more of the cool stuff that went down in Room 20 of the San Diego Comicon on Saturday. Bear with me here, as in all the excitement I may get the order of events wrong. So lets just get right down to it

BALLISTIC  ECKS VS. SEVER: This new Warner Brothers spy-action-thriller, which is getting surprisingly little attention thus far, opened their panel with the first look at the trailer for the flick. They showed a much worse trailer at the trailer park panel on Friday, so I wasnt expecting much, but the new trailer they showed Saturday really blew me away. For those that dont know, the flick stars a haggard-looking Antonio Banderas as government Agent Ecks, hot on the trail of an Agent gone rogue, Sever (Lucy Liu). When Ecks is betrayed by the people he works for (one of whom is played by Ray Darth Maul Park), he must join with Lius character to survive. Few specific shots jumped out at me, just a lot of cool action scenes scattered throughout. One shot had Liu in a really cool looking hooded trench coat fighting off dozens of enemy agents. Another featured Liu taking out an entire row of armored cars with a pretty intense looking gun. The best shot of the whole thing, however, was a shot of a SWAT looking guy falling off a huge shaft down about 10 stories, with the camera tracking him from a birds-eye-view the whole way down. Very *very* cool shot. This was followed by a Q&A session with stars Lucy Liu, Ray Park, & director Kaos. Liu spoke at length about how difficult it is to get into the film industry as an Asian actress (apparently she was up for both the roles of Catwoman & Elektra in Daredevil, but lost them due to her ethnicity). Liu also spoke about how she did occasionally get tagged during fight scenes, but never by Ray Park, being the professional fighter that he is. Ray barely spoke at all, except to mention that he still plans on doing Marvels Iron Fist as his next film, and will not be appearing again as Toad in X2 (which is a shame). Kaos, who seemed like a pretty cool guy and was happy to be at the con, mentioned that his strange name is actually a nickname that just stuck with him, and that this is his first American film. He was also happy to talk at length about the falling shot that was so cool in the trailer, and how hard it was to film it correctly. Hats off to Kaos, this flick looks like its definitely worth checking out.

DREAMCATCHER: The Dreamcatcher panel began with footage from the film, which played a lot like an extended version of the trailer currently making the rounds. Honestly, and keep in mind I havent read the book, I just flat out didnt understand most of the footage. What is this movie about exactly? Is it a virus? Or an alien or something? Or is the point that you dont know what it is? Either way, this footage didnt do much for me except gross me out. There was a shot of a guy on a toilet, who was falling apart in bloody chunks, while also going to the bathroom. I mean, does that description make *you* want to run out and see this movie? Regardless, if you were unimpressed with the trailer on the net and in theaters now, this wouldnt do much for you either. This was followed by a Q&A session with stars Jason Lee (MallRats, Mumford) & Timothy Olyphant (Go, Gone in 60 Seconds). I was really looking forward to this panel, cause I love Lee (what self respecting film geek doesnt?) and really dug Olyphant in Go. Sadly, and not due to the stars themselves but due mostly to the audience, the session was a pretty disappointing one. Most of the time was occupied by people asking Lee to say lines from MallRats (I must admit that was I pretty happy when Lee screamed, That kid is *back* on the escalator again!!!), or asking for pictures and signatures. Also, the crowd was a bit rude to Olyphant, since most of the audience was unfamiliar with his work. He received few questions, which were usually gags anyways (What was it like working with Jason Lee?, or What movies *were* you in?). It was all pretty funny, but uninformative. Lee did mention that he was hoping to work with Kevin Smith on Fletch Won if possible, which was cool.

THE ANIMATRIX: While I was hoping for some new footage from The Matrix Reloaded, and was slightly disappointed to hear that they had decided to promote Animatrix instead, what they did show was pretty groovy. It was basically a very tightly edited trailer for the anime-style anthology series, all of which were inspired by The Matrix series. A few of the shots were done in traditional anime style, while some of the shots in the trailer were CG provided by SquareSoft, the people behind the Final Fantasy flick. Brief, but neat nonetheless.

TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES: Ah, the T3 panel  this was a pretty sweet panel indeed. First off, director Johnathan Mostow came out, as had been planned, and spoke of his excitement about being involved in the Terminator series. He then announced special guest, the Terminator himself, was there: Arnold Schwarzenegger!! That was a sweet surprise, and definitely one of the highlights of the con. They then played a new trailer for the flick, which was very cool. Heres a run down:

• A motorcycle speeds down the road through the darkness.
• Nick Stahl (the new John Conner): "My name is John Conner. I live off the grid. No one, nothing, can find me. If we changed the future, why am I still running? If it's safe now, why am I hiding?" This line was delivered as Conner drops a beer bottle off a bridge into the water below.
• The interior of a lab where robotic construction is underway.
• A fiery car crashes into a wall, and Arnold emerges, holding a shotgun (this footage is where the first publicity shot from T3 came from).
• Claire Danes looks up in horror.
• A quick silhouette shot of the TX running down a hallway.
• Arnold hefting a casket on his back fleeing a cemetery, while being fired upon by dozens. He then returns fire with a huge gun (awesome scene).
• A new robot, which looks like a cross between ED from RoboCop and the redesigned Robot from the Lost in Space flick. Very sweet looking.
• Various shots of the classic silver Terminator skeleton being constructed.
• A final shot features Arnold with half his metal skull showing through his skin, as he says to someone (off camera) "Desire is irrelevant. I am a machine."

It was a very impressive trailer, followed by a brief but informative Q&A session. One person asked point blank if Mostow would ruin the franchise like Schumacher did with the Batman films (youch!). Mostow replied confidently that he felt he was making the movie that, as a fan of the original Cameron directed flicks, he himself would like to see. He also proudly boasted that there were some really cool robots in this flick. Arnold mentioned that Conan 3 is just on the verge of a greenlight, and that he really enjoyed making comedies, as opposed to movies like Predator where hes half naked covered in mud freezing his butt off. I cant wait for this T3 trailer to hit the net, its very cool and Id love to catch it again.

Well, one last update to go, including my personal favorite moments of the con (the X-Men 2 presentation) and more. Stay tuned, CDers! Back in a flash!