A Scanner Darkly sneak preview at NYCC

The Javits Center in midtown Manhattan is swarming with fanboys this weekend: it's playing host to the first ever New York Comic-Con, a sold-out, three day festival of comics goodness. In addition to the scheduled events (including a Saturday appearance by everyone's favorite Russian action star, Milla Jovovich), a few unexpected goodies have been presented to the faithful, primary among them an exclusive look at the first 30 minutes of Richard Linklater's long-delayed A Scanner Darkly.

The write-up of the screening at IGN describes the film as being dominated by "a sense of crushing paranoia," created by the constant presence of recording devices, and haunting scenes of Big Brother-type surveillance. In addition, the writer was impressed by the movie's representation of the troublesome "scramble suit," which is eerily shown from both the outside and, interestingly, the point of view of its wearer. Impressed by the fluidity of the animation, the writer was also surprised by the tone of the film, which he described at much lighter than the trailer makes it seem.

Obviously, Warner Independent Pictures chose the Comic-Con for the screening because they figured the audience at the event would be predisposed to like the film, so reactions to the clip should probably be taken with a grain of salt. That said, however, this report is awfully encouraging, and actually has me feeling hopeful about the film for the first time. If Linklater's animators finally got a handle on rotoscoping and were in fact able to create an effective visual atmosphere, that could go a long way towards making the film a good one.