There were a lot of things that I wanted to talk about last year but just didn't get around to. That's the beauty of year end reviews, you can just go back and throw them all together. So first up, I wanted to talk about some of my movie experiences last year.
Iron Man: I loved Iron Man. He's been an interesting character and a staple of the Marvel universe but now he is truly one of the superstars. Robert Downey Junior was just awesome; he was perfect as Tony Stark. The suit looked perfect as well, definitely one of the best transitions from printed page to movie outfits ever. So I can't wait for the sequel. I am disappointed that Terrence Howard got booted. I really wanted to see him in the War Machine armor for the sequel(he is a major character in the Iron Man comics and is the first man Tony trusts with using his own armor). So yeah, I think it was one of the best movies I saw last year and definitely one of the best comic book adaptions ever, but let me tell you about my Korean experience.
Man I really wish I could have watched this movie at the Chinese in Hollywood, or at least with an American audience. You see, all the military industrial complex references hit a little too close to home for Korean audiences. The character of Tony Stark is supposed to be a characterture of the wealthy American business dealer who finally see's the error of his ways. The speech he gives when he introduces the Jericho missile is supposed to be funny and ironic, but nobody in the audience laughed. My Korean friend didn't like the movie because people like Tony just don't change and do the things like that. I have had a number of friends and people I have met here(though not the one I saw the movie with) tell me that the main reason America is in Korea is because of all the money it makes selling weapons to Korea. Now, this could be a whole other post in and of itself, so I will save it for later, but yes, Korea gets most of its imported weapons from the US. So the view of an arrogant US arms dealer as a hero hits a little too close to home here. Not to say that the movie wasn't very popular and did very well here, and not all Korean's felt the way my friend did. But, I know the audience reaction would have been very different in the US. Then again, try watching Rush Hour in Korea, Chris Tucker might as well be an alien. That's just culture and of course goes both ways, but it was an interesting experience.
Indiana Jones: So after seeing Iron Man I really wanted to see Indiana Jones with a group of fans. Enter the Metropolitician(Michael). Scribblings of the Metropolitician (sometimes has profanity)is one of the blogs that I regularly read about Korea. He was also my photography teacher and runs one of the main Korean fashion websites in English along with a new street photo business (feetman seoul, loveshot Korea). Incidentally he is also a DC fan and a HUGE Obama supporter and a fellow movie buff, so we have lots of fun things to talk about. He has also lived in Korea for years, speaks it well, and is half Korean himself. He has had a number of unfortunate incidents though while living in Korea (like when he called to police because he was being assaulted by a Korean man and the police arrested HIM for hitting the drunk Korean). Being a tall half-Black/half-Korean man with a big camera taking pictures on the street can sometimes be dangerous work, but I digress. The point is that I saw on his website that he wanted to get a group together to go see Indiana Jones. I jumped at the offer and so our friendship was born. With fevered anticipation about 25 of us (mostly foreigners) filled two rows of the Yongsan CGV cinema(my new favorite theater here, sorry Megabox, it's just so much closer to my apartment, and has IMAX) and waited for an Indiana Jones fix decades in the making. Meh. Yeah it was disappointing. There were a lot of things that I really liked about it, and many things that I didn't. Yep, it felt like the Star Wars sequels, but not as bad because at least it had Harrison Ford. I actually really liked Shia Labouf (except for the Tarzan scene) and would certainly watch another Indiana Jones movie with him with the whip. Another thing I found interesting is why in the previous three movies Indy has gone after Hebrew, Hindu, and Christian relics and I didn't bat an eye, but for some reason aliens didn't sit too well with me. Now that I think about it though, one of the benefits of grounding the Mcguffin (look it up if you don't know what that is, heh heh) in an established religion is that you automatically have the cultural history and backstory that sets up the quest. But with the aliens, you never really knew why they were there, what they wanted, or why they punished the Nazi chick other then the fact that she was the villain and had to die. All that being said, it was still not a bad movie, just not a great one. I ended up liking Mummy 3 more, but more on that later.
The Dark Knight: Here it is, if you didn't see it in IMAX (and there was an IMAX within 100 miles of you) shame on you. I teamed up with Mike again and this time we had 56 people in our group. Here is his post on the ticket buying experience along with some pictures he took when we bought the tickets. It was really fun to watch the theater worker count out all our tickets. Here is a picture (stolen from Mike's site) of all of our seats.
Yep, we basically had to take up most of the first 4 rows of the theater. Also amazingly, pretty much everyone who signed up showed up for the flick. It was a blast to watch it with fellow movie and comic enthusiasts. Now on to the movie, well we all know that it is one of the best pictures of the year, and a great adaption of a comic book character to film. While comic books continue to get the rep as SLAM BAM kiddie stuff, movie like TDK and Spider-man 2 show how comics can also tell much more mature stories with difficult issues contained within. About the movie, the best compliment that I feel I can give it is that I cannot remember the last time I felt so much...tension while watching a movie. Once the Joker pulled his fast one with Rachel and Harvey I literally had no idea how the movie was going to go. Chris Knowlen had completely surprised me and I was in movie bliss. The climax with the ferries was just that much more intense because I had no idea what was going to happen, none, and that is not a feeling I often get in movies. Usually you know such and such will happen, the good guy will do this, the bad guy that. If it's a Korean movie, somebody is probably going to die, and if it's a romance after a serious misunderstanding they will finally admit their love to each other. I don't exactly have a problem with movies being predictable. In fact sometimes when a film changes the formula simply for the sake of change it bothers me. The art is all in the execution. Boy meets girl, boy looses girl, boy wins girl back (or vice versa) is a standard tale, but has so many different versions that we can enjoy it over and over again(some of us can). But for TDK it was an amazing ride. I had to digest it afterwards. Was it flawless, no. And to be completely honest, I "enjoyed" Iron Man more, though I think TDK is a better movie (they both are two of the best action/adventure movies ever made, let alone comic movies). I was genuinely sad when Heath Ledger lost his life. He was one of my favorite young actors and A Knights Tale is still one of my favorite movies (one of the best blending of historical and modern settings ever, and just darn FUN!). But he just illustrates again that drugs kill, prescription or otherwise abuse is fatal. He does own the Joker now, one of my favorite aspects was that there was no origin, in fact he kept changing it. That was the clown prince of chaos. There are so many incredible actors in that movie it just boggles my mind. Anyways, it was an incredible movie experience.
Hellboy II: Without a doubt, the most FUN I had at the movies all year. I loved this movie. I saw it with a smaller group, Mike and few others, and we had a BLAST. Guiermo del Torro is just a visionary master. I love his imagination. Not since Tim Burton (one of my favorite directors) have I seen a director so clearly place his imagination onto celluloid. I really liked the first Hellboy. I never read the comics because I don't particularly like Mike Magnola's art style but the movie was great. The second was just that much better. I laughed more during that movie than in a long time. It was funny, cool, exciting, and a visual masterpiece. Really too bad that it came out the week before TDK because it deserved more attention. The only complaint I have is that the ending was just so obvious, but I still enjoyed it.
Quantum of Solace: Man am I bummed I missed this in the theaters, but it came out during the hight of my thesis work and I missed it, oh well. Mike has a home theater system with a HD projector in his apartment, I'll make him give me a screening when the Blue-Ray disk comes out.
Justice League: New Frontier- This one only came out on DVD. If you are at all a DC fan, you MUST watch this movie. As much as I loved TDK and Iron Man, I would honestly have to say that THIS was the best comic book movie of 2008. Man I would love to see a GOOD Flash movie (I loved the tv show).
D-War: I don't know if any of you saw D-war, or "Dragon Wars" in the states. It was a Korean movie about dragons tearing up Los Angeles. Now, for any one who did see it, and saw how bad it was I feel I must defend it just a little. You see, you haven't seen the directors first attempt to make a Western movie...Yongary. If you want to punish yourself, go to a video store and rent "Reptillian"(that's it's US name). Just make sure you have some friends with you so you can make fun of it properly. Man it was bad. I really do think he just found whatever white people he could on the streets of Seoul and put them in his movie. So, if you see how much farther he has come, you would cut him a little slack. Besides, D-War was still WAAAAAAAY better than Godzilla and A LOT of the crap that Hollywood makes(The Avengers springs to mind as well).
The Good, the Bad, and the Weird: The best Korean movie I saw this year. This movie has been making the rounds at film festivals in the states, if you get a chance to see it in the theater, have fun. Of course it is a take off of Clint Eastwood westerns, but very well done. The action sequences are great and I loved the music. Plus the three main actors were awesome. I can't wait to get this movie on DVD. Also, I got to watch it in the theaters because at Yongsan CGV (my afore-mentioned new favorite theater) they sometimes have English subtitles for the big Korean releases in one of their theaters...pure awesomeness.
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