Movies! : I Am Iron Man

4-29-2010
(Disclaimer: This particular blog entry is primarily geared toward comic fans, movie fans, fanboys, geeks, dorks, nerds, and Americans. If you're not at least one of these, then read my blog about waffles instead, because everybody loves waffles).

Sooo...I'm just gonna start off by making a simple statement: Iron Man 2 may be the hottest thing I've done in South Korea to date. I don't know what other people are saying; I haven't read any reviews. All I know is that I was on the edge of my seat from start to finish, and I didn't even think of checking my watch (something I do at every movie) until the final scene. There was more action than the first movie, the villain/villains were better, there were TWO Iron Men this time (War Machine), and oh yeah, Mickey freakin' Rourke! I'd go see it again just to hear him speak in Russian again. Put all these things together and I'm almost willing to say that this sequel was better than the original, and the original is arguably the second greatest comic book movie of all time after The Dark Knight. By successfully living up to it's predecessor, this movie falls into that rare category of sophomore efforts that don't suck. Thank you, Marvel Studios, for punching me in the face again with awesomeness.

Now that I've loved on the movie a little bit, I have to admit something to the world and to myself: there is no way that Korea deserves to have this movie released before the U.S. I'm calling this in because, originally, I was genuinely thrilled when I found out that we (Korean audiences, which I am now a part of) would be seeing IM2 before American audiences, if for no other reason than for me to hold it over you guys for a whole week. I now feel undeserving because tonight, which is opening night, there were only 30 people in the theater with me. I seriously don't get it; the first movie was a huge success, this is potentially the biggest blockbuster film of the year, and Asians like movies with big fighting robots...so I don't understand what went wrong. In America, box offices would be sold out on opening night with lines out the door. What's even more unforgivable is that, of the 30, I was the ONLY person in the theater who stayed until after the credits. Didn't you people learn from the first film?! Do you really have somewhere so important to be that you can't stick around? Stay all the way to the end! When the credits ended and I was rewarded with the fade-in of an extra scene, I literally exclaimed out loud to all the people who had vacated the theater 5 minutes earlier, "Suckerssss!!". And, upon the completion of said extra scene (which was sick), I yelled at the top of my lungs, "OH MY GEEZ!!". That's how it is when you get the theater all to yourself. So, for anybody who reads this, especially my fellow Marvel fans (you know who you are), I implore you to not be an ignorant Korean. Go see this movie and stay until after the credits. Your inner geek will thank you.

Grade: A

PS: Free Comic Book Day is on Saturday, May 1st! If you're reading this, go to your local comic shop, pick up a few, and think of me. :)






PPS: I bet you want waffles now.