By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
Kim Hyun-joo, a 20-year-old college student, waited for over four hours in a heavy downpour Tuesday evening for the Seoul premiere of ``Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.''
``I'm a big fan of the movie's male lead Shia LaBeouf so I waited since 6 p.m. (for the 9'o clock premiere), but I went home around 10 because I got too cold,'' she told The Korea Times. On the outdoor stage of CGV Yongsan, close to 3,000 raincoat-clad fans awaited the arrival of LaBeouf, his co-star Megan Fox and director Michael Bay, according to the domestic distributor CJ Entertainment.
The Hollywood stars arrived at Gimpo International Airport around 7 p.m. and the red carpet ceremony began one-and-a-half hours late. Nevertheless the majority of the participants stayed.
``I've literally been here for about an hour. What I've experienced of Korea is `pooh!' explosive. It's the craziest premiere I've ever been to. I've never seen anything like that on TV either,'' LaBeouf, who turned 23 today, told reporters the following morning in Daechi-dong, southern Seoul. ``Everyone was still there (despite the delay) and people were so dedicated,'' he said.
When the press conference was also postponed for about half an hour, a few members of the media left but most eventually sat back down, giving way to a rather disorganized mood.
``I gave them free movie tickets,'' said Bay. ``Our plane was late, I'm sorry.'' Bay said that Korea was not originally included in the Paramount press tour. ``I made it a point of coming back here because (Transformers) was so well received,'' he said.
The Asia premiere for Transformers was held in Seoul in 2007 and the action flick attracted over 7.4 million viewers, making it the highest grossing foreign film in Korean box office history.
``I have a question for you guys, why are (my movies) so well received here?'' said the filmmaker. ``But anyway I'm very excited for you to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. It's just a bigger venture, covers a wider scope, and travels around the world… The robot animation is far superior than (that of) the last movie.''
The globe-trotting Steven Spielberg production cost $200 million, features about five times as many robots than the first franchise, and takes viewers from the Egyptian Pyramids to Shanghai, China. ``It was very fun but also very complicated and very challenging,'' said the 44-year-old.
Transformers is about two warring alien races that endanger local life when they choose Earth as a battlefield. Normally disguised as cars, radios and other gadgets, they ``transform'' into their original high-tech robotic forms. Sam, an average teenager played by LaBeouf, and his girlfriend Mikaela (Fox), help out Sam's car-cum-good robot Bumblebee fight the evil Decepticons. In Transformers 2, Sam must deal with not only college life and a long distance relationship with Mikaela, but also the potential destruction of the entire universe.
``Last time (in the first movie) we were actually not sure if the movie even worked,'' said Bay about the groundbreaking technology employed to combine live action and computer-generated imagery for the robots. Over 500 artists worked on the latter part for over one-and-a-half years, with a focus on making the robots' acting more realistic.
``The movie is so hard to make it's a real bonding experience where everyone's involved,'' said Fox about rejoining the cast. The actors said it was difficult to act opposite robots that weren't really there, and required memorizing not only lines but also imagined movements of the 3D characters.
LaBeouf went on to say that, as someone who grew up as a fan of the original cartoon, it was ``amazing'' to be part of ``the biggest movie of the year'' featuring ``the biggest explosions, the biggest sets ever created, the biggest sets Paramount ever created.''
``I don't consider my films just explosion fests,'' said Bay, the explosion-maestro extraordinaire of ``Armageddon'' and ``Pearl Harbor.'' The Transformers series ``deals with the idea of heroism and putting yourself before others in terms of sacrificing yourself,'' he said.
The director said he likes ``creating entertainment'' but would also work on smaller films. He had not been able to realize a dark comedy based on a true story he had wanted to do for a long time. ``But I consider these type of movies (Transformers) as something that transcends everywhere, and it's made for all ages.''
Meanwhile, Fox was asked to comment on her controversial statement about actresses being ``like prostitutes.'' The screen beauty said that all actors in general were ``like prostitutes,'' not just actresses. ``We are prostitutes. We're products that are bought and sold, and especially for women, our job is to sell sex. I don't mean it to be controversial, it's just an observation,'' she said.
Transformers 2 opens in theaters worldwide June 24. 147 minutes. Distributed in Korea by CJ Entertainment.