Photo Courtesy of Brandon Tash Photography
This is the story of my experience when I saw the opening Midnight showing of Iron Man 2. I’ve been waiting to see Iron Man 2 ever since the first one came out. I loved the idea of a Superhero who was primarily a scientist and who was smooth with the ladies. So when my friend said that he wanted to check out Iron Man opening night I was like, “Count me in!” We bought our tickets pre-sale for the Thursday show at the Edwards (Regal) Big Newport Cinema. I was pumped because I knew that the movie would be in the “Gold Concourse” which is said to be the largest non-Imax theater “This side of the Mississippi!” I’ve seen good movies in this theater like Contact and others. The sound system in the “Gold Concourse” is top notch, and it can get pretty loud, but before we heard anything, there was some funny stuff that happened.
I was lucky enough to find a seat in the center-middle of the theater. So that was when the surround sound effects kicked in, I knew that I would get the full immersive experience. But I didn’t know that I was sitting in the middle of a festering war-zone. After a few minutes of sitting down some people busted out some medium-sized beach balls and were bouncing them around the theater. It wasn’t the first time this happened during a premier but it was definitely the funniest. The theater was about 70% capacity and not everyone was paying attention to the bouncing beach ball. So when someone was standing up and not looking around and got hit by the beach ball everyone would make a big deal about it and start clapping and say, “OHHH.” Then some people started cheering, “Iron Man! IRON MAN!” and I was asking myself if they were just pumped for the movie. But in reality the people were cheering this one guy who was actually dressed up as Iron Man! I took a picture with him after the show which is pictured above. He was in the side of the theater doing action poses of using his Repulsor Technology.
Everything was like a fun semi-normal movie premier at Big Newport until something unexpected happened. FLYING TORTILLAS! Suddenly tortillas were getting thrown all over the theater. It was nuts. They were everywhere, making a huge mess of the floor and some people were actually eating them. It was too bad they weren’t El Tortito Grill tortillas or I else I might have eaten a couple myself. The amount of flour tortillas that were being thrown around was getting out of hand…they were EVERYWHERE. Then I realized that at least one group that had the tortillas in bags was sitting right behind me. And I asked, “Where did you get all those tortillas?!?” And this guy with a beard replied, “From Ralph’s…F&*$!” And my friend said, “SERVED!” and I was pretty blown away that anyone would buy tortillas from a Ralph’s Supermarket just so they could start a tortilla fight in the middle of a theater.
Finally the movie theater staff came in and made everyone stop throwing tortillas. And the manager on duty gave out some posters of Iron Man 2. He also presented an actual film copy of the Iron Man 2 trailer. It was pretty cool because it was all wrapped up in a cylinder like you would expect for a film. And it was rare too. Well he decided to give it to someone who could guess the name of Tony Stark’s secretary (pretty easy question, I know). But the girl he first asked didn’t know the answer. So the manager then asked the dude in the iron man outfit who the secretary was, and Iron Man yelled, “Pepper Potts!” and the guy in the costume got the prize. It was the perfect fan to give the film reel to.
When the movie started everyone began cheering. I am not going to give any spoilers about the movie because it just came out this morning. But let me tell you that it is not quite as amazing as Iron Man 1. The movie is very fun to watch and the action is great. It’s just that you don’t get the same vibe that you had in the first movie where Tony Stark has to bust his way out of his confinement in the cave. Also there are a lot more characters in this movie, so the plot isn’t quite as punchy as I would have liked it to be. But overall Iron Man 2 was a fun movie and I am very glad I went to see it opening night. If you are going to watch this one for the previews, you will probably be disappointed. The previews were for movies that I don’t really care about like “The Last Airbender.” That movie can eat a dirt taco for all I care. Also make sure to watch the entire credits and stay for the end. Because there is a short secret ending. I won’t ruin what it is though.
-Tyler