A couple of my facebook friends who live in Seoul have mentioned this, in the form of "fuck you Avengers!" etc. and I really don't understand what the big fuss is about. I bike and don't drive or take public transportation, but many episodes of Grimm and Portlandia are filmed right in my neighborhood and main thoroughfares are shut down all the time due to a bridge being build and a condo boom. When I lived in Milwaukee, Johnny Depp's Public Enemies did the same thing (Milwaukee looks a lot like Chicago and is cheaper to film in), and while it may have pissed off some commuters, people were generally like "awesome! They're filming a big movie in my city!" I still watch the Rodney Dangerfield film Back to School, simply for the fact that it was filmed at my alma mater, and stories from my profs and people who lived there at the time said it was utter chaos. But hey, you can see my house from that shot!

The general consensus is "do it on your own turf if you're going to make an insanely expensive shitty movie," but it's not like the movie's not going to be shown in South Korea or anywhere else in the world besides the States. Seoul's an awesome city but like Vancouver BC, it's kind of less known than the big five or six (NY, LA, Chicago, London, Sydney) I'm missing some but you probably get my point. There's no historic landmark to be exploded or battled around like the Empire State Building, Sydney Opera House or Big Ben that automatically connects people with the city. But that can change.

Vancouver for example is typically used for movies that take place in large American cities, which in a way sucks because they'll cut out awesome landmarks like the Science Center and Canada place. I don't know if the Avengers actually go to Seoul or if it's just another cityscape disguised as "Big American City," but it's still a good way to put Seoul on a more mainstream map, which in turn means we might see more movies like The Host.

It's understandable that some South Koreans would be furious at Joss Whedon over this. It's not like they have a democratic government that approved of this in exchange for large amounts of money and that indeed could put an ending to filming any time the public demanded it, that they should be blaming instead.

I am also furious at Jos Whedon.

I hope the Koreans kill him.

I have no strong opinions on Joss Whedon aside from, as someone succinctly pointed out on here a while back, the first Avengers movie was basically just adults playing with their action figures for two hours.

my boyfriend dropped a bottle of beer on his feet on a dance floor.

he was cool.