Controversy Over Controversy - Was “300″ Booed At A European Critic’s Screening?
Author: Stephen Gerding
February 21st, 2007
Recently, Cinematical reported that during the a European film critics screening of “300″ in Berlin, there was steady booing from the start of the movie through the closing credits.
It started shortly after the opening credits; small groups of folks began heading for the door. It got worse when the main villain appeared on screen and all the audience could do was laugh. And, yes, it ended when whatever was left of a packed house booed Zack Snyder’s 300 as the end credits scrolled up the screen
The Cinematical article finishes up by predicting “300″ will be a huge bomb, not only overseas but in the states as well. However, when moviemaker/blogger AJ Schnak looked into the situation, he found that things weren’t quite so cut and dried. In fact, what he’s dug up shows quite a few positive reactions from the audience.
The problem? Some pretty big critics and film writers were already weighing in. And they liked 300. From Todd McCarthy at Variety:
“The Spartans fight to the last manly man in “300,” a blustery, bombastic, visually arresting account of the Battle of Thermopylae as channeled through the rabid imagination of graphic novelist Frank Miller. Rendered by director Zack Snyder in a manner very similar to last year’s Miller adaptation “Sin City,” except in full color, this is a steroid-fueled fever dream about self-realization through extreme violence. In the larger picture, the cartoonish history lesson inescapably describes a monumental East vs. West conflagration, which might be greeted with muted enthusiasm in the Middle East. Action addicts in general and carnivorous fanboys in particular will chow down on this bloody feast.”
The end result is that there’s now just as much press coverage on the press coverage of “300″ as there is the movie itself, and the fallout seems to have left Cinematical’s reviewer, Erik Davis, running for the hills. I’m not quite sure how I feel about it all, but it’s certainly an interesting development and probably serves as some sort of meta-commentary on today’s society.
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2 Responses to “Controversy Over Controversy - Was “300″ Booed At A European Critic’s Screening?”
February 21st, 2007 at 7:00 am
People going into this film thinking it’s going to be some kind of masterpiece are setting themselves up for disappointment.
March 15th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Well seeing how the best thing Hollywood has had to offer in the last year or so was the average at best movie THE DEPARTED, I would say that 300 was and is a good movie, as well as a nice change from the politically correct ball-less movies that have flooded the market lately. Most people know that this movie is more of a phantasy type of flick. A huge success and I think the ticket sales prove that it is a good movie.