Wild Reactions To Early 300 Screenings

By Josh Tyler: 2007-02-15 14:06:00

There are few movies I’m looking forward to more this year than Zack Snyder’s heavily stylized Spartan battle movie 300. The trailers are beautiful, but early reactions to the film seem to be all over the map.

Some seem almost giddy with the idea of knocking it down a peg or two, and so a few early reports have drifted out indicating boos at certain early screenings of the film. For instance Richard at FilmStalker spotted a piece on Cinematical in which they claim to have attended a press screening of the film at the Berlin Film Festival. Their report indicates that audience hated it. No, hated it isn’t strong enough. Loathed might be more appropriate. They say, “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.” It only snowballed as the thing rolled along and they report, “it ended when whatever was left of a packed house booed Zack Snyder's 300 as the end credits scrolled up the screen.”

European audiences, and especially European film festival audiences are however, notoriously fickle. They tend to be pretty eager to boo. Yet at the exact same festival, during the official premiere screening (which was apparently separate from the one Cinematical attended), 300 got the exact opposite reaction. Warner Brothers just sent me a note claiming that at the sold out premiere the film received a standing ovation. They say, “The screening was interrupted again and again by spontaneous applause and cheers from the 1700 strong audience.”

Two screenings, at the same festival, in the same city. What are we supposed to believe? Well, so far Cinematical’s the only place I’ve seen with a truly negative review of the film. Elsewhere, it’s getting positive to mixed-positive reviews. AICN and IGN have already filed multiple reviews of the movie. None of them even comes close to being filled with the absolute hatred and vitriol of Cinematical’s review. I’m not suggesting that they made up the audience reaction they reported at their screening, but sometimes when you watch a movie and have a strong reaction to it yourself, you see the kind of reaction in the audience that you want to see. If you ask Joel Siegel what the audience he saw Clerks II with thought of the film, he’d likely tell you they all hated it too. Judging from the movie’s reviews, they didn’t. Were there boos at Cinematical’s screening? Probably. Was it as bad as Cinematical thinks it was? I’m a little bit skeptical. Perhaps the jeers they heard were simply their own.

To get a feel for what happened at the 300 premiere in Berlin, check out our red carpet photo gallery here.

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