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February 20, 2007
When blogs attack: was 300 booed at Berlin?
AJ Schnack has an entertaining, completist survey of the tempest-in-an-HTML surrounding blog-borne talk of alleged booing of 300 at its premiere. How do rumors start in the modern age? "High profile film appears at 
major European film festival, reports soon circulate the film is roundly booed, followed by further reports that question whether the booing was universal or was conducted by a small, yet vocal, minority of members of the press... So here we have Cinematical's Erik Davis filing a somewhat breathless report... that Zack Snyder's upcoming theatrical version of Frank Miller's graphic novel 300 [inspired by the] Battle of Thermopylae, between the vast Persian army and a small number of well-trained Spartan warriors) had received a "chorus of boos" in Berlin... The problem? Some pretty big critics and film writers [disagreed]." They liked 300, including Variety's Todd McCarthy, who called it "blustery, bombastic, visually arresting." Anne Thompson at the Reporter calls it a "hugely entertaining, over-the-top action adventure." Schnack cites a raft of reviews, then notes that "Davis' initial post... initially failed to note that the screening in question was a press screening... In response, Davis first dismissed any previous positive reviews... But later, expressed concern and confusion over the vitriolic response: "Wow, never in my life have I received so many hurtful comments after a review... What I said happened at the screening, happened at the screening. Yes, it was my fault for not specficially stating it was a press screening early on—but I did add it in later—frankly, I had a deadline and another movie to catch and was asked to write the story up real fast." Reported GreenCine: "(F)or every cheerer at the press screening there was at least one booer, and the battle was on as the credits rolled." Wait, there was cheering at the screening too? And the cheering press was battling against the booing press during the end credits? Well, where is that in Davis' reporting?" [More entertaining and informative give-and-take at the link.]
Posted by Ray Pride at February 20, 2007 06:35 PM
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