There had indeed been much hype about the film beforehand. The trailers were looking stunning and the stills amazing. Style was at the fore of the posters and pictures and the trailers and clips we’d seen were suggesting much passion and posturing. It looked epic.
Then came the news of the Berlin Film Festival. There was a single report of booing and people leaving the cinema during the film. It seemed it might have been a misleading campaign. Then the next day the Warner Brothers release comes out and we find the film received a standing ovation at the end and applause during the film.
Who was right? The studio, or the slightly highbrow reviewer? I found out when I got to see the film early followed by an interesting Q&A with Zack Snyder himself.
Snyder introduced the film, and he really didn’t have that much to say about it, apart from one clear message.
“I hope it’s loud, it’s much better when it’s loud, it’s distracting!”
I laughed, and at the same time wondered if there was some truth in that statement.
The film rolled and there was no sound. Suddenly, during the studio titles, the sound kicked in and Snyder’s concerns were cleared. It was loud.
300 is based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel which tells the story of the battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, where the King of Sparta led three hundred of his soldiers against the might of the Persian armies. Vastly outnumbered they try to hold the wave upon wave of Persian attackers back and prevent from invading and enslaving their homeland, all the while the politics of their country keep the full army at home.
[b]Click the link above or below to read the rest of the review…[/b]
http://www.filmstalker.co.uk/archives/2007/02/300.html