Test Screening review of 300

Test Screening review of 300

Bits of News.com

Friday, 18 August 2006

Written by Brendon Connelly

There's been an early test screening of "300", from the comic book by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, and reports have started to pop up all over the place online. A friend of a friend was there, and we managed to get their comments, exclusively...

First of all, he couldn't stop talking about Lena Headey. We'll get this out of the way right up front: yes, she appears topless, and yes, he said this was worth the price of admission alone. Most people will recognise her only from The Brothers Grimm, but she has a strong track record that goes back a lot further, including some very hard-edged British TV. Our test audience chum was smitten with her, it seems.

He called her performance "amazing", "stunning", "excoriating" and Ms. Headey herself "amazing", "stunning" and "as fit as a butcher's dog".

Next up, we did manage to turn the conversation onto the special effects - the only thing this mangeek chum loves more than a pair of bare breasts. As you may or may not know, the film was shot against greenscreen with the backgrounds composited in afterwards - ala Sin City, or Sky Captain. In this early print the effects were apparently unfinished, though to hear our spy tell it, almost all of them looked spot on. What's more, he even went so far to claim this film had the best special effects he had ever seen. EVER.


In the battle sequences when limbs and heads are getting lopped off everywhere, the effect is apparently seemless. Actors running around one minute, falling, flailing, spurting blood the next. He couldn't work out how it was done but it almost made him explode with joy.

So, our friend here likes boobies and gore. What a surprise. As I type he's already on his way to a screening of Snakes on a Plane. I asked him about that and he said:

"We'll soon forget Snakes. 300 is the next Snakes on a Plane. Its the next film the net is going to go monkey-nut-bananas for. Except, it's actually good whereas Snakes isn't. Apparently. On purpose. And 300 doesn't have Samuel L Jackson - but it does have Gerard Butler."

We clarified that Gerard Butler at no point utters the word m*therf***er in the film and changed the subject to the plotting and directing. Superlative praise was poured on each.

We begin with a brief prologue, then straight into an ambush scenario, and then, the film's main situation - an army of 300 against another of thousands -gets really, really cranked up really pretty quickly. There's suspense - will back up arrive to help them in time? And will they need it?

Our friend tells us that the suspense is brilliantly handled.

"There's a balance necessary. The 300 have to pwn the big army enough so that you'll believe they might make it, but get worn down just enough that you understand that they might not."

And do they get worn down? "Hell yeah."

He compared the film to Bravehart then asked us to scratch that from the notes - no way! - and then revised his comparison to The Two Towers. Another couple of seconds and he was correcting himself again.

"The Return of the King. But bigger. Bloodier. Faster. The Return of the King meets Oldboy. With sex."

Sounds like the a slam dunk. 300 hits US cinemas in March of next year. We'll be grilling our friend after Snakes, and if he has anything salient to add, we'll be back with more.


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