Thoughts on David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” of which 20 minutes of selected footage, “selected scenelets,” was screened for audiences at the Telluride film festival, are mixed thus far. At first I was jealous of them for seeing at least a portion of the film before everyone else, but then I started reading around and most of the reactions are downright pathetic. I guess I’d rather see it as a whole, than just get out-of-context snippets. What do the naysayers want exactly? “Fight Club 2″? Well, apparently, if you go in with that mentality you are just setting yourself up for disappointment. If you intend to read any of these reactions like I did, ensure you have a salt shaker handy. All I am saying.

Peter Scrietta of /Film said: “The footage I screened tonight was met with disappointment and concern. There are moments of magic and wonder, but interrupted and surrounded by moments which had me questioning, “Is this really the best footage he has?” “I’m still excited to see the finished product, I’m just a little disappointed. Could it be that the film wasn’t what I expected, or maybe not what I wanted?” Um, I guess so. But you have not seen the film, you saw 20 minutes of it.

Karina Longworth doesn’t get any of this “bad buzz” hysteria that is being hyped up: “I hadn’t heard this bad buzz––the handful of people I’ve spoken to who saw the show reel either last night or this morning had generally positive things to day, aside from some general skepticism as to what the film’s reported two and a half hour final cut will look and feel and play like.”

She was way more enthusiastic about the preview, “it’s impressive. It’s absolutely gorgeous, for starters. Coming as it did after a show reel featuring excerpts from Fincher’s music videos and adverts (both cut into a montage set to “How Soon is Now?” by The Smiths, weirdly and unadvisedly divorcing both pop and product promos from what they were made to promote) and each of his features aside from Alien³, it’s clear that Fincher has moved beyond the cool blacks and blues with florescent highlights that have thus far defined his visual style. It’s a period epic, so the broader visual palette makes sense, but it came as a relief that, within all this beauty, the effects used to transform Pitt first into an 80-year-old man and then backwards into a child felt of a piece and not overwhelmingly effect-y.” She goes into detail as to what she she at the screening, which I did not read, but feel free to do so yourself.

As is Anne Thompson, “The movie is gorgeously mounted in minute period detail, complete with swooping crane shots and intricate camera moves; Button has a burnished sepia polish.” And that “”Certainly there’s never been anything like it.”

Jeff Wells and his timely friends that always seem to have something to say, “My friends had one unqualified positive reaction, which was to the performance by Taraji P. Henson as Brad Pitt’s adoptive mother. But beyond that, the Button footage felt vaguely underwhelming,” they said. “It just wasn’t particularly exciting or engrossing, one explained. Excellent visual effects (old Pitt as a baby, etc.) and fine cinematography but with a kind of enervated, waiting-for-something-to-happen quality. The footage showed portions of the entire film, the other friend said, but in a way that kept you from getting into it with cuts coming too abruptly. And so people were kind of…whatever, grunting and muttering on the way out.”

FirstShowing, similar to /Film in response, “The result was quite unimpressive, but I’m left wondering whether it was the editor to blame for this 20 minute cut or whether the film really has problems…There is one thing that will never change with David Fincer – his movies have always and will always look amazing.”