Atlas Shrugged Part 1

Just saw Atlas Shrugged Part 1 (right after work so I could take advantage of matinée pricing) and I'd probably give it 3 "Netflix stars." As a die-hard Rand fan I was hoping for more, but given the really low budget I thought it on par with what I could reasonably expect. Some of the acting seemed too stiff or "unheartfelt" and there were weird freeze frame bits to announce when someone else disappeared, or went on strike as people familiar with the story would call it. Aside from that I thought it was OK.

The primary problem now, as well as for the last 50 years, is still the scope and complexity of the project. There were a lot of things I understood that were happening in Part 1 that people unfamiliar with the story would not understand. I think it would also be extremely difficult to get this book, which is basically a school of philosophy wrapped in a little bit of story, to translate well to a film for the masses.

I refrained from reading more than just a couple of critics' blurbs before going to see the movie for myself, and now that I have seen the film and have been reading more about it most of the reviews against the movie really didn't seem to understand what they were commenting on. They almost always portrayed a simplistic view of a "movie about trains" or "a couple rich, white people." A couple reviewers did latch on to a lot of technical stuff that could have been done better with either more time or a larger budget. This project will probably be more appreciated once the other two parts are completed and the entire story can be seen.