Atlas Shrugged The Movie--Actually Good?

Huh.  Interesting early indicator on the movie adaptation of Atlas Shrugged.  Excerpts:

They got it right.

Sure I would have loved to see the $40 million dollar version of the same movie, but the bottom line is that it works and works well. With the executive summary out of the way, let’s go into a bit more detail about the film itself. (If you want to read about my night out at the premiere, that’s here.)...

The story is really the star here. It’s a film on gleaming blue rails that carefully follow the curves of the landscape Ayn Rand created over 50 years ago. There won’t be any unpleasant surprises for devotees of the novel. No Jar-Jar moments to make you cringe. In fact, the producers have put together a top notch cast of character actors, many of whom will be familiar to audiences even if their names aren’t quite household words...

The overall impression is of a very well crafted indie film. The budget (around $10 million according to this site) is sufficient but obviously precluded some of the grand sets and throwaway beauty shots that a $30-40 million bankroll would have made possible. Still, the story is the star here and once that gets going it seems to pick up speed right until the end. In fact, I was actually surprised when it was over that the time had gone by so quickly.

Of course at just an hour an forty minutes fans of the book will notice there was a lot that had to be streamlined and/or simplified. No doubt some purists will have a problem with any changes, but I understand why the producers went the way they did. They wanted this to be accessible to a wide audience, not just the die hards. Still, I would happily watch a director’s cut with an additional 20 minutes of footage should one ever become available.

If I were to compare this to anything it would be to the Swedish films based on Stieg Larsson’s popular novels (i.e. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Those were produced with similar (slightly larger) budgets and I felt they were some of the best films released last year. Like those films, Atlas Shrugged part 1 is well written, well acted and well directed. Indeed, it’s better than most big studio films. Having seen it, I’m very hopeful it will find an appreciative audience and, in true Randian form, a very profitable release. I’m already planning to see it a second time when it opens in theaters April 15th and, needless to say, I’m looking forward to part 2.