Like at least 7 other people, I went to see the first part of Atlas Shrugged in theatres.
And despite years of hype that it would be an Angelina Jolie starred/directed/blessed production, the 2011 result was a salmagundi of gripping action, stilted dialogue, painful acting, and a discount Winona Ryder as Dagny Taggart.
It’s hard to listen to a woman talking about the government stealing when you’re pretty sure she’s shoplifted at Saks.
But they deserved another chance.
I read that Part II had an all new cast. As a stickler for continuity, I cringed.
“Caddyshack II”, I shuddered.
And 20 minutes into the movie, I cringed, and I shuddered.
“Oh shit”, I thought. “They just window-dressed the same damn whorehouse”.
The social interactions were sheer autism.
And then, as if by some Randian miracle, things started picking up immediately after Teller’s cameo (Teller, from Penn & Teller).
Magic, I tell you.
The characters were more relaxed. The cinematography flowed naturally instead of shifting at breakneck speed to create fake action. The dialogue switched from pontification to ponderous.
It was as if the first twenty or so minutes were screen tests and the rest was the actual movie.
The film is timely and eviscerates the Occupy movement as well as the current political climate. It’s, in many ways, taken straight from the headlines, a cinéma vérité that’s sure to appeal to Rand-lovers (the I-told-you-sos), Rand-haters (evil bitch!), and the Rand-biguous (didn’t she write those long books?) alike.
The cameos had me fist-pumping. J.P. Manoux as a conductor! The guy who played Biff in Back to the Future as a Chairman of the Board! (in which case, if this is actually the future, that’s some Inception-level shit)
That’s not to say it’s perfect by any means. But once you accept the movie’s inherent flaws: non-blockbuster budget, a script that needed to be reduced from twelve-hundred pages of prose, acceptable-but-strained special effects, and most importantly, don’t take it all so seriously, the film is a hugely-enjoyable experience.
I hate long movies and avoid them in general. I have the attention span of a five-year-old whose Ritalin was switched with sugar pills.
This kept my undivided attention the entire. damn. time.
I laughed, I got nervous, I got engrossed in the story. A story it was, but a story that is so much more true-to-life than the numb original installment.
You needn’t see the first one to see this one. In fact, I recommend you don’t. You will get confused.
You may miss a reference or two in this one (what the fuck is the John Galt ‘line’? IS IT COKE?!) but no matter.
I very much look forward to Part 3.