
Roger Ebert reviews the movie "Atlas Shrugged" - acangiano
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110414/REVIEWS/110419990
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arctangent
I tend to use Movie Review Query Engine to quickly find reviews of movies.
(The Ebert review isn't there yet, but it will no doubt appear soon.)

The link for this movie is: <http://www.mrqe.com/movie_reviews/atlas-
shrugged-m100058649>

The Variety review absolutely pans the movie too. I'm a little disappointed.

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edanm
Ebert gave the film 1 star. The current user-voted rating is 4 stars. I've
_never_ seen such a mismatch between Roger Ebert and the voting of actual
users.

Now I don't know what to think.

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ugh
Doesn't that usually happen when ideology is involved?

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jokermatt999
To be fair though, it doesn't seem as if Ebert is panning this on ideology.
He's clearly not a fan of Ayn Rand, but he seems to dislike the actual movie
more than its message.

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bradleyland
It would seem to be impossible to dislike Rand's ideology as presented in
Atlas Shrugged and enjoy any film that is dedicated to the novel. I read most
of Atlas Shrugged, but didn't finish it. I was bored to tears and turned off
by the stereotypical nature of the characters.

I like many of the ideas presented in objectivist philosophy, but I'm not
quite a kool-aid drinker. Still, I'll reiterate, I have respect for the ideas.
The problem I had with Atlas Shrugged was that it was rather transparently
philosophy first, story second.

Have you ever hung out with someone who purposefully complicated their speech?
The kind of person who subscribes to every "word of the day" feed they come
across. The kind of person who says, "but I digress" more than any one person
should be allowed? The characters in Atlas Shrugged all come across like this
to me. I kept finding myself thinking, "Who talks like this?" The follow up
thought was, "I hope I never meet them."

The characters in Atlas Shrugged are vehicles for communicating Rand's
philosophy, but the philosophy shines through their actions like the mid-day
sun through plate glass. I started out reading Atlas Shrugged and feeling
like, "Yeah, damn those government men for getting in the way of progress,"
but by the time d'Anconia revealed that he _intended_ his mine to become
nationalized, all I could muster was an "Oh gaaaaaawd," followed by a lengthy
sigh. The story had crossed over in to some strange form of industry-worship.

I have no idea how the film will deal with the lengthy inner monologues
present in Atlas Shrugged, much less the contrived conversations and
scenarios, but I believe even the most skilled filmmaker would have a
difficult time crafting this work in to something that a film critic would
enjoy.

