October 12, 2012 - 9:44 pm
This will probably change, but right now Atlas Shrugged, Part II is scoring a perfect zero on the tomato-meter. That’s right — not a single critic likes it; the audience, meanwhile, is rating it at 78 percent.
I left criticism more than a decade ago, but it still pains me to see the ongoing politicization of what should be an independent discipline, not just another arm of the DNC. I’m going to try and see the movie this weekend, but I find it impossible to believe that there’s nothing good to say about it. Instead, though, the critics seem to be dismissing it with a contemptuous lefty sneer — just like their political counterparts do when assessing conservative ideas.
Just saw the film. Let’s be honest. It’s a big step up from Atlas 1. (I didn’t blame the actors or director, but a shoestring budget) Production quality for Atlas 2 is much better, but still not the quality of a big budget feature. Fans of the book won’t be disappointed, though. It does a very respectable job of telling the story and hitting the main points. Plus, knowing the commitment and courage it took to bring the story to the big screen at all is impressive itself. I recommend all Atlas fans see it. For two reasons: to enjoy a film well-done and to let Hollywood know we’ll patronize films that are unafraid.
I’m not so sure that it’s ACTIVELY politics so much that politicism has so invaded our daily lives that people reflexively CAN’T like anything that insults their political worldview.
Why, it’s like something out of Atlas Shrugged!
Top comment of the thread. +3 insightful
More like The Fountainhead, actually. It’s been a long time since I read the book, but one of the subplots was a newspaper publisher using critics to push his collectivist ideas.
I think it will be a real achievement if AS2 gets the record for the greatest disparity between critics and audience rating – that will show what a great movie it is in so many ways.
Zero? Really.
I did not care for the movie Atlas Shrugged I (I loved the book), but I would not have given it a zero.
The way Rotten Tomatoes’ “freshness” rating works is: critics write reviews of movies, and give the movie either a thumbs up (“fresh”) or a thumbs down (“rotten”). The rating is the percentage of critical reviews that gave a thumbs up.
So the zero score doesn’t mean that every critic gave it a rating of 0% — it means that 0% of critics were willing to write a thumbs-up review.
Saw the movie today. I thought it was great. An adrenalin shot of defense of capitalism. I liked AS I also. Bravo to those actors and actresses brave enough to participate.
Just saw it. A definite step up from Part 1, which was ok. The film makers seem to have a bettt better mastery of the medium and the pacing doesn’t seem so abrupt like Pt 1. In any case, I would rather see a new idea on the screen, even if imperfectly executed, than the same worn out tropes I have seen 100 times, even with spectacular production value.
Before the opening they showed a trailer of an anti-fracking screed. I don’t think that was *supposed* to make me laugh. And it appears that they didn’t give advance screening to any critics, which also made me laugh.
I want movies to be judged on their own terms. Entertainment films should be entertaining, documentaries should be informative and accurate (and Michael Morore fails here), and message films, which this.one arguably is, sbould make their moral case clearly and forthrightly. Film critics treat all movies as entertainment, unless it is a leftist message movie for which they give a pass for “raising important questions.” Meh.
We had the Matt Damon anti-cracking movie trailer at our showing too. I led the ‘Boo!’ cheer.
We saw the same – it was the same issue with AS1. I leaned in to hubby and said – “they really don’t target their audience well with these trailers!” Although, I suspect it’s just the opposite. More of an “in-your-face” you libertarian scum slam . . .
It doesn’t matter how good a movie with conservative leanings is. The leftists will pan it. Their politics is their religion, Capitalism isn’t a mistaken belief. wrong. Capitalism is blasphemy and must be punished. To a committed leftist a conservative is not a fellow human but a witch to be burned. Since they have not the muscle to pound stakes in the ground, loaded with tinder and sticks (yet) they use words. For now.
Probably a very good sign; they sneered at the book 55 years ago.
To me, life in this culture has a George kastanza impulse to it. When they say do x, what happened is y or you need to hate z; they give me a strong signal, that needs a polarity-correction.
I’ll see Pt 2 Sunday, hopefully.
(drop a line at ReardenMedals.com if you want a free window-cling Atlas Shrugged sticker)
And the novel continues to sell well.
I saw it last night. I think it had both the virtues and flaws of Atlas Shrugged, the book.
The most striking thing about the film, compared to when I last reread Rand’s novel around 1980, is how much more plausible the government “looter” characters are in the current political context. Rating the film as a statement, I’d give it four stars, as film, qua film, three.
I noticed this:
“The people behind the Atlas Shrugged series of films have things they want to tell you, and just to make sure that you know what they are, the movies tell you, and tell you, and then tell you again.”
That’s pretty much how the book is. Ayn Rand wasn’t exactly subtle.
Ayn Rand was also intentionally echoing the way the socialist takeover of Russia got relentlessly worse and worse and worse. And worse. Always a new rule, always a new directive, always the people with ‘connections’ getting to ignore the rules while the ones who don’t are the only ones punished by the laws. And then around and around and around again.
Since sometime in the 1970′s I avoid reviews before I see a performance, or read a book for myself. Reason: my own opinion so often differs from the reviews. I realized that reading reviews beforehand interfered with my experience of the performance so I quit reading them until afterward. Sure enough, my opinions still differed from the reviews about half the time. Conclusion: for me, reviews aren’t reliable.
It’s easy enough to find out what something is about without being swayed by the opinion of “critics” whose judgment I’ve learned to mistrust.
Agree with you about dismissing reviews and critics. There’s generally no connection between what I think is a good movie and what the critics think. I also sorted out Rotten Tomatoes early on as Leftists and “artists” ** sharing condescending sneers with each other. Don’t pay them a damn bit attention either and know of no one who does.
** I say that as someone who has actual artists in my family.
Saw it yesterday. I cried. I cried because such a good book with great ideas is presented in a truly terrible movie. As least AS1 had some good looking, likable actors, no such luck in AS2. If Lord of the Rings can sign actors for all three parts at once, why didn’t the producers of Atlas Shrugged?
The special effects were comically bad. The used twice plane sequence, the train wreck, they both bordered on pre CGI quality. Even the photoshop of the Taggart Transcontinental logo on some glass skyscraper looked ridiculous.
The phrase “Who is John Galt” must be in the movie about 100 times. Enough already, we get it.
While I love Atlas Shrugged as much as the next libertarian, I’m afraid I’m in bed with the liberal critics on the quality of this movie.
Perhaps we could convince Clint Eastwood to produce The Fountainhead. A more accesible Rand book in my humble opinion. These works deserve exquisite production.
You may want to check out Gary Cooper’s version from 60+ years ago
saw the movie by accident while flipping through channels…couldn’t believe how deep it was. imagine, a movie based on an actual story with a towering message, instead of a blazing tower with special effects
Saw it last night. While it’s still obvs. a low budget, I thought they did well. It’s really even more “gritty” appearing to me than the first, which fits with the way the story is unfolding. New Dagney appears more empathetic than the Taylor Schilling portrayal – but that probably has to do with the actress herself. My one thought regarding her was that her style of dressing was a bit on the frumpy side, seems some stylist help might have been good (but in reality, that was probably more realistic than if she’d been perfectly coiffed and dressed like a model!) We enjoyed the continuation of the tale very well and are already looking forward to part 3!
I saw it last night. I read the book circa 1989, when I was working for the liberals, and I saw the first movie.
The real test of the movie came in when I took my girlfriend, who rarely voted before she met me, to this movie.
She liked the movie. With a bit of whispering from me, she even “Got it.” She thought that some of the acting was weak, and it wasn’t quite “feature movie” standards, but she got the message of Shrugged.
Which means, that if they can have someone who never read the book, who didn’t see the first movie, “get it” from a complex book in the second of a 3-movie series, they did a good job. In that respect, much better that us poor saps who hated the Harry Potter Hallows I movie ’cause we didn’t read every book and see every prior movie.
Saw the movie last night and knew that all the actors had changed. Keep in mind that this almost didn’t get made because of the appeal to a limited audience, bad ratings for the first movie (by liberal critics) and funding issues. The producers went ahead with it due to audience demand. I did not expect a full blown “Lord of the Rings” production so I was satisfied. I did read the book and feel the movie presents the story very well. Watch it, not as a movie critic but for the story. I also saw Don’t Back Down, a movie also badly rated by liberal critics…see it, it is about failing schools and is the “Rocky” of parents working against all odds. No movie, with a conservative/libertarian slant, is going to be well rated. Sad but true.
I saw it last night. The theatre had a nice size crowd and everyone seemed to enjoyed it. I know I did and I suspect that anyone who likes AS will, too, even if it’s a less than stellar movie (I liked the first movie’s Dagny better but most of the replacement actors–especially Reardon–were improvements). It was like a cozy blanket on a cold night. Of course, I have a tattoo of Atlas shrugging, so I’m squarely in the target audience. We also got the fracking move trailer; I tweeted my amusement at the lack of audience awareness at the time in much the same terms as leftbrainfemale. Made a new friend after the flick, too, which is the nice thing about movies like this: Everyone that’s there is one of us.
By contrast, someone who doesn’t go for Rand simply won’t like it; there’s really nothing there for them. Which pretty much explains the reviews.
The Daily Caller had a nice interview and write up about Atlas Shrugged II. It explains why the cast change and the differences between it and ASI. Gotta warn you the interview is just under a half hour long but is very interesting. http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/12/producer-promises-much-richer-production-for-atlas-shrugged-part-ii/
I’ve still got a little bit left to go on the book and then I’m going to watch part 1 then I will wait for part 2 to come out on Amazon for my Kindle. I don’t like going to theaters.