Atlas Shrugged: Part III

This movie is terrible. I've read the book and this is not a representation of it. This movie is a let down on every front. The story line is scabbed together. The cinematography is terrible. Acting is less than second rate. Cohesion sucks. There is less climax in this movie than there is in a retirement home. What's with the music in the movie? Every transition scene has this grandiose symphony playing, making it seem like there is a plot point or twist coming up.

I suffered through this junk because I had a fast forward button. Which is sad since I thought the first movie in this series was pretty well done. Then the second movie sucked. The third movie (this one) was so exponentially terrible compared to the first two that scientists are still trying to come up with a logarithmic formula to accurately represent the decaying quality from the first to third movies.

Watch the first movie and accept that it never goes anywhere. Don't watch this.

When i thought that Part II was worse than Part I, Part III went one step further. With another change in the cast, it's been difficult again to follow what's been going on.

With the ideas of Ayn Rand diluted in sub-par writing and below average acting, Atlas Shrugged: Who Is John Galt? became a perfect background for an afternoon nap. No pun intended.

Once again, i'm not sure why the producers insisted on making three movies instead of opting for a TV show. Nowadays this seems to be a gateway to a broader audience. Besides, the book Atlas Shrugged had enough contents and ideas for eight to ten one-hour episodes.

I am a big fan of the book, and I liked the first movie. That said, this was awful.

The story is rushed, character development is thin to none, and some of the best scenes from the book are missing. Whether or not you agree with Ayn Rand, she understood the beast (in her opinion) very well, and represented the conflict through engaging dialogue in fiction. There is none of that here.

Instead, there is a string of passionate speeches given by the central star but he comes across somewhere between a crazy man on the New York subway, and a poorly edited Anonymous speaker on YouTube. He does not come across as a veritable world leader. There are cameos from various B-list news figureheads, making this appear more a reunion of The Celebrity Apprentice than beautiful fictional story with a timely message.

Like others, I saw it to complete the trilogy, and out of respect for an integrity-based way of doing business that is legitimately threatened today. This movie does not help the cause.

"Now you know everything, now you understand why." Dagny Taggart (Regan) has crashed her plane on the other side of the mysterious glow and when she comes to she sees the mysterious John Galt (Polaha). She also sees other people she knew that have disappeared and is told of what is happening. When she makes the choice to return to the "real world" she tries one last time to change the direction of industry and the country. This is a movie series that seemed to get steadily worse. The first one was good and got me sucked in but the second one seemed to drag a lot and the reason I watched this was really just to complete the story. While these movies aren't terrible the fact that they couldn't keep the same cast throughout made it confusing trying to remember who was who and what happened in the earlier movies. I really think had they done this as a mini-series it would have helped. They all have the feel of a made-for-TV movie anyway. Overall, a movie series that started off interesting but really stumbled at the end. Worth a watch just to complete the saga. I give this a C.

A car company changes its pay structure to one based on the workers' needs. John Galt (Kristoffer Polaha) refuses to go along and vows to stop the motor of the world. He convinces other industry leaders to go on strike and disappear to his hideaway. He has also invented a revolutionary engine to power the world. Dagny Taggart (Laura Regan) goes in search for the mysterious John Galt. Her plane is brought down by an electrical shield and Galt carries her out of the wreckage. She decides to return to the world to fight for her railroad business against the dictatorial Head of State Thompson and her incompetent brother James Taggart (Greg Germann). Meanwhile the world is collapsing without the captains of industrial and under attack from the pirate Ragnar Danneskjöld.

The story and dialog are clunky. This is basically a ninety minute sermon. Nobody in real life speaks like this. It makes the story very unwieldy. The Galt hideaway is a huge disappointment. It's a bunch of ski lodges and cabins with a farmer's market. With all the greatest minds in the world, it needs to be a magical Tomorrowland. I was glad when Dr. Floyd Ferris brings out a Star Trek scanner but that's the only thing. Sure Galt has his motor but they don't let it be amazing. It's a horribly flat and boring first half hour. There is an interesting section where Dagny returns home to battle his idiot brother. However, even that section is messed up by simplistic ideas like Minnesota. Apparently Minnesota is the only wheat growing state. It only adds to the ridiculousness. It makes any theory advanced by this movie sound stupid. Then there is the final battle. I didn't know torture requires a complicated machine. It seems like a car battery and a jumper cable would have done the same job. It's also one of the worst guarded torture site ever imagined. It's an ignominious end to a poorly executed story.