Review of Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011) by Patrick H — 23 Apr 2011

Overall, I found Atlas Shrugged to be engaging, perfectly cast and acted, and visually superb.

The people that say it looked like it was "made for TV" are wrong. I'm not saying that I disagree with their opinions, I am saying that they are incorrect. Period. I can honestly say that Atlas was visually one of the sharpest movies I have ever seen. To liken it to a made for TV movie is simply an easy, cliche cheap shot for reviewers who went in not wanting the movie to succeed.

Taylor Schilling was the perfect Dagny Taggart. This should be a great springboard for a long and fruitful acting career for her. I also thought Graham Beckel, who played Ellis Wyatt, was perfectly cast. Everyone else was great as well, I just saw those two as standouts.

The only issue I took was that it seemed to fall into the same trap as many other lengthy novel interpretations where they throw a lot of information at the audience. Having read the book, I had no trouble following what was going on, but noticed when they were doing this and thought that someone who hadn't read it might have trouble following along. If you don't want to read the 1100-page book before going to see it, I would strongly suggest looking up a synopsis and a character list or even skimming through the cliff notes before seeing Atlas Shrugged.

Overall, I was pleased to see Atlas Shrugged finally on the big screen. I can't wait for Part 2!