Tomwithnonumbers
Since: Dec, 2010
09/07/2015 00:00:00
I wish they'd just gone for a three hour speech. If you're going to donate money to get your message movie made, don't be ashamed of the so called "terrible structure" and "anvilicous rambling" of the source material, live it!
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Atlas Shrugged: Part 3: The Revenge of the Shrugging
I had to wait a long long time to get the opportunity to review this one, but finally I have seen this movie, and thus finally been able to answer the question constantly reiterated by the last two...Who. Is. John. Galt?
It turns out John Galt is a slightly chubby cross between the hunk on a Mills and Boon novel cover and one of those actors you keep mistaking for Bill Paxton. I guess I should commend them for not going with someone more conventionally suited for the role of the Objectivist godfather, but it might have been a better idea if they picked someone with actual presence. I could envision someone like Gregory Peck to make at least an admirable attempt of selling the character, but this damp sponge was apparently the best the film could afford.
Speaking of casting, everyone else from the previous movie has gone too. Most notably, Dagny has undergone another regeneration. The Third Dagny has a much softer edge this time, spending most the movie standing around and patiently listening to people lecture her on the importance of avoiding taxes. The last movie ended with her crashing a plane into the Objectivist's secret city/Amish themed holiday retreat, so I suppose this is her penance.
The thing that everyone has been waiting for is John Galt's big damn (three hour long) speech - it has been mercifully cut to a three minute V for Vendetta style pirate tv broadcast. Sadly they didn't cut it entirely. Along with recasting Galt, the frustrated screenwriter in me wanted the speech to actually be a framing device for the whole movie, thus letting you intersperse the movie with just the important bits whilst still implying its length and gravitas. But I suppose that would require at least a sophomoric standard of writing. Instead the movie goes for lots of expository narration and still images of stock photos, like you're watching a Discovery Channel documentary; albeit one that is deliberately made for morons.
The movie just glances from one basic plot beat to the next, often without bothering to connect them with any emotional thread. By the end of the movie, Dagny has casually shot several security guards in their faces without blinking, but we never really see her make that journey. That probably should have been the journey we needed to see. We probably never will.