Last night, the CPAC Bloggers Bash attendees were “treated” to an excruciatingly long preview of the forthcoming “Atlas Shrugged” movie, which will hit a theater near you on April 15. Actually, it’ll just be Part I. Like the Lord of the Rings, this will be a trilogy.
Judging by the preview, I can fully understand why it took more than two decades to find a studio to produce the flick. This is quite possibly the most boring film ever made — and I include documentaries that are shown in grammar school so that children can request to view them backwards.
Put it this way: I simply do not know enough expletives to adequately express how truly horrible this film was. And I was in the Army. I would rather be subjected to the “Clockwork Orange” treatment than sit through one part of this. I might well prefer death to enduring the trilogy.
Update (Alex Knapp): You can view the trailer below. If this is any indicator, then the film is full of wooden dialogue, unrealistic character interaction, and a complete lack of understanding of how business and politics works. In other words, a surprisingly faithful adaptation.
Update (James Joyner): What we saw, rather than the above trailer, was four extended scenes from the movie. And, yes, the wooden dialogue was a major problem. I gather that they strove to be absolutely faithful to the book, which is simply a rookie mistake. Not only was Rand a really lousy writer of dialogue but even well written books don’t directly translate to the screen. Great filmmakers capture the essence of the story and characters, keep some of the most snappy bits of dialogue, and then write a screenplay around it. The fact that they’re trying to turn a single book into three movies is an indication of how far wrong they’ve gone.
