Reviews: Atlas Shrugged

Arlington Nightlife caught part one of Ayn Rand's epic novel brought to the big screen tonight. Critics have hated this film, giving it roughly 10% on Rotten Tomatoes, while viewers have kept the score hovering in the mid-80s. It's fairly clear there's a disconnect between those who make their living giving Oscar nods and those of us who enjoy going to the movies.

The "Atlas Shrugged" site describe the plot summary:

Dagny Taggart (Taylor Schilling) runs Taggart Transcontinental, the largest remaining railroad company in America, with intelligence, courage and integrity, despite the systematic disappearance of her best and most competent workers. She is drawn to industrialist Henry Rearden (Grant Bowler), one of the few men whose genius and commitment to his own ideas match her own. Rearden's super-strength metal alloy, Rearden Metal, holds the promise that innovation can overcome the slide into anarchy. Using the untested Rearden Metal, they rebuild the critical Taggart rail line in Colorado and pave the way for oil titan Ellis Wyatt (Graham Beckel) to feed the flame of a new American Renaissance. Hope rises again, when Dagny and Rearden discover the design of a revolutionary motor based on static electricity - in an abandoned engine factory - more proof to the sinister theory that the "men of the mind" (thinkers, industrialists, scientists, artists, and other innovators) are "on strike" and vanishing from society.

Without getting too political, Arlington Nightlife felt that someone could describe what "Atlas Shrugged" actually brings to the big screen. Check out the video below from Jack Hunter, who also goes by the "Southern Avenger."