I will say that there was a lot to cover in a short amount of time. When the movie ended, the audience applauded. I wasn't expecting the movie to end when it did, but upon reflection, it was the most practical place for the setup to the next part, which could be a good thing since all the political statements and philosophies will be reserved for a movie that hopefully will come out just before the 2012 Presidential election. At that time, people may not know who John Galt is, but they will certainly know who Mr. Thompson and Dr. Robert Stadler were.
I would strongly encourage everyone to see it. My wife who is not at all a fan of Atlas Shrugged watched it with me and enjoyed it.
Much of the dialogue was verbatim from the book. One line that made me cringe was Dagny's "I studied engineering in college." I didn't think this was a strong enough response to James's skepticism about whether she could judge the qualities of Rearden Metal. Sure enough, those exact words are in the book. If I were screenwriter, I would have changed it to something like "I'm an engineer", or "I was an engineer before this job", or "I studied materials engineering in graduate school".
“...all the political statements and philosophies will be reserved for a movie that hopefully will come out just before the 2012 Presidential election...”
Well, I think they’ve blown it on the timing, a bit. They will release Part Two April 15, 2012. Too early to be relevant to a November election. And Part Three won’t come out until after the election in 2013. I’d be happier if they could bring in the timing so Part Two could be seen in Jan - Feb 2012 early in the Primary Season, and Part Three fresh before the election, maybe mid-Oct 2012. I think that timing would have enough influence to lock out a RINO from the GOP nomination, and Part Three show the stark difference between Obama and whoever steps up for the GOP.