Atlas Shrugged: Part III: Who Is John Galt? (2014)

i must have seen a different film!!

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

It's easy enough to rip the movie for it's less than stellar casting and somewhat disjointed story. But in my view, the film is not about the acting, screen writing, cinematography or special effects. It's about an idea, an idea that's slowly but inexorably being pushed aside in modern America and the rest of the world. That idea is that 'no man belongs to another' and that the success of one's efforts to be better, in whatever way you want to define it, should be rewarded and not punished. When I read Ayn Rand's novel roughly seven years ago, I was astonished to find that it was so eerily prophetic of conditions that have come to exist in this country in the present era. What may be even worse is that the country is so polarized today that competing points of view aren't even accorded any level of regard or respect. This film will unfortunately be either acknowledged or dismissed depending on one's ideology, which is a shame because there are enough thoughtful ideas presented that could prove useful in defining and potentially solving a lot of our present day problems. Nitpicking the film for cinematic elements that fail to impress is somewhat short sighted. Listening to it's voice is a whole other matter.

A car company changes its pay structure to one based on the workers' needs. John Galt (Kristoffer Polaha) refuses to go along and vows to stop the motor of the world. He convinces other industry leaders to go on strike and disappear to his hideaway. He has also invented a revolutionary engine to power the world. Dagny Taggart (Laura Regan) goes in search for the mysterious John Galt. Her plane is brought down by an electrical shield and Galt carries her out of the wreckage. She decides to return to the world to fight for her railroad business against the dictatorial Head of State Thompson and her incompetent brother James Taggart (Greg Germann). Meanwhile the world is collapsing without the captains of industrial and under attack from the pirate Ragnar Danneskjöld.The story and dialog are clunky. This is basically a ninety minute sermon. Nobody in real life speaks like this. It makes the story very unwieldy. The Galt hideaway is a huge disappointment. It's a bunch of ski lodges and cabins with a farmer's market. With all the greatest minds in the world, it needs to be a magical Tomorrowland. I was glad when Dr. Floyd Ferris brings out a Star Trek scanner but that's the only thing. Sure Galt has his motor but they don't let it be amazing. It's a horribly flat and boring first half hour. There is an interesting section where Dagny returns home to battle his idiot brother. However, even that section is messed up by simplistic ideas like Minnesota. Apparently Minnesota is the only wheat growing state. It only adds to the ridiculousness. It makes any theory advanced by this movie sound stupid. Then there is the final battle. I didn't know torture requires a complicated machine. It seems like a car battery and a jumper cable would have done the same job. It's also one of the worst guarded torture site ever imagined. It's an ignominious end to a poorly executed story.

This entire series is awful. It is as bland as baloney on white bread without any mayo. The actors are like zombies, the director doesn't have a clue, the storyline is convoluted, and the capitalist philosophy borders on the hilarious. The film also grossly exaggerates the possible impact of socialism in the United States as well. Hello! Bullet Trains in China travel at 300 MPH, why would anyone get excited over trains that travel over 100 MPH?The new engine idea comes from a GM prototype invented in 1974 by Frank Guida, a super-cleaned coal dust which reduced harmful emissions by 600% and increased fuel efficiency by over 400%, but was never used by the company (one of the reasons they are always lagging behind the competition).But this is about the three TV episodes; I really wouldn't classify them as movies. They are box office poison, as evidenced by the minute sales of their showings. The production values are about the only thing to praise in the film, but that is not nearly enough to rescue this string of turkeys. Save your time and money and take out the book from the library.Arthur H Tafero AskMrMovies.comPS This trilogy is going straight into my Turkey Farm on the site

It's the curiosity more than anything. I've already seen the first two "Atlas Shrugged" movies; can't really leave the trilogy unfinished, right? This is what drove me to finish an unsatisfactory series of movies. And the final entry finishes things off in the worst possible fashion.I'm not even concerned with Ayn Rand's philosophy, only with Part III's complete mishandling of it. This is a cartoon with robotic performances, non-existent production values and haphazard direction. The dialogue's stilted, none of these TV actors have any breathing room, and the story rolls out in a hurried low-standards manner. It's so cheap and so cut-rate that any message (even one delivered with a smug sledgehammer) is smothered in the execution. At a certain point, it just becomes unintentionally funny. Just not funny enough to be entertaining.Is this at all like the book? I have no idea, but once was more than enough with this movie. What a sad end.