I’m sure many people have been discouraged from seeing Atlas Shrugged Part I because of its terrible reviews.
I saw the movie with my wife yesterday at the Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse (where it is showing once a day through Thursday). I thought I was dragging her to a disaster I was only going to see because of my interest in libertarianism but, much to my surprise, she loved it. Note that my wife has never read Atlas Shrugged, is generally apolitical (with some vague libertarian tendencies), and doesn’t know Ayn Rand from Rand McNally. She’s also typically a pretty tough movie critic. Yet, she insisted that we see the movie again.
My take was somewhat less enthusiastic. I think the movie overall was okay, hampered largely by its decision to set the movie in the near future. I also thought the acting was much better than the reviews would have it–especially Taylor Schilling as Dagny Taggart.