Behold, a teaser and a trailer for Atlas Shrugged, Part II. (The teaser is described as a preview of the trailer, but it has different scenes.)
As with Part I, I wish I could find this more intriguing. Adama’s dad looks like an improvement as Francisco, but otherwise it seems just as lackluster as its predecessor – just as much a failure to capture the stylised feel of Rand’s fictional universe. Also, I found the introduction of the term “capitalism” jarring; to my recollection it never appears in the novel.
Yes, it could be done better. But given the limited resources and the knowledge that no matter what happens the leftist critics will pan the final product, the movie looks fine. Relax and enjoy what is given or raise your own money and try to do better.
The problems I’m talking about are not primarily budgetary. As for the rest: why should the fact that leftist critics wouldn’t like it even if it were good make me contented that it isn’t good?
I suspect that in the film industry you tend to get what you pay for most of the time. If you have a very low budget the odds are overwhelming that you will have a lower quality picture than if you could afford a better director and better actors. My point about the leftist critics has to do with the economics of the production choices that influence the quality of the picture. If the picture isn’t good then you should not like it. Personally, I had issues with the first one. But that did not prevent me from enjoying what I saw because I did not expect perfection from a low budget operation. I suspect that you did not hate the first picture as much as you are implying.