Atlas Shrugged: Part I
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment | Release Date: April 15, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
28
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
7
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
63
New York PostKyle SmithApr 15, 2011
Though a bit stiff in the joints and acted by an undistinguished cast amid TV-movie trappings, this low-budget adaptation of Ayn Rand's novel nevertheless contains a fire and a fury that makes it more compelling than the average mass-produced studio item. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallApr 16, 2011
As a cinematic effort, Atlas Shrugged: Part I is competent; in service to Ayn Rand's epic novel, it's less so. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyApr 15, 2011
Speechy and preachy and just a teeny-weeny bit naughty. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 14, 2011
The story, a dystopian tale with heroes and villains and lots of triumphs and reversals, is so busy and so inherently interesting that the movie is entertaining until the finish - or the sort of finish. As only the first part of the story, Atlas Shrugged doesn't end, it stops. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyBrian MillerApr 21, 2011
The book proves proudly indigestible on film. Read full review
40
Time OutBen KenigsbergApr 12, 2011
Campy but never dull, this first of three installments ends on a fiery cliffhanger. The completion of parts two and three would represent a victory for irrationality. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyApr 10, 2011
The central battle between fearsomely independent corporate mavericks and hostile big government has been updated in a half-baked, unconvincing way that's exacerbated by button-pushing TV-style direction, threadbare production values and blah performances except for that of Taylor Schilling in the central role. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeApr 10, 2011
Part one of a trilogy that may never see completion, this hasty, low-budget adaptation would have Ayn Rand spinning in her grave, considering how it violates the author's philosophy by allowing opportunists to exploit another's creative achievement -- in this case, hers. Read full review
38
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreApr 20, 2011
It's not a bad looking movie, with Deco design touches that remind me of the earlier Rand film adaptation, "The Fountainhead." But the acting's flat and the script is absurdly cluttered with characters whose purpose may only truly become clear if they ever are allowed to make the other two films they have planned. Read full review
38
Washington PostMark JenkinsApr 16, 2011
Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 is nearly as stilted, didactic and simplistic as Rand's free-market fable. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeLoren KingApr 14, 2011
With a plot devoid of suspense and characters without complexity, Rand's iconic line elicits merely a yawn, or a shrug. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasApr 16, 2011
The film is curiously sterile and lifeless, hardly the stuff of revolution. It feels more like an ideologically reversed "Tucker: The Man And His Dream," written and performed by robots. Read full review
30
The New York TimesCarina ChocanoApr 28, 2011
The resulting film, directed by Paul Johansson, feels rushed, amateurish and clumsy. It's not just the ideologies that feel oddly out of step with the present day, but the clothes, hairstyles and interiors. Read full review
30
Boxoffice MagazineVadim RizovApr 19, 2011
Lifeless as entertainment and incoherent as ideology. Read full review
30
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 14, 2011
The acting is so poor and the story so badly told that the viewer's feelings about Rand's novel - an epic ode to free-market fundamentalism - are almost immaterial. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertApr 14, 2011
Now I am faced with this movie, the most anticlimactic non-event since Geraldo Rivera broke into Al Capone's vault. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 14, 2011
This movie is crushingly ordinary in every way, which with Rand I wouldn't have thought possible. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 14, 2011
I wanted to give this movie a fair shake, though I can't pretend to be an admirer of Ayn Rand's writing. But the movie, the first installment of a projected trilogy, doesn't give the book a fair shake. Read full review
0
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 15, 2011
Who's the idiot responsible for this fiasco? You can't blame the Tea Party, an organization of 9 million that the film's producers are exploiting to get butts into seats. There's an object lesson in objectivism for you. Read full review
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