Atlas Shrugged Part II: The Strike (Blu-ray) Directed by John Putch Studio: 20th Century Fox Year: 2012 Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 1080p AVC codec Running Time: 112 minutes Rating: PG-13 Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English Subtitles: SDH, French, Spanish
Region: A MSRP: $ 29.99
Release Date: February 19, 2013
Review Date: February 19, 2013
The Film
2.5/5 Three to four years into the future, the economy is still in the toilet, and the downturn still shows no signs of a turnaround. Due to the high cost of fuel (over $40 a gallon), rail transportation has become the most economic means of travel, but even with the triumphant “John Galt Line” instituted at the end of Part I, Taggert Transcontinental Railway is having a rough time making ends meet. A lack of coal and steel production makes operating the line more and more expensive, and even with the inside track Dagny Taggert (Samantha Mathis) has with miracle steel producer Henry Rearden (Jason Beghe) (i.e. she’s sleeping with him), Dagny is having to close lines and curtail the frequency of certain travel routes. With her insidious brother James (Patrick Fabian) working hand-in-hand with the government’s determined efforts to assume control of all profitable enterprises, Dagny is being pulled in so many directions that she stops to wonder if anything is worth these kinds of headaches. Rand’s epic is a scathing indictment of big government becoming too entrenched into the lives of its citizenry calling all of the economic shots without offering the opportunity for the little man to be given a fighting chance to earn an honest living. It’s a call to arms for the thinkers and industry shakers to come together to fight takeover and not allow enterprise, invention, and originality to be controlled, manipulated, and discouraged by the Washington power brokers looking out for only the interests of a meager few. Brian Patrick O'Toole, Duke Sandefur, and Duncan Scott’s script, though, is needlessly muddled with the world’s brain trust being mysteriously swept away in the dark of night and paeans to the enigmatic John Galt continuing to echo throughout the land. Director John Putch handles individual scenes well enough, but the patchwork nature of the storytelling makes assembling the narrative puzzle pieces more of a chore for the viewer than it’s worth, particularly when the satire against big government is being laid on thickly enough to induce choking. There’s some murky business with a breakthrough motor that might be able to run without fuel being tinkered with by one of the few remaining scientists (Diedrich Bader) with a brain, and the film is bookended with a jet plane chase through the crags and peaks of the Rocky Mountains (everything in between is a flashback to three months prior), but neither the plane chase nor a climactic train disaster works up much tension. You’ll see more faces here familiar from TV and movies than you did in the last one, and while almost everyone’s playing his or her part as written with professional expertise, the characters haven’t been written with enough depth to give these actors much to really dig into. A couple of roles are wildly overplayed: Kim Rhodes as the bitterly bitchy wife of Jason Beghe’s Henry, refusing to give her husband a divorce so he can marry Samantha Mathis’ Dagny and Paul McCrane as the President’s (Ray Wise) right-hand man masterminding the takeover of industry, a part he plays so oily evil that one is surprised there isn’t a Snidley Whiplash mustache for him to twirl.
Video Quality
4.5/5 Shot digitally and reframed at 1.78:1 for home video release, the transfer is offered in 1080p resolution using the AVC codec. Sharpness is very good throughout, and color rendering is solid and substantial. Flesh tones are very lifelike and appealing. If black levels could be a little deeper and the special effects look a little less digital, this would be a reference video transfer. The film has been divided into 24 chapters.
Audio Quality
4.5/5 The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix does a mostly fine job with extending the soundstage with impressive aural design. Dialogue is usually easily discernible, and there is even some directionalized dialogue on occasion. Chris Bacon’s rather lackluster score gets excellent spread through the fronts and rears continuously during the movie. Split sound effects are also usually quite well done with panning through the soundstage frequent as the trains go to and from their destinations. Occasionally, however, the pans don’t occur even with the trains or planes moving across the screen making the use of the effects somewhat erratic. Bass is used well throughout what with the explosions and the railway disaster giving the LFE channel something to do at frequent intervals.
Special Features
2.5/5 “Behind the Scenes of Atlas Shrugged II” is an 8 ¾-minute look at the staging and shooting of the explosion at the steel mill sequence with stunt doubles for Esai Morales and Jason Beghe going in and out of the shots and director John Putch, assistant director Richard White, and the film’s stunt coordinator conferring. Then the footage is taken to the CGI lab for addition of special effects to complete the sequence. It’s in 1080p. “Sean Hannity Extended Segment” shows the shooting of the Fox News anchor improvising with actors on the set as the scene is shot. It runs 3 ¼ minutes in 480i. There are fifteen deleted scenes which are combined into a 14 ¾-minute montage. The scenes cannot be chosen individually. They’re in 1080p. There is a promo trailer for A Late Quartet.
In Conclusion
2.5/5 (not an average) The story continues in Atlas Shrugged Part II: The Strike, but new actors are playing all of the roles from the original production. Ayn Rand purists won’t like this second section of the story any more than they liked the first, but for those invested in the story, a rental will likely be in order. Matt Hough Charlotte, NC
