We saw it Friday night, and all I can truthfully say is that while I am exceedingly happy it was finally made, I really wish it had been made
better. We went for the content, NOT the execution of the film, ya know?
John Aglialoro held the film rights from Leonard Peikoff for 18 years, and was unable for a host of reasons I won't go into here to get it made by a major studio, and literally had to start shooting within hours of losing them. Hence, for a little over $10 million of his own money, we end up with what we have now, and while I am in no way stating that the final product should not have been made, I really do wish that he had a bigger budget to work with.
This is especially worrisome to me, given that
Aglialoro has already stated that future installments of the film may not be made if this first chapter fails.
This is particularly scary, given the numbers: The film cost $10 million to make, so if it makes $100 million worldwide (which is exceedingly hopeful, albeit less-than-likely), Aglialoro has to give half of that to the distributors, leaving him with a helluva lot less than he's already said he would need to gross in order to even
think of starting production on Part II.
And this is why, despite my love of All Things Rand, I really wish Aglialoro had either negotiated new terms with Peikoff, or simply let the project lapse altogether, and focus his passion, time and money toward the advancement of Open Objectivism and the free-markets.
In my humble opinion, if we weren't prepared to bring our biggest gun to the gunfight, we really shouldn't have brought a ****ing Ginsu knife.
I'm really sorry, but after two days of consternation over this film, that's how I feel.