My wife and I saw ASP3 in the theater when some friends invited us and we thought it was a terrific movie despite having read negative comments on some of the movie sites. We certainly don't see where people don't think this movie didn't "stand on its own: We were novices, and although avid readers we had never read anything from Ayn Rand. Of course after seeing ASP3 we purchased the blu-ray set to view all three. I just finished the book and my wife is about half way through.
To think that this book was published just a few years after I was born and is still going strong today, and only now has been made into a series of movies is a bit startling. Even more startling is that these movies and book may now be a Documentary.
FYI: We both think that seeing the Movies first was better than reading the book first (feel free to disagree). There was so much more material in the book that once having read it we think people expect it 'all' to be in the Movies, which is of course nearly impossible.

Thanks for the note. Love hearing this.

Hello helidrvr,
I read the book about thirty years ago. My wife and I watched the movies as they came out in the theater. After seeing all three movies my Wife finally started reading the book. :) She is almost finished. It has been fun reliving the experience through her eyes..

Over the last weekend we watched all three on DVD, back, to back, to back. I even watched all the extras on the bonus disks. David Kelley's commentary was a real bonus.

It is my opinion that movies seldom if ever meet one's expectations after reading the book. Still, I found them of great value.
Respectfully,
O.A.

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing that with us.

I do agree that AS3 does the best job of explaining Rand's ideas. The first two movies concentrate on _showing_ instead, which is good for story telling, but can leave audiences wondering what is going on.

For some reason, the Producers sent $5Au two copies of AS3. Much obliged. Saving watching it for a very special occasion--the day Obama leaves office.

I have a similar experience. My wife watched all three of the versions with me but she thought ASP three was the best by far. She thinks it tells the world how it really was and is.
She has read the book twice once as a teenager now again as an adult. As an adult she has a totally different view of the world and how Atlas shrugged fits into it how it represents what's the truth that we need to work toward and strive for and I have to wholeheartedly agree with this.
As is now being said Atlas shrugged now nonfiction.