Was the "Atlas Shrugged" movie a failure because of a conspiracy, or because it sucked?

The film adaptation of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged opened at number 14 last weekend with a total take of $1.6 million, which is not a good total to take. Critics and the vast majority of people with eyes hated the movie, while of course, Tea Partiers and Ayn Rand enthusiasts (i.e. other Tea Partiers) allege that a conspiracy is afoot to "silence" this movie based on a book we were forced to read in public school.

Honestly, this movie's title just begs for snarky putdowns (Strike Productions)

Did our pop culture writers fail us? Should we have ignored critics and assumed that when they called Atlas Shrugged a "lifeless... crushingly ordinary... fiasco," they were just forcing their liberal prejudice down our throats - and the movie still deserved the benefit of the doubt?

No. It's a movie with no stars based on an overrated book about a-holes trying to build a set of train tracks. Unless that's the prequel to Unstoppable, I'm thinking "straight to DVD crapola." I also won't believe the Tea Partiers when part two (yes, it's yet another trilogy) comes out and they tell me that's even better than part one. I didn't fall for it with Attack of the Clones; best we all don't fall for it this time either.