IIRC, There was an old OBJ import script written by Michael which imported LINES without trying to create faces. I *think* it might import faster than Max's script.

I found this to be preferred when importing a poly model (I do poly reduction for large poly files) to MoI3D and then it's pretty easy to use the lines as guides for rebuilding the model in MoI3D. I've used this successfully on several occasions.

More info here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=7199.3

Shows an example of the workflow: