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Initial Thought: I really had no care in the world to see this. It was at my theater for awhile and I just could not do it. It's Twilight all over again just trying to not be copyright. The names were changed as well as the setting, but the scenario is pretty much basically the same. He is something different and strange. She wants to be a part of it even though she has no idea what she is really in for. The acting doesn't even look they tried whatsoever and that's just from the trailer. I walked in a few times while cleaning theaters and some scenes were just plain awful. Well I am going to grin and bear it. Funny thing is the recent episode of Gotham and Vikings has BDSM in them. One acted upon it slightly while the other hinted at it. Well looks like entertainment has it all haha. It's time to sit through this and actual share my opinion on the full of the movie.
Characters/Acting: As of the trailer and the scenes I saw the acting is quite a mess. I have never seen anything with Jamie Dornan in it before, but I hope his other roles are better than this. Dakota Johnson has been decent in most things I've seen of her and she does have a bit more emotion than Kristen Stewart. I'm not a big fan of Marcia Gay Harden as she usually plays some of the most obnoxious characters in my opinion. Rita Ora is here which I like because I find her quite interesting. I wish her role had been bigger, but she is already cast for the next two so we shall see. The way Christian and Anastasia interact just feels so awkward and forced to me. Christian is such a self-centered guy that it kind of makes me chuckle with the way he says things about his behavior. There are a few moments of good acting between Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, but most of it is jumbled by a bad script. I am glad that they had much more emotion than Edward and Bella. All the supporting actors here actually did pretty well though to my surprise. I think they really tried.
Story: It's Twilight with different names and scenario. I hated the Twilight series. Instead of vampires (well fairies that drink blood because I refuse to think of Twilight as anything but) we deal with BDSM and even more pathetic decisions. As I'm watching this I understand this clearly isn't a love story it's more about infatuation. How often does love actually come from situations this strange? Of course it's just a movie based off a fiction book so there is no reality here. If someone makes you sign paperwork to be in a "relationship" of sorts then you probably wouldn't react as if it's normal. Some things here I just think are so far-fetched. It surprisingly takes almost an hour before things get truly intimate. I wasn't expecting it to take that long. Once the heat starts the fire stays pretty hot. Now I am near to the end which is most of what I saw before and it's probably the worst stuff in the entire movie. I really didn't want to sit through it again, but it was too near the end to just skip past it. One thing I really hated was the fact she asks him to do it and when he does she hates him for it. I mean you got what you asked for. You sat through it the whole way and then got upset. It was just so ridiculous to me! I must have watched the new ending because where it ended in theaters it has extra stuff after. Mostly it's flashbacks from earlier scenes. It doesn't do much except kind of reflect how the characters are feeling.
Directing/Writing: Well this is a fan fiction of Twilight. E.L. James just changed all the names to avoid getting into any legal issues. Even worse is the fact that someone actually dared to make a horrible movie of a fan fiction based on a book series that spawned horrible movies. Now I never read the Twilight books so I can't say if they are good or bad. They might be much better than the movies, but I just could not get past sparkling "vampires". The screenwriter here wrote Saving Mr. Banks! Are you kidding me? Why would someone who can actually write a movie set to work on this travesty. The director here I actually enjoyed her work with Nowhere Boy. Her little PSA with James Bond was kind of interesting to watch. The dialogue is so cringe-worthy that it truly feels like the source material it started as.
Final Thought: One of the lines in this movie is literally "I'm fifty shades of fucked up!" Come on that is really cheesy and they tried to make it such a serious scene. It had a few decent moments, but most of it was kind of dull. The supporting actors did an excellent job. It was actually better than Twilight to be honest. I can't believe I just said that. Anyways it's not as awful as I had expected it to be, but it was still pretty bad. I will still probably see the sequels because I'm crazy. Who knows maybe they will improve.
