Fifty Shades Of Grey Review: Is It Good?

Fifty Shades of Grey and its author E.L James have had an unlikely journey to worldwide fame. James initially wrote a Twilight fan-fiction under the pen name, Snowqueens IceDragon, which was turned into the novel, Fifty Shades of Grey.

The book became a bestseller and sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, becoming a beacon for weird things that are popular.

In 2013, after many a bidding war between Universal, Paramount Sony and Warner Brothers, Universal and Focus Features secured the contract for the trilogy’s filming rights.

Despite being shot down by critics and film buffs, the movie was watched by thousands of young and horny adults and went on to break several box-office records.

1. Quick Review

The only good part of Fifty Shades of Grey is its fantastic score. The actors seem to have realized the awkwardness of the situation while filming, the dialogue like several lines in the book falls flat, and the movie is badly written.

Surprisingly for a movie that marketed itself as a raunchy and bold romantic sex film Fifty Shades of Grey has very little skin and disappoints in this aspect like all others.

2. Info & Watch Links

3. Is It Worth Watching?

From a cinematic point of view, No, it is not worth watching. If you want to indulge in the BDSM romance of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele, you would be better off reading it. But, chances are you’re going to follow the movie’s commercial success and watch at least the first part of this unnecessary trilogy.

Fifty Shades Of Grey - Official Trailer (Universal Pictures) HD

I. Plot

The story starts with 21-year old Anastasia Steele filling in for her friend Kate for an interview with Christian Grey. Christian is a successful entrepreneur, and when Ana stumbles into his office and bumbles through the interview, her personality charms Christian.

He visits her at the hardware store she works at and then sends the expensive first editions of her favorite books.

Christian and Ana start seeing each other eventually, but on their first date, Christian takes her back to his place and makes her sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. He says that their relationship cannot proceed until he shows Ana his real side.

Christian takes Ana into a separate room, which Anastasia terms as the Red Room. It is filled with large equipment and sex toys that are used for BDSM.

Christian reveals that he only has relationships in which the girl is his Submissive, and the details of their relationship are governed by a detailed contract that lays out the specific arrangements and limits.

Ana is intimidated and reveals that she is a virgin, after which Christian makes love to her to rectify “the situation.” Ana wants Christian to have a normal relationship in which the two are equal and share their feelings and emotions while Christian insists that that’s impossible.

Attracted towards the billionaire playboy and conflicted about his hidden desires and past trauma, Anastasia has to make a decision that will forever change her life.

II. Book Vs. Movie

The novel version of Fifty Shades of Grey reads like any other fan-fiction story and is filled with cheesy lines and highly descriptive sexual encounters.

It’s not a good piece of literature and is filled with lines like, “His voice is dark… like dark chocolate caramel fudge or something…” or “My face must be the colour of the Communist Manifesto.”

With such poor source material, it would be almost impossible to churn out a movie that’s worse than the book, but Fifty Shades of Grey manages to accomplish that.

The movie doesn’t even try to improve lazy writing and tries to tell the story of being a sociopath’s pampered sex slave from a romantic angle.

The absence of Ana’s inner thoughts and conversations with her subconscious that managed to give the book some depth is felt in the movie.

A movie that literally had sex as its subject matter and was expected to go all-out has surprisingly little of it. Fifty Shades of Grey manages to incorporate a minority of all the romantic sexcapades from the novel.

III. Music

The studios had an idea that the movie would be a commercial success and managed to rope in many big stars to work on the soundtrack. That is the only good part of the movie as you get dirtier talk and more nudity in other mainstream movies.

Earned It by The Weeknd was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding was also a success on the charts. A song by Sia, titled Salted Wound, was released as a promotion for the movie before its release.

4. Grade

5. Final Thoughts

Fifty Shades of Grey is to paraphrase Christian Grey, “Fifty Shades of F-ed Up.” It’s a story that hasn’t been adapted well on-screen and suffers because it tries to be a romantic. The acting is mediocre, and the writing notoriously bad.

Fifty Shades of Grey is the kind of trashy movie that has a big audience waiting for it every time something similar comes around.