Skip to main content

Film Review: "Fifty Shades Freed"


            Director James Foley returns to helm Fifty Shades Freed, the franchise’s last installment. The film begins during Anastasia (Dakota Johnson) and Christian’s (Jamie Dornan) honeymoon. Despite Christian’s possessive and jealous nature, the pair appears to be happy until their vacation is cut short as a result of a break-in at Christian’s company. Camera footage reveals the culprit to be Anastasia’s former boss, Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson) and tensions begin to rise.
            As if having to worry that Hyde might be after them wasn’t enough, the newlyweds encounter a series of problems within themselves. For one, Christian’s constant hovering over Anastasia doesn’t sit well with her since it gets in the way of her job and personal life. Things become even more tense when Anastasia discovers that Christian isn’t really sure about wanting kids in the future (stuff you should really figure out before getting married). As things begin to unravel, and Anastasia becomes pregnant, their relationship begins to falter. All the while, Hyde’s presence looms in the background.
            If you are a fan of the first two films, then Fifty Shades Freed will be satisfying enough for you. If you are someone who already doesn’t care for these films, don’t expect Freed to be the one to reel you in. The acting is truly awful and is made even worse when paired with the terrible dialogue the characters are given. It is the perfect example of mailed-in performances. You can just tell nobody in this film cared to be there. Anastasia and Christian are so odd together and they do things that really make you wonder why two people like that would even be together. Christian, in particular, makes so very questionable decisions that make it very difficult to like him.
            The problems go beyond the performances, though. It is a film that never knows what it wants to be. At times it is a romance, then it tries to be a comedy and then a thriller, but it never succeeds in becoming any of those. The editing is very weird and seems like a collection of random scenes loosely tied together by intermitent sex scenes. For some weird, unexplainable reason, Fifty Shades Freed has car chases that has Anastasia doing her best Baby Driver impersonation. The film turns into a wannabe action thriller with a “final fight” that gets resolved in the blink of an eye.
            After three installments, the Fifty Shades series has officially wrapped up. While not a particularly good film series, it found an audience and catered to them. Despite its constant negative critical reception, the series’ supporters turned his franchise into a financial success and that deserves some praise. The film’s soundtrack isn’t bad, either. Overall, however, this is a film that should be avoided. I don’t doubt that somewhere in the source material, there is an actual compelling story to tell. If there is, then maybe someone can try re-telling them again in the future. For now, though, enough is enough. I’m glad to be done with this series and move on.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Film Review: "Pacific Rim: Uprising"

It has been five years since Guillermo del Toro’s original hit theaters, but Pacific Rim is finally back. Pacific Rim: Uprising is directed by Steven S. DeKnight, the man behind Marvel’s Daredevil series, and stars John Boyega as Jake Pentecost. Joining Boyega are fellow newcomers Scott Eastwood as Nate Lambert and Cailee Spaeny as Amara Namani. Burn Gorman, Charlie Day and Rinko Kikuchi return to reprise their roles from the original film. If you’ve never seen the original, don’t worry, Pacific Rim: Uprising does a well-enough job at filling the audience in on the events leading up to this film. Uprising picks up 10 years after the events of the original and it sets up a world that is still rebuilding after the devastating events from the war against the Kaiju. The film wastes no time in introducing the troublemaking Jake, son of fallen hero Stacker Pentecost. After running into trouble with the law, Jake is forced to train a new generation of Jaeger pilots in order...
Post a Comment
Read more

Guillermo del Toro: The Man Behind the Monsters

"Since childhood, I've been faithful to monsters. I have been saved and absolved by them. Because monsters, I believe, are patron saints of our blissful imperfection. They allow and embody the possibility of failing and living." Those were the words that Guillermo del Toro spoke after winning his first Golden Globe for his directorial work on The Shape of Water . It was a speech that I connected with and understood completely. With the Oscars coming up, I want to say a few words on what Guillermo del Toro and his films mean to me and why I am rooting for him to win the Best Director award at the Academy Awards.              Growing up, my parents never really censored what my brothers and I saw on TV or at the movies. As a result, I was exposed to many of the great horror films at an extremely young age. Slashers were a constant in our home. Despite how much they scared me, they also fascinated me. Slashers were the norm for...
Post a Comment
Read more

Golden Globes Predictions

On Sunday, January 7th the 2018 Golden Globes will be taking place. Below are my predictions. Please note that I will only be making predictions for the film side of things. BEST MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA Call Me by Your Name Dunkirk The Post The Shape of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Should win: Call Me by Your Name Will win: The Shape of Water While I think Call Me by Your Name has a legitimate shot at winning, it's hard to ignore the amount of love and hype behind The Shape of Water .  BEST MOTION PICTURE - MUSICAL OR COMEDY The Disaster Artist Get Out The Greatest Showman I, Tonya Lady Bird Should win: Get Out Will win: Get Out Look, there is absolutely no reason why Get Out should be nominated in this category since it is neither a comedy nor a musical, but here we are now. While I wouldn't argue with anyone who thinks Lady Bird will win, I think that Get Ou t 's social relevance will g...
Post a Comment
Read more