I've never been more disappointed in a movie adaptation of a book

Rating: 2/10 (18 February 2015)

My opinion may be quite harsh, but these are my all time favorite books. This has quite possibly been the WORST movie adaptation of a book I've ever seen in my life. I hated the Twilight movies, but they still rank higher on my list than this movie. I was very disappointed. Now I know movies can never compare to the actual books (although movies like The Hunger Games and Divergent did an incredible job), but this movie did not stay true to ANYTHING in the book, not even the relationship and growing connection between Ana and Christian. The actors had zero chemistry. "Christian" was cold, distant, and callous throughout the ENTIRE film. Yes, I know Christian does not seek an actual relationship with Ana in this book, but you can still see how much he starts to truly care for her throughout the book. This was not shown AT ALL in the movie. There are key moments in the book that demonstrate how much Christian truly cares for Ana (Like the first time Christian sleeps over Ana's house), moments that were not added into the film. How could things like that possibly be taken out?! The movie progressively gets worse and worse. Throughout maybe the first half hour of the film, I was hopeful that it would all turn out great. But once the bar scene is over and Ana wakes up at The Heathman, it all goes down hill. The end was laughable to me. Anyone with a closed mind who has not read the books and watches this film, will definitely say the books must be as bad as they thought. All that seems to matter in this movie is the sex- which in my opinion, was not that great. It's not the sex that made fans fall in love with these books- Though it could have been what initially drew them to it- it's the amazing, beautiful, and incredible love story of an innocent girl and a tormented man. This movie completely misses that point. I don't think I'll ever re- watch this movie because I don't want it to taint the wonderful image I have of the Christian and Ana that I know from the books. It seems like the writers of this movie wanted to add in all the "big" scenes from the books- like graduation, the trip to Georgia, dinner at Christian's parents'- but it was beyond rushed. You can tell they tried very hard to cram all of these scenes into two hours on screen. But it was a failed attempt, as all of the extremely important details were missed. Even the small details that somehow made it, were added in WRONG. How could the Ana of this film say she's falling in love with Christian, when there's zero connection between the two throughout the entire movie? It was bland and boring. The only thing that I really enjoyed was the occasional humor that lightens the sexually tense and charged mood of the film. Everything else was honestly garbage. I couldn't stop laughing by the end- and it was NOT a good kind of laugh.