Exactly What I Thought It Would Be Having Read the Books

Rating: 7/10 (15 February 2015)

I am about to throw down on the Fifty Shades front. There are spoilers if you haven't read the books or seen the movie.
Anytime a movie adaptation is made, it is hard to live up to the book and there is always outrage over the actors selected. It's hard to meet the vision of the characters that are created in a book. I personally am a fan of actor, Jamie Dornan, and I thought he was great as Christian Grey. I was indifferent when it came to who played Anastasia, but Dakota Johnson did fine.
The movie played pretty true to the book. If you didn't like the books you aren't gonna like the movie. The parts of the book that made me roll my eyes, made me roll my eyes in the movie. The lines from the book that were cringe worthy, ("Laters, baby", anyone?), were cringe worthy in the movie. That being said, I was a fan of the actual storyline from the book, so I enjoyed the movie. This isn't a romantic comedy people. It is about a man with a troubled past who has "singular" tastes when it comes to being with women. These tastes stem from that troubled past (which people seem to forget). He falls for a girl who has never been exposed to his type of sexual lifestyle but is interested in him enough to give it a try. The reviews about how this story degrades women, how it has set us back, and that it's domestic abuse kill me. Did these people actually read the books or watch the movie? Everything was consensual and when she decided it wasn't the lifestyle she wanted – guess what? She left. I personally thought the sex scenes in the book were really repetitive so I was glad that the movie wasn't just chock full of them. There are obviously a few and they show as much as a Rated R movie can allow.
This isn't an Oscar award winning movie, but it isn't as bad as some reviews would have you think. It was exactly what I thought it would be having read the books.