‘Fifty Shades Darker’ Is An Improvement Over The First Film, It’s Just Not Made For Me | Film Review

I’ll admit it. I read the first book in the “Fifty Shades” series by E. L. James – OK, I listened to the audio book. My wife and I were looking for something to listen to on a long road trip, and she gave up after three chapters. Not wanting to waste the purchase, I wound up listening to the rest of the story on my own, which made for some awkward moments at red lights in my Jeep with plastic windows that did very little to conceal the graphic nature of the content. Since I enjoy watching movies based on books I’ve read, I checked out “Fifty Shades of Grey” in the theater. While the film was better written than the book, it still felt like something that was definitely not made for me.

As interesting of an experience it was for me with the first book and movie, I didn’t bother with the second book, “Fifty Shades Darker”. I actually appreciated the ending of the first third of the story and thought it should have ended right then and there. But when the movie hit theaters this Valentine’s Day, I decided (OK, one our podcast listeners insisted) to go ahead and check it out. While it’s still geared towards a different demographic than my own, I appreciated the improvements in the two leads’ performances as well as the little tidbits of insight into Christian Grey’s past that was provided in the story. It just still wasn’t enough for me to consider this a good enough movie I’d ever contemplate watching again.

It takes all of five minutes for Christian to find his way back into Anastasia’s life, and what seems like even less for him to convince her to get back together with him. The rest of the plot, while giving tantalizing hints about why Christian is the way he is, ends up being only semi-interesting narrative pieces that feel like padding in between the inevitable sex scenes (of which there are several). We do learn a bit more about his childhood and about one of his former submissives, but it wasn’t enough to keep me engaged in the story. Everything felt like a setup for the final film in the series, “Fifty Shades Free”.

I will say that Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson seem to have worked out whatever personal issues they had while filming the first movie. This time around, I actually buy their chemistry. Where before they made Ana and Christian’s relationship feel forced, and at times even uncomfortable, they actually come across as believable. I didn’t think it was possible, but unfortunately Ana as a character was even more frustrating here than she was in the first movie. She goes back and forth about what she wants so many times, I found myself looking forward to Christian taking control again. Conversely, Christian felt somehow more human this time around. His character let his guard down and he let go of his needs for the sake of Ana. But then Ana can’t make up her mind about what she wants. You might be sensing a trend.

It feels strange to say that “Fifty Shades Darker” is better in most respects than its predecessor, yet I didn’t enjoy it as much. I think the novelty definitely wore off for me, but I’m intrigued to see how the story finishes out. There are simply too many wasted plot points that go nowhere for me to give this iteration another viewing. With all that said, I’m certain that fans of the books will enjoy this far more than I did. It tells its story well enough with much better performances from the leads.

It’s just obviously still not made for me.