Fifty Shades Darker is the second movie in the Fifty Shades franchise and it was a fairly big box office hit. After the success of the first movie, I think the studio really thought way too highly of what this book series was capable of. This for a few years was a huge franchise and I commend them for getting three movies out so fast, but that is probably the best thing I can say about this movie.
How to Stream or Download Fifty Shades Darker
You can stream it or you can download the film from a digital store. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. Check out also the third part of the series – Fifty Shades Freed.
The Movie Review
The plot of Fifty Shades Darker is all over the place and made me say “what???” numerous times. The story is once again about Christian Grey and his abusive relationship with Anastasia (but because he is rich and handsome it is ok). They try to put them on a more equal footing than in the first movie, but it is still freaking weird to watch.
I will admit that I have not read the books so I am not sure how faithful this or the other two movies are, but I have to think they are more fleshed out and offer more substance than what is on offer here. We get to see Christian wrestle with his innermost thoughts and do some self-reflecting which I assume is supposed to make him more human and likable, but it fails miserably.
Anastasia has to deal with some of the ladies that came before her in Christian’s life and while this could have been interesting, you just do not care. I have to say for a movie that is about sex and a sexual connection, the two lead actors in Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson have no chemistry or sexual tension on the screen at all!
I think that the most interesting aspect of Fifty Shades Darker is the way Elena (played by Kim Bassinger) is trying to mess with the relationship. I would probably say that Kim Bassinger was my favorite aspect of the movie and I will admit that the ending with her, did make me more willing to give the third movie, Fifty Shades Freed a chance.
Much has been said about the terrible acting of the Fifty Shades series and I have to be honest and say that I think much of that is exaggerated. I would not say the acting is “bad” it is more the writing that is not very good and the whole premise is just so absurd. I think that if it turned out Christian Grey was some kind of serial killer, I would not have been surprised at all as that is the way he is portrayed!
Now, we have to talk about the sex scenes, after all, people go to watch a Fifty Shades movie for sex. This is pretty much a softcore porn movie and in that regard, I guess it does what it does well. I saw this in the theatre with the wife and people were legit whooping and cheering during the sex scenes. At the very least the fans think this is great so I guess that is cool.
I have seen (or sat through might be a better term) all three Fifty Shades movies and I would say that Fifty Shades Darker is the worst. It is like they thought Fifty Shades Darker was going to set up some kind of Fifty Shades cinematic universe! At the end of the day, you take away the sex scenes and you have a movie that is just not very interesting at all.
