I just Saw Fifty Shades Freed - A Review from a Guy's Perspective

Dear Steemit Friends,

I love watching movies. I have a collection of over 3000+ downloaded and "acquired" movies stored on my home server and almost on a regular basis watch new movies when they are released in the theaters (Thursday in the US and Wednesday when I was in Manila.) As an avid movie buff, I usually don't discriminate and try to watch movies across various genre's, especially when I watch a new movie almost every week - Not every week has a blockbuster must-see release, which leaves room for less publicized movies.

Fifty Shades Freed came out in theaters a couple of weeks ago, however, in lieu of watching it, my wife and I chose to watch Black Panther. We finally got around to watching it on Tuesday as a promise that I made to her since she loved reading the books and wanted to see the final movie of the trilogy. As a guy, this movie did not top my list of movies to watch, however, as a husband, it was important to me to indulge in activities that my wife wants to do since she frequently and always supports the things I want to do. Yes... I even sat through a couple of other movies such as Magic Mike and its followup sequel.

We saw the previous two Fifty Shades movies and to this day I still don't really remember what they were all about, so going into this movie, I figured I would be somewhat lost in the continuing plot and theme of the trilogy. I'm not sure if my review and feedback will be spoiling it for anybody, but now, I'm sure most people have either watched it or read about it, and I'm sure a vast majority of people (especially guys) won't care.

The third part of the trilogy starts off where the previous movie ended - The preparation for and the actual wedding, which in this movie, they completely fast-forwarded through. The only part of the wedding and preparation in the movie was a brief glimpse of their "I do's" and a few snippets of their globe-trotting honeymoon highlighting the fact that the new Mrs. Grey was more of an "exhibitionist and adventurous " than her new husband. I would think a movie that capitalized on sex-scenes would impart a more romantic vibe and focus on a blowout wedding-night and even more extravagant and romantically thrilling honeymoon - instead what was given was a few quickly shot scenes that just breezed through the entire event.

We all get that Christian makes a ton of money and can afford extravagant things which, throughout the movie, he buys at a whim just because he can (Must be Nice) but I don't think it ever really explains what he does for a living.

I consider this movie a modern-day Basic Instinct, with similar themes all throughout, but less of a storyline. Out of nowhere the movie suddenly switches gears and becomes a suspenseful action adventure where someone is trying to murder and harm the Grey family for some unknown reason. The movie does a very bad job tying the subplot of events from the second movie to the 3rd installment by concluding that the helicopter crash was somehow tied to the current state of affairs that someone is trying to harm the family.

The switch from a romantic-style movie to an action adventure type of movie to me didn't make sense. The whole movie seems to move at a fast pace that completely blows past any kind of real explanation and plot building, but yet still has time to inject a sex scene every once in a while - not that this is a bad thing. What I really didn't understand, was that even though Anastasia knows and has been warned by her husband that they may be in danger - care of the many numbers of private guards they have hired, she still decides to not listen and risk her own safety and during the one point she and their family should be safe, someone conveniently is able to circumvent all of the highly paid for security that Christian has in place.

Early on, the history of the relationship of Christian and the antagonist is hinted about and throughout the movie, more details are added which really don't add up to explain why he wants to kill and/or harm Christian except for the fact that he feels jealous because he should have been the recipient of everything that Christian has. I also don't understand the concept that a woman is willing to commit kidnapping and potentially murder in order to avoid a sex-tape of her being released. The severity of consequences of one act doesn't match the other.

During one heated scene where Christian and Anastasia discuss becoming parents one day and Christian mentions that "he isn't ready to share her with anyone else" eye felt my eyes rolling up into my head. Honestly, for a couple who has sex and experiment as much as they do (they even have a dedicated red room), chances are one day she will get pregnant. The answer to this - a monthly shot which Anastasia takes and predictably misses which as guessed ends up with her getting pregnant and a whole controversy between them ensuing. During most of the following scenes and some earlier scenes, I remember thinking to myself - man this guy is creepy, possessive, and a borderline stalker.

I get it, he is just worried about his wife - "different strokes for different folks." When I compare this movie to movies such as the notebook, it just doesn't compare when it comes to romance, plot, and storyline. This movie was just a "hodge-podge" of different events pasted together in an attempt to cater to different viewers interests. It may make more sense to those people who have read the books and can fill in the blanks for some of the backstories, but for someone who hasn't, it just leaves a bunch of unanswered questions and a sense of bewilderment.

Overall, the movie is not that bad, but that is relevant based on the low expectations I went into it with. I expected to be half asleep or passed out by mid-movie, but I was surprisingly awake the entire time and made it through the whole movie without falling out of my seat. The cast seemed to have a good time this time around and the movie captured a lot of beautiful scenery, amazing houses/architecture, nice cars, and had a pretty nice soundtrack. I think I remember even laughing a few times. I definitely would not go on my own to see this movie, but as a date movie with your girlfriend, wife, or significant other, why not!

Did you watch Fifty Shades Freed? What did you think about it? I assume I'm thinking too much into it and maybe should have just watched the movie instead of analyzing everything, but I think movies need to make sense - this one just seemed kind of rushed. Let me know what you think in the comments section below. If you do have any questions, inputs, or feedback, please also share those with me.

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