Fifty Shades Darker: Review

Distributed By: Universal Pictures Starring: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Eric Johnson, Eloise Mumford, Bella Heathcote, Rita Ora, Kim Basinger, and Marcia Gay Harden Directed By: James Foley Rated: R for Strong Erotic Sexual Content, Some Graphic Nudity, and Language Score: ★

How can I begin to describe how excruciating it was to sit through this movie. Quite honestly I'm not sure I even have the words. Putting it frankly however Fifty Shades Darker is an appalling pile of garbage that somehow manages to be worse than the first film in almost every way.

Fifty Shades Darker picks up almost immediately after the original (or so I assume) and Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) has started her new job as a personal assistant to a book editor named Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson). Soon after, she bumps into Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) at an art gallery and less then five minutes later they are back together again. And not even two minutes after that we have our first sex scene of which there are many.

The plot of this movie is the equivalent of watching paint dry simply because it moves at an incredibly sluggish pace. That is not the only problem with it however. The second half of this films' conundrum is that there is nothing interesting happening. Nothing at all.

Honestly though, what about these two people is there to care about? On one side you have a man who is basically stalking the heroine and trying to control every aspect of her life. On the other you have a girl who is too stupid to leave said man even though everything in the movie points to the fact that he's crazy.

If anything she should have dumped him the minute his ex-girlfriend broke into her apartment with a gun. I mean I would have wanted to get as far away from him as possible after that but that's just me.

It's sad really that the talents of the film's stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan are wasted here because if truth be told they really aren't terrible. They are clearly trying to make the best of the parts they have and make the Hallmark greeting card sounding dialogue seem interesting. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to save the sinking ship that is this movie.

All I can say about Fifty Shades Darker is that I didn't enjoy it, not one bit. There is no doubt in my mind that it is something that fans of this series will enjoy but for everyone else I would recommend steering clear. Maybe the upcoming third film will finally whip this series into shape but I highly doubt it.