50 Shades of Disappointment?

50 Shades of Grey dominated the box office the weekend of February 17th and 18th, earning $90.71 million Thursday night through Monday, and an additional $158 million overseas, beating out The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water and Kingsman: The Secret Service.

The MPAA assigned the movie an R rating for strong sexual content including dialogue, some unusual behavior and graphic nudity, and for language.

The book trilogy, written by E.L James, portrayed Anastasia Steele, played by Dakota Johnson,  a sexually innocent senior in college earning her degree in English Literature. She was swept off her feet after meeting young billionaire, Christian Grey, played by Jamie Doran. Christian took in interest in Anastasia but he is not the, relationship type.  It is later discovered that Christian is looking for a BDSM relationship.

BDSM stands for bontage/dominate, submissive/masochism. According to Urbandictionary.com, “It is a variety of erotic practices involving dominance and submission, roleplaying, restraint, and other interpersonal dynamics.”

In the book, Anastasia seems timid, modest, and unsure–she’s a girl looking for a normal relationship. But the movie Anastasia is the opposite–bold, brave, and ready to experiment with very little hesitation.

Dakota Johnson portrayed a good Anastasia. She fits the role with her actions, just like the character does in the book–but in the movie, her emotions were not truly believable.

Jamie Dornan, who plays Christian Grey, was attractive yet so dull and even more stiff. Book Christian Grey was very intense and dominating. He stated the way he felt about Anastasia in a passionate and strong way. Dornan, on the other hand, was the opposite. The famous line, “I’d like to bite that lip,” was as heartless as ever. Dornan’s Irish accent was sometimes heard throughout the movie as well.

“His looks somewhat compensated for his acting,” said junior Isabella Pip.

“The most intense scene was when they were in the elevator; and they literally just kissed. That’s it,” said senior Hannah Elrod.

Doran was quoted in an interview complaining about his co-star Johnson, citing her performance as reason for the bad reviews. The actors lack of chemistry may be the reason the movie was dull.

Those who have read the book know the brother of Christian Grey and the roommate of Anastasia are semi-big characters in the book; however, in the movie, they were in two scene together and that was it. It seemed that the book focused on Christian and Anastasia whole relationship including the people and places in it while the movie just focused on their sex lives.

The movie consisted of  paper thin characters and no plot whatsoever, but that was to be expected with the sexual nature of the book.

With it’s ups and downs, the movie did not stray from the book much. There were scenes left out because, “…they were too explicit to show on the screen,” said an anonymous employee a Marcus Hillside Theater.

“It seems that the movie went way too fast. Like it was bam, bam, bam. This happened and then right away something else happened,” said junior Grace Kust.

It has already inspired the “50 Shades! The Musical Parody” which, according to TicketMaster, tells a “sexy, hilarious story chock full of wrestling singlets, handcuffs, and helicopters with silly names.”