A look at movie “50 Shades of Grey”
A poster for 50 Shades of Grey, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson (Photo Credit: finalreel.com)
By Sara Masterson, Contributing Writer
Audiences packed theaters over the long President’s Day weekend, but not because of George Washington. They came to see “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the highly anticipated movie directed by Sam Taylor- Johnson that was released just in time for Valentine’s Day.
According to Rentrak, a source for worldwide box office results, the film made $81.7 million this past weekend. The film, based on the series of popular erotic novels written by the British author E. L. James, also boomed the box office overseas, making $158 million internationally.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the movie stays mainly true to the book. As like any novel constructed into a film, there is bound to be alterations between storylines. A change the director made is to feature less sex. Even though it is an R-rated movie, viewers knew to expect a smaller amount of sex scenes due to the overly raunchy nature of the book. Based on the girlish screams within the Gateway Theater, it was easy to speculate which exact quotes were taken from the novel and incorporated into the film. Acknowledged references were “I don’t make love, I f*ck…hard” and “I’d like to bite that lip.” Besides the die-hard fanatics of the series, the theater consisted primarily of women who dragged boyfriends along. The hope of the starstruck women was to expand horizons for their own personal Valentine’s Day celebration with their significant other. Women looked forward to duplicating the racy sex scenes expected to be portrayed in the film.
Although this type of audience enjoyed the movie and the box office unmistakably is triumphant, the awaited film is exceedingly criticized by many viewers. Most disapproval came from moviegoers who never read the novels and only attended to take part in the phenomenon.
According to Michael Phillips from Chicago Tribune, “Going in, I expected either a camp hoot or a complete, slavishly faithful submissive of a film, playing opposite the Dominant novel. Instead, ‘Fifty Shades’ turns out to be roughly as pretty good as the first ‘Twilight’ — appropriate, since James wrote ‘Fifty Shades’ as sexed-up, loinzapoppin’ fan fiction paying tribute to the ‘Twilight’ bestsellers.”
Looking at the money made during the first weekend of its release and the Rotten Tomatoes score from critics of 26 percent, this movie can prove one thing. Sex sells.
Aside from mixed criticisms concerning the film itself, the soundtrack attests to be victorious. Notably during the film, the music is enticing and fits the scenes with its matters of obsession and sexy edginess. As specified through iTunes, ‘Fifty Shades of Grey Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’ is placed second in Top Albums and has two singles within the Top Ten Singles category.
