Fifty Shades Freed isn’t bad enough to be fun and the lack of chemistry between Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan makes it so much worse to watch, thankfully this is the shortest one of the series, so there’s that.
Fifty Shades Freed
— Unrated Edition —
(2018)
Genre(s): Drama, Romance, Suspense/Thriller
Universal | R/Unrated – 105 min. / 110 min. – $44.95 | May 8, 2018
Date Published: 04/30/2018 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE — 1.75/5 |
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It’s funny, but in preparation for this review of Fifty Shades Freed, I had to re-visit my review of Darker; well, in that review I had to re-visit my review of Grey, which says a lot about this entire franchise which mercifully comes to a conclusion, though god help us all if they do a movie from Christian Grey’s perspective… Note: This review does contain major PLOT SPOILERS.
What semblance of a plot that Fifty Shades Freed has finds psychopathic – I mean “charismatic” – Christian Grey (JAMIE DORNAN) and Anastasia Steele (DAKOTA JOHNSON) newly married (the ceremony takes place over the credits) but if you think Christian has taken a fuzzy more loveable approach to their relationship, you’d be wrong. Sure, he gives Anastasia more power but cracks in their nuptials begin to show, particularly concerning the thought of having kids. But before we get to that nugget, there’s Anastasia’s disgraced former boss, Jack Hyde (ERIC JOHNSON), who is now targeting the couple for some personal reason, though after breaking in to their palatial apartment and holding Anastasia at knifepoint, he’s quickly subdued by her personal bodyguards and arrested, to disappear for a bit while the film tackles both Christian’s control issues and her pregnancy, along with Christian’s brother (LUKE GRIMES) and Anastasia’s best friend (ELOISE MUMFORD) getting engaged, because we do need to tie off (so to speak) those supporting characters. Oh, and obviously we get a few “erotic” BDSM scenes to liven things up since the rest of the film quite the bore with the haphazard plot and a couple who still have zero chemistry and probably don’t even like one another off screen, this part really drags down the movie, and series as a whole, more than anything, though the bad dialogue doesn’t help matters. Also not helping matters, Christian Grey as a character just is one big, unlikeable, douchebag.
Casting wise, beyond Johnson and Dornan who slept-walked through their performances, the rest of the actors basically go through the motions. Marcia Gay Harden makes an appearance at the beginning and towards the end with only a few lines; Rita Ora as Christian’s sister got even less screen time compared with Darker but also figured into the vengeful ex-boss “story”; and the others just make appearances that amounted to nothing that made an impact on the plot. Oh, and Kim Basinger has a small appearance in the “Unrated” version, not hard to see why her role was cut. Filmed back-to-back with Darker, Fifty Shades Freed is like its predecessor meaning it’s actually rather mundanely bad rather than hilariously bad like the first film which truly had some of the worst dialogue, thanks to being translated from the equally atrociously written novel. Although I wasn’t put to sleep, I did find myself detached thanks to uninteresting plot points and a cast, and presumably crew, who just wanted to get it all over with. Whatever, thankfully it’s all over. Hopefully. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.0/5 |
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This release comes with a matted, titled-embossed, slip cover. Inside is the redemption code for the Digital HD copy. All of the features are available on the UHD disc in 4K resolution as well as the Blu-ray. Deleted Scene (1:08; 4K) is entitled “Hickey and Apology”. Nothing special. The Final Climax (32:39; 4K) is a multi-part behind-the-scenes featurette delving into various scenes and character moments and has interviews with members of the cast and crew. Christian and Ana by Jamie & Dakota (6:02; 4K) are interview footage with the stars talking about their respective characters and journeys. A Conversation with E.L. James and Eric Johnson (8:52; 4K) – The two interview one another about the novels and franchise. Music Videos (HD):
Strange none of the trailers were included. Previews – Breaking In, Thoroughbreds, Molly’s Game |
4K VIDEO – 4.75/5, BD VIDEO – 4.5/5 |
| Fifty Shades Freed arrives on 4K Ultra HD presented in its original 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 2160p high-definition transfer (HEVC / H.265 codec). The picture quality here looks fantastic, detail is nicely defined and colors, thanks to HDR, do have some good pops be it with the red blindfold or the rich set designs, not to mention natural looking skin tones. The Blu-ray meanwhile also looks quite good, might not be as sharp by comparison yet still it’s high-quality. |
4K/BD AUDIO – 4.5/5 |
| Both the 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs comes with a DTS:X track and it is perfectly satisfactory outputting clear dialogue levels, mainly from the center channel while the front and rear speakers are utilized for the thriller scenes like the car “chase” sequence where you can hear the roar of the sports car, Danny Elfman’s forgettable, background score or some of the soundtrack songs that were decent (Ellie Goulding’s “Love Me Like You Do” song does make an appearance, though). |
OVERALL – 2.0/5 |
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What’s more to say about the Fifty Shades franchise? This final addition was pretty lackluster both in story and energy, almost seemingly like the filmmakers was going through the motions and just wanted to get this over with. Fifty Shades Freed isn’t bad enough to be fun and the lack of chemistry between Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan makes it so much worse to watch, thankfully this is the shortest one of the series, so there’s that. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.