Fifty Shades Freed

This review may contain spoilers!

All of the Fifty Shades films have been garbage and this is easily the worst of all. I would give Fifty Shades Freed a 1/10.

The soundtrack for the film is the real strength of the entire feature, scenes are constantly being swelled with romantic ballads or lustful pop songs which sets the semblance of a mood.

Hiro Kanagawa, who played Detective Clark, is a very convincing grim 'by the book' detective; Kanagawa's stern demeanour in the face of maintaining the imprisonment of a criminal is some of the best acting in the film.

However, the best performance came from Bruce Altman, who played Jerry Roach. Altman is an interesting pick for best performance because he has one scene but it really is the only pick that could possibly be made. This is a performance where the actor actually feels genuine, he has a sincerity and warmness to him that actually makes for quite a likeable character. There's no reason for this role to make an impact but he does because he puts the effort into making a kindly character who is supportive and a pleasant pause amongst this mess of a film.

The plot of the film has no sense of direction whatsoever, it is sluggish for most of the feature placing little to no emphasis on the conflict that would hold any excitement at all. This seems like the origin story of a psychopathic serial killer and his Stockholm Syndrome victim; there isn't much of an actual feeling of romance between the two leading character. This is a film where the two main characters get aggressive, manipulative and spiteful towards one another and you're left puzzled how these two have warranted three films over all these years. If you've come looking for more sex scenes than the past couple of films then you get your money's worth but it feels like the film was only made for this without any care put towards narrative or character. The cinematography doesn't look great, it's a lot of slow close-ups to build very superficial allure. The editing also doesn't do a lot, keeping a slow pace and not moving scenes along very well.

Dakota Johnson, who played Anastasia Steele, plays a role that is just so warped in terms of 'character development'; Johnson goes between a bubbly, giggly lust-driven role and an erratic, reluctant role which makes her feel very inconsistent to watch. Jamie Dornan, who played Christian Grey, is a cold almost violent seeming character; you feel like his creepy possessive demeanour is more hostile than romantic. Eric Johnson, who played Jack Hyde, is such a weak antagonist to watch; his wild outbursts and depiction of his motives aren't particularly coherent. Eloise Mumford, who played Kate Kavanagh, really plays her character up quite a bit; Mumford has a subplot in this film that is about as boring to watch as her character. Rita Ora, who played Mia Grey, is quite content to be in the background for the duration of the film; Ora is a bit of a stereotypical damsel in distress figure in the scenes that count most for her character. Luke Grimes, who played Elliot Grey, is quite a stiff obnoxious role; there's a whole subplot around his character being deceptive that becomes quite pithy as it plays out. Victor Rasuk, who played Jose, falls into the background pretty swiftly in this film; Rasuk's character has lost a lot of his importance over the course of these films. Max Martini, Brant Daughtery and Kirsten Alter, who played Taylor, Sawyer and Prescott respectively, were quite generic security guards throughout the film; these were more people carrying guns to resolve issues rather than characters within the film. Marcia Gay Harden, who played Grace Grey, is such a cold figure throughout these films; the stiff relationship between herself and Dornan is hardly the resemblance of a mother/son dynamic. Arielle Kebbel, who played Gia Matteo, is treated like eye candy rather than a role in this film; it's a really degrading role and a bit of a low point for the feature. Robinne Lee, who played Ros Bailey, is shunted very strongly to the background within this feature; she's only really present here to dish out exposition. Amy Price-Francis, who played Liz, is quite a poorly written minor antagonist; the 'big twist' that her character was aiding Johnson's wasn't all that much of a surprise and could be predicted from very early on.