I saw 50 Shades....and I loved it!

[AZMotherLover]

People who look at "Starry Night" already have plenty of opportunity to look at the night sky, so there's no risk of them getting confused about what's based on reality vs what's artistic license. For a lot of people, 50SoG may be their first introduction to BDSM concepts.

Most people never have to make important life decisions about astronomy; even if somebody lives in a cave and gets the mistaken idea that "Starry Night" is how space looks, it's unlikely to cause them any harm. People do have to make decisions about issues of consent and abusive relationships, and those are the main areas where 50SoG is being criticised.

So, no, I don't think it's a good parallel.

Anyone who gets advice on how to live their life from erotic fiction is an idiot. I keep forgetting how many people fall into that category.

 

[jomar]

Comments like:

"The BDSM lifestyle as depicted in FSOG is nothing like the BDSM lifestyle I practice, so therefore FSOG is crap."

Sound to me like:

"Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' looks nothing like the actual night sky, so therefore it's crap."

Really?

Not so much. More like, the book was crappily written and mysoginistic and the movie follows the book, ergo...and there was little chemistry so that didn't help.

The issue I've read that those into BDSM are irked that it doesn't accurately portray the lifestyle, which includes mutual consent, love and precautions against injury/harm (confess I don't know how the movie addresses safety).

Then again, the BDSM thread isn't really discussing the portrayal of the lifestyle so maybe they've dismissed it as simply fodder for mocking.

 

[jomar]

Anyone who gets advice on how to live their life from erotic fiction is an idiot. I keep forgetting how many people fall into that category.

Would that include people coming here for advice?

 

[Bramblethorn]

Not so much. More like, the book was crappily written and mysoginistic and the movie follows the book, ergo...and there was little chemistry so that didn't help.

The issue I've read that those into BDSM are irked that it doesn't accurately portray the lifestyle, which includes mutual consent, love and precautions against injury/harm (confess I don't know how the movie addresses safety).

Then again, the BDSM thread isn't really discussing the portrayal of the lifestyle so maybe they've dismissed it as simply fodder for mocking.

There was more discussion about it over there a few months back, when the film was in production. We also had an author who came in wanting to be complimented on the realism of their 50SoG clone and didn't like the reaction they got, so I think people there mostly just got tired of the topic and moved on.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Anyone who gets advice on how to live their life from erotic fiction is an idiot. I keep forgetting how many people fall into that category.

You should see all the people who take advice on how to raise children, fight a war, or run a country from fiction. Millions of 'em.

 

[jomar]

There was more discussion about it over there a few months back, when the film was in production. We also had an author who came in wanting to be complimented on the realism of their 50SoG clone and didn't like the reaction they got, so I think people there mostly just got tired of the topic and moved on.

Thanks. Thought there might have been a revival now that it's actually out.

 

[Jessie_Pinkman]

------cut----
I fucking loved it.
----cut-----
In the middle of the movie a couple got up and the woman announced she's had a enough of this shit and they left. Being me I followed them and caught up and asked if they would tell me why they were so offended.

You were in the middle of a movie you fucking loved, saw a couple walk out, and you followed them out to discuss why they left?

 

[soflabbwlvr]

Despite scathing reviews, tepid audience satisfaction scores, and dire predictions of doom and gloom, the 50 Shades juggernaut rolls on. After a record setting opening, it has been confirmed that the second and third installments will go forward with James Dornan and Dakota Johnson both returning, as well as director Sam Taylor-Johnson. The only principal member of the team not expected back is the screen writer. 50 Shades Darker.

 

[Serafina1210]

NY Times reviewer: "Mr. Dornan has the bland affect of a model, by which I mean a figure made of balsa wood or Lego."

Ouch!

 

[Handley_Page]

Not so much. More like, the book was crappily written and mysoginistic and the movie follows the book, ergo...and there was little chemistry so that didn't help.

The review I read in one of our papers seemed to give the impression that the movie did NOT follow the book.
As if that wasn't enough, it carried dire warnings about Abuse.

 

[AZMotherLover]

Would that include people coming here for advice?

It would include people who get their only advice here. Multiple sources are important.

 

[sr71plt]

TV commercials are a great place to get advice on sex. For instance, if you want to have sex with your lady and can't get it up, the thing to do is to sit in side-by-side bathtubs on the beach and hold hands while you watch the sun set over the water.

 

[robertreams]

No, you didn't read that wrong. Yesterday the wife and I met up with three other couples and we went and saw 50 Shades of Gray and I fucking loved it.

Know why I loved it? Because the movie was a full out, pull no punches portrayal of pure abuse. Emotional, verbal, physical and sexual, nothing but pure abuse. Nothing erotic, nothing sexy, certainly nothing romantic. Just a damn train wreck.

Hats off to Jamie Doran who played Gray so cringe worthy that I was reminded of Joffrey from Game of Thrones for pure loathsomeness. He played this role so well it might hurt his future because he may always be associated with an animal of this nature.

Big props to the director Johnson and whoever wrote the screenplay. They read these books and they filmed the vision and the message they saw there. Abuse. Nothing but abuse.

In the middle of the movie a couple got up and the woman announced she's had a enough of this shit and they left. Being me I followed them and caught up and asked if they would tell me why they were so offended. The guy said he was leaving because he was ready to punch someone who did not exist. The woman said the same and added her daughter just bought the books and she was going home to throw them out.

On that note I'll add I do not know how old the daughter is and not sure I agree with censoring anything. But is she's young enough to still be home, then they have the right and its a parent's job to try to keep what they deem harmful from their kid.

Before I go further I am far from in the minority. This movie is getting wrecked from coast to coast, just trashed. Interesting to see the difference in male/female reviewers. The guys are panning it simply saying it was boring, depressing, uninspiring and pretty much sucked. Even the "twenty minutes of sex" they are touting was nothing as raunchy as they say, except for the dialogue which has some shock value and further lends to Gray's "winning" persona.

The women on the other hand are crushing it for the promotion and glamorization of abuse. Remember Shades is "an erotic romance" isn't it? Please, it never was in book form and the movie removes any question about what it really is.

here is one review I found that sums up many


http://www.mamamia.com.au/rogue/fifty-shades-of-grey-review-rosie-waterland/

I sat through this thing....and it was an act of will to do so. There were points where Dakota Johnson (Ana) looked absolutely terrified, more sexy sexy right there for you. I was there knowing I wouldn't like it, but was still blown away by the no holds barred style.

I kept looking around and seeing a lot of people, men and women alike, looking uncomfortable. I feel more would have left but didn't want to make a scene. We went for coffee afterwards and one woman who had read all three books said in the beginning she thought they were being a little harsh, but as the movie went on she found herself thinking, "You know, he really was that bad."

Two women who had not read the books said there is no way in hell they would buy them and they won't be seeing a sequel.

That's why I loved it. A huge perk of a movie adaptation is a big spike in book sales. That will not happen here. Some, sure. But there will be no huge spike. A guy mentioned that at least it ended with her sucking it up and walking away from him. Which is where the first book ends.

He was ten informed that in the next two books he stalks her gets her back and continues to abuse her, hooking her with a story of his tragic past and at the end he softens up not at all and she just accepts her lot in life.

The sad story of many abused women.

That is why I loved this movie.

This movie is karma. This is an outing of a book claiming to be a sexy erotic romance that "opens the door" for erotica and mommy porn and woke women up! No, this is a book about abuse and women's acceptance of it. The glorification of an asshole in his purest form. The romanticizing of an animal.

Books can be written off as "you read it that way" this movie? There is no room for interpretation. THis is abuse from start to finish. Even the sex is uncomfortable because of his despicable actions and demeanor. This was not BDSM this was point blank, "you will do this because you will." he paid her to abuse her, pure and simple.

The fact she was a simpering inexperienced innocent heightens the creep factor.

Karma. This is the pay out for James, a thieving author and her unethical publisher who knew they were selling something they should not be. There was a suit, they are paying Meyers. These suits have 'gag orders" and they cannot be publicized as part of the deal. Meyers camp decided to make money from shades rather than do it a favor of creating hype by demanding it pulled.

I have a friend who is digging around for some links to the stories leading up to it, I'll post them when I get them.

But forget about plagiarism, forget about making BDSM look bad because that is no longer a concern, the whole thing looks bad now because it is.

The timing could not be worse for the 'franchise' or better for those many who loath what it really stands for.

in 2014 the NFL caused domestic violence to be thrust into the headlines. We were treated with a horrific video of Ray Rice punching his wife out. Followed by what was the even more disturbing press conference where his wife defends him. A woman beaten for so long she feels its now okay.

That is the message in shades pure and simple its sexy to be abused.

Now nothing wrong with writing a book about an asshole, who cares? People will read it. But the fun of this? The book is now exposed. It is no longer erotic, sexy, romantic, it is no longer a raunchier version of a harlequin romance with a "sensitive" bad boy learning to love.

It has now been exposed as book that has a message of glorifying abuse and making women think its "hot"

Older women know-or should-this is fiction, no one really wants a Christian Gray. But younger women, teens, early twenties? This book has been shoved at them as hot and sexy and oh, wouldn't that be cool, meeting a guy like him?

50 shades is a misogynist hand book. Whether James really intended this or she was simply incapable of writing his "coming around" to ana in a believable way and left him an abusive beast...who knows?

This movie is going to heavily damage the 'legacy' of these books. Sometimes controversy can be a way to spark interest and people seeing it. This won't. Domestic violence is a hot bed topic now and people are very PC. The book you "just had to read!" two years ago will become the book/movie "No one should support!"

Of course there will be good reviews-at the least the ones the movie pays for- and there will be spin doctors talking about how "he does get better" or people are reading too much into it.

But the negative is going to shout it down. My gut feeling is somewhere down the line....James will state she is not happy with the vision and Johnson will, be fired for the second movie. They will then so some series re writing to the second script to turn Gray into a groveling shell of himself who is so sorry for what he did. Too little too late, this movie is going to leave a bad taste in people's mouths and you do not get a second chance on a first impression.

People are also fickle. Many go where the wind takes them especially with PC topics. Two years ago "The mommies" as the media called them, ate this up. Mary read it so June had to and now Linda is because..you have too!

Now when Mary and June say "What an abusive asshole" Linda will now say the same thing.

This movie is vindication to the many who called this out as abuse from day one. The ones who were shouted down as prudes and whiners and trying to bring the book down...

Now we will see a lot of the reverse. The people who claim this is some form of romance will not have a leg to stand on and people are very quick to drop anything negative these days...

I wonder...if any retailers will be bullied into pulling the merchandise? Maybe, maybe not, but who cares?

50 shades in its effort to capitalize and make even more money from something they shouldn't have been making money on in the first place have just shot themselves in the foot and sullied the "bubble gum pop" reputation of the books.

Having said all that...I give the movie five stars.

5 stars for accuracy.

5 stars for Dornans creepy and true to character performance.

5 stars for Johnson's looking like a terrified and bullied young girl

and 5 stars for the director looking at these books and not glorifying any of it and shoving it all in people's faces.

Watching this thing was unnerving for me, but so so worth it.

Well,I read all three of the books, though I haven't seen the movie. The books are about bondage and discipline, about giving ones self willingly to another to control, reward, punish, etc. There are those who WISH to be controlled by others, who "enjoy it" to deny them would be to abuse them. I once had a relationship with such a woman. It was her bedroom drawer that held the ball gag and velvet handcuffs and ropes and even, yes, a riding crop. She literally could not get off unless she were bound gagged, spanked, or some variation. I once made her cum strongly by preventing her from breathing until she was thrashing for air. She LOVED it!. We didn't stay together because I couldn't keep playing the role, but I am positive her new husband fulfills her desires.

This is my understanding of the theme in "Fifty"

It takes two and one must want it. and stheh couple must have a safe word that is iron clad!

This is what fifty shades (the books) is supposed to be about, but the books falll far short of their goal by copping out

 

[robertreams]

Anyone who gets advice on how to live their life from erotic fiction is an idiot. I keep forgetting how many people fall into that category.

As for the doofus who said "Starry night", does not look like a starry night. He has apparently never looked at anything with imagination. i am positive Van Gogh painted it as HE SAW IT, how could he do otherwise. And guess what? I can see what he saw very easily, because his art showed me the way. That is why they call it art!

 

[Bramblethorn]

Well,I read all three of the books, though I haven't seen the movie. The books are about bondage and discipline, about giving ones self willingly to another to control, reward, punish, etc. There are those who WISH to be controlled by others, who "enjoy it" to deny them would be to abuse them.

Most of the complaints about 50SoG are about things that don't fall under "giving oneself willingly". Gray bullies Ana into consent and makes her feel bad for using her safeword, he tracks her phone without her knowledge or consent, and when she sends a joking email that makes him think she's broken up with him, he shows up at her house and outright rapes her.

 

[CheekyGirl90]

I liked it too. I think the terrible reviews actually made it better for me. I was expecting it to be horrible.

 

[PennLady]

I liked it too. I think the terrible reviews actually made it better for me. I was expecting it to be horrible.

Just goes to show everyone sees it differently* I haven't been able to read much of it because I think the writing is so bad.

But as Bramble pointed out, the basic story isn't so unusual. It's a fantasy where a man loves a woman so much he does these things to "get" her. It may have different trappings but it's hardly unique for that.

 

[PervOtaku]

When the book was starting to hit it big, I poked around the internet for some reviews. Supposedly a recurring theme from people who read the books was that the BDSM was exciting, and it was too bad that the books were just so poorly written.

I concluded that the whole thing centered around bringing a "new" genre to a "new" audience, that is, by actually getting the thing published as a physical book, they got it into the hands of women that hadn't read BDSM before. You never would have gotten these women to come to a site like Literotica to read BDSM stories, but they picked up 50 Shades not really knowing what they were getting into and discovered that they liked the genre. Even the worst example of a genre can be enough to learn that you like the genre itself.

One article online pointed out at least a dozen much older, but much better, BDSM novels. But of course these classics were not stacked up in the "new releases" section of bookstores the way 50 Shades was.

The other major complaint against the book was that the girl, written as a consenting adult, was frequently portrayed in ways and with lines of dialogue that made it seem like she couldn't possibly be out of high school.

I've been kind of wondering if the movie had at least improved on the book by polishing up the writing and underage-esque dialouge. The larger theme must remain intact of course, which is somewhere between the story of a girl plunging into the world of BDSM far faster than was healthy for her, and a "my first BDSM story" for audiences who think they porn is beneath them but discover it's not.

 

[PennLady]

I concluded that the whole thing centered around bringing a "new" genre to a "new" audience, that is, by actually getting the thing published as a physical book, they got it into the hands of women that hadn't read BDSM before. You never would have gotten these women to come to a site like Literotica to read BDSM stories, but they picked up 50 Shades not really knowing what they were getting into and discovered that they liked the genre. Even the worst example of a genre can be enough to learn that you like the genre itself.

I would agree with this at least on an empirical basis. My son plays baseball and when FSoG first came out, the other moms were abuzz about it. They obviously hadn't read or read much BDSM, or perhaps much erotica in general. And it's funny what you don't realize might be appealing -- one woman said the idea of having all the decisions made for her sounded good, and I can relate. When you're running around with your kids, trying to balance home and school and meals and work if you have it, turning that over to someone else is definitely appealing, at least in a fantasy way.

I've been kind of wondering if the movie had at least improved on the book by polishing up the writing and underage-esque dialouge. The larger theme must remain intact of course, which is somewhere between the story of a girl plunging into the world of BDSM far faster than was healthy for her, and a "my first BDSM story" for audiences who think they porn is beneath them but discover it's not.

Many reviews seem to feel that the movie did indeed improve on the books. Nearly every review I read, positive or negative, thought certain things were better and that Dakota Johnson made a better Ana on screen than the Ana in the book. Most seemed to think Movie Ana was much stronger and less immature than Book Ana.

And just for fun, the future of the sequels is in a little doubt. From what I've read, EL James had a lot of creative control ("unprecedented" was used in one article) and it led to a lot of clashes. The director (Sam Taylor-Johnson) wants out, and the screenwriter won't participate in the press tour. James wants to write the screenplays for the sequels herself, and the studio is -- understandably, I think -- resistant to that. I'm curious to see how this turns out, myself.