Movie Review: ‘Fifty Shades Darker’

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Sarah Baker

Image by Sarah Baker.

Story by Abigaile Roorda, Writer

Valentine’s Day was made a little more intense by the return of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey in the highly anticipated sequel to Fifty Shades of Grey.

Fifty Shades Darker picks up not long after the end of the first film. Anastasia (Dakota Johnson, Beastly) is still reeling from leaving Christian (Jamie Dornan, Marie Antoinette) who still hasn’t figured out what he did wrong.

The beauty of this film was to move the characters away from just sex and make them real by placing them into the twists and turns of normal relationships. There are still the intriguing and somewhat disturbing sexual encounters, but that’s no longer the focus of the film.

The audience now follows the pair on a more traditional relationship path. Through everything from awkward family encounters to dreaded ex-relationship run-ins, the pair shows how much they love one another.

Opening on Feb. 10, Fifty Shades Darker has received a 9 percent positive response from critics and a 58 percent positive review from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Although the film hasn’t received the adoring reception as the previous film, Fifty Shades Darker has garnered over $89 million in revenue and debuted at No. 2 at box offices in its opening weekend.