Okay, all of the hype died down somewhat with the premiering of the long awaited movie 50 Shades Of Grey based on one of the most popular selling books of this generation. It seems so many avid readers and fans of the book couldn’t wait to see it on the big screen. And the reviews are in…Not good! Actually nothing to ‘write’ home about. At the writing of this, IMBD had a 4.1/10 rating for it, Rotten Tomatoes a 1 out of 5 star rating, and Metacritic had it at 2 1/2 stars out of 5. You do not have to be a statistical whiz to figure out that those are not good numbers!
What went wrong? I am not here to tear it down or criticize the director, actors, or author. Gee, I am an author and have had my own work translated into film and I know the feeling. The key here is the word “translated”. This movie was going to be up against tremendous expectations, especially from women readers who had set the bar so high for their hopes to be fulfilled on a grand level. You see when something is “narrated” or based on “seeing with your mind’s eye”, I am referring to sheer fantasy, you already have a preconceived notion for how something should be, especially when it produces exceptional interest, stimulation and arousal. It is like seeing the awesome picture of the cake or pie on the cover of the box in the frozen food section at the supermarket that you buy and can’t wait to get home to devour it. Once you get it open, you are like, “Say what?,” in that it doesn’t come close to comparing to the picture on the box, or even tasting like it, which you based your expectations on through hope. And the same is with many books for that matter, whether it be Stephen King or Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. The thing that King and Meyer have going for them in their books is the “monsters” and supernatural factors that can still sustain a story throughout a movie, even if the “fantasy” and expectations get lost in translation, or unable to be re-creates in the acting arena.
I guess my biggest assertion is that it is not real folks! It is just a movie. The problem is that it was based on a “good” book which a lot of people were enthralled by. For all intents and purposes, the movie didn’t stand a chance! When you set your expectations so high, especially based on the “fantasies” you have created for yourself, then sometimes the best of the best will never live up to one’s dreams!
