50 Shades Series: Fan Fiction Run Amok

[dusang]

I would be too if I were her because IMHO, the ones who are writing articles are being disingenuous in their critiques. The majority of BDSM works that I've read/watched feature relationships characterized by lack of true consent or power inequity. That is the fantasy of a BDSM relationship and fiction peddles in fantasy, not reality. People are holding 50 Shades to a standard that other BDSM works are not held to, including other works that are recommended as 50 Shades alternatives. The Story of O is not a classic because of its portrayal of informed consent or aftercare! I also am under the impression that dubious consent is a common enough feature in fanfiction to have a subgenre named for it, but I don't read fanfic so I could be wrong.

 

Honestly, I haven't actually read full articles from the BDSM community critiquing James.  I've also not read the entirety of 50 Shades of Grey (book 1) because it was just so terrible that I couldn't even skim the sex scenes.  And, I'm not part of the BDSM community.  So honestly, I don't know the entire argument.  However, I did see the movie, where the end scene/message appears to be that BDSM is a diagnosible mental illness that can be cured through a healthy, loving relationship.  So fuck E.L. James.

[Julia]

Which, judging from some of her more well-known interactions online, was more likely than not to be a commentary on her critics.

[DollEyes]

  I've never been into the Fifty Shades books because abusive relationships, whether they're physical, mental or emotional, aren't sexy for me, but I saw the movie out of curiosity and it was even shittier than I ever imagined. Then again, given the material, I'm not surprised. I've seen both leads in better projects, so IMO their acting's not the problem; it's the script. If the writing's bad, then chances are the acting will be, too. There's much better erotic fiction than this by much better writers than E.L. James, none of which has anything to do with Twilight.

 

  Christian gray may look sexy, but between his treatment of Anastasia and his mommy issues, the bloom wore off that rose in record time. An asshole's an asshole, rich or poor, young or old, hot or not.  As for Anastasia, that she needed the likes of Christian to validate her as a woman is pathetic. By far the best thing about FSOG is "Earned It." If only the whole movie was even half as great as that song.

 

  FSOG has done something that, though not impossible, is rare: be one of the unsexiest films about sex ever made. I'm glad that EL didn't want Matt Bomer to play Christian because IMO he-like Charlie Hunnam & Alexander Skarsgard, not only dodged a huge bullet, it meant he got to be in Magic Mike XXL, which is IMO a much film about sex that celebrates women, unlike FSOG.

 

[Dejana]

Kim Basinger to join 'Fifty Shades Darker'. She's playing Elena, the woman who "introduced" Christian to BDSM at 15.

[methodwriter85]

Kim Basinger would have been great. If this was 1997.

[Rick Kitchen]

The character is older.  I think that's the point of the casting.  

[methodwriter85]

I always got the vibe that Elena was supposed to be in her 40's, not pushing retirement age. However, this seems like a role Kim would excel at.

[ramble]

If Grey wasn't a billionaire: Fifty Shades of Broke:

[Scarlett45]

I always got the vibe that Elena was supposed to be in her 40's, not pushing retirement age. However, this seems like a role Kim would excel at.

Well she was one of Christian's Mom's friends, so I always thought she was at least 30years older than him (given his Mom was a practicing physician when he was adopted). If Christian is 25 that would make her mid 50s at least.

[methodwriter85]

I'm not going bother starting a thread for Fifty Shades Darker because this is a trilogy.

I got to hate-watch it on Thursday, although I was disappointed the crowd I was with wasn't as crazy as the stories I've been hearing about showings.

Eric Johnson from Smallville got really, really hot. Too bad he has to be the evil James...opps, I mean, Jack.

[Dejana]

Fifty Shades of Grey scored 25% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and Fifty Shades Darker is sitting at 10%! Can Fifty Shades Freed complete the downward trajectory and score under 5 percent next year? Of course, EL James will never blame her meddling for having anything to do with it!

[Chinspinner]

3 minutes ago, Dejana said:

Fifty Shades of Grey scored 25% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and Fifty Shades Darker is sitting at 10%! Can Fifty Shades Freed complete the downward trajectory and score under 5 percent next year? Of course, EL James will never blame her meddling for having anything to do with it!

Honestly, I have watched much better porn in terms of acting/ directing/ script.... and most importantly actual arousal, than these awful films. I won't go into more detail, because that is between me and my right hand! 

[Ms Blue Jay]

I loved this one.  It's my favourite book of the trilogy, and the preview looked similarly action-packed.  I had a great time.  Half of the crowd was great and so into it.  The other half was just quiet, LOL.  Not my style; I love the fun showings where people really get into it!

For me, this far exceeded the first movie, which I thought was just average.  Jamie Dornan was a lot sexier and manlier somehow.  I don't know what he did.  He was a lot looser, his character was happier and more playful, and you really buy that they're into each other.  Lots of action, and yes a lot of sex scenes.  LOL

[methodwriter85]

According to the director, he made Jamie put on muscle. You can tell that he did- he was a lot more jacked in this.

[cpcathy]

I feel a "skulking into the theater and watching this by myself" day coming on.

[UMAngela]

On February 12, 2017 at 0:37 AM, methodwriter85 said:

Eric Johnson from Smallville got really, really hot. Too bad he has to be the evil James...opps, I mean, Jack.

I thought he was quite sexy and menacing in this role, not at all what I pictured after reading the book, and now I am all in on him as the villain.    

On February 12, 2017 at 11:45 PM, methodwriter85 said:

According to the director, he made Jamie put on muscle. You can tell that he did- he was a lot more jacked in this.

I still found Jamie's acting wooden and uncomfortable in this movie, but his body was on point.  Those butt muscles were wow.

So, I covered my eyes (from embarrassment) a few times, and I had to hide a couple of laughs in my scarf, but that was what I expected and I left the theater satisfied.

Edited February 15, 2017 by UMAngela

[Bruinsfan]

Did Tyler Hoechlin's character appear at all in this one? I don't want to waste a buck renting it from Redbox in a few months if I don't have any reason to stop the fast-forwarding and turn the audio on.

[emjohnson03]

No. Everything about this was not anything I would see again.

The soundtrack was on point though.

What bothered me, and I know people aren't looking for some deeper love story but they were both so not emotionally connected and I know that's the point of Christian but if all they wanted to do was get laid, then fine, but they were trying so hard to make it so "real." For who? Because I saw Anna freaked out and unsure and then super sure and so in love with him...um, ok?

Eric Johnson is in a bunch of Hallmark films so that was fun to see him here. He was a good baddie but I thought the movie had too many quick cuts. It was trying to follow the book and just fell so flat. There was one scene where Christian just shows up after crashing his helicopter and I had to roll my eyes because....really?

It just felt like a Lifetime movie on steroids because it was Hollywood.

Still sad that Matt Bomer wasn't cast (not like he would do it) but man, he's Christian to me.

[Ms Blue Jay]

21 hours ago, Bruinsfan said:

Did Tyler Hoechlin's character appear at all in this one? I don't want to waste a buck renting it from Redbox in a few months if I don't have any reason to stop the fast-forwarding and turn the audio on.

No, it appears he was cut out.  He is scheduled on IMDB for Fifty Shades Freed which comes out February 14, 2018.

[EyewatchTV211]

22 hours ago, emjohnson03 said:

No. Everything about this was not anything I would see again.

The soundtrack was on point though.

What bothered me, and I know people aren't looking for some deeper love story but they were both so not emotionally connected and I know that's the point of Christian but if all they wanted to do was get laid, then fine, but they were trying so hard to make it so "real." For who? Because I saw Anna freaked out and unsure and then super sure and so in love with him...um, ok?

Eric Johnson is in a bunch of Hallmark films so that was fun to see him here. He was a good baddie but I thought the movie had too many quick cuts. It was trying to follow the book and just fell so flat. There was one scene where Christian just shows up after crashing his helicopter and I had to roll my eyes because....really?

It just felt like a Lifetime movie on steroids because it was Hollywood.

Still sad that Matt Bomer wasn't cast (not like he would do it) but man, he's Christian to me.

I should admit in advance that I haven't read any of the books or seen any of the movies. But I seem to have this fascination with reading what people think about pop culture like this, the Bachelor, etc. Anyway, I love Matt Bomer and was a huge fan of White Collar. Based on what I've read, he did sound like he would be perfect (although a little older). So I felt the need to google some pictures of him again. So pretty. I do watch a lot of the Hallmark movies and am a fan of Eric Johnson as well. Wish he'd be in more stuff that I watch.

Edited February 17, 2017 by VMepicgrl

[methodwriter85]

E.L. James actually said publicly that Matthew Bomer can't be Christian Grey because he's openly gay. He probably would have done it if he had the chance because dude's not exactly discriminating.

I will say that I'm kind of surprised that Dakota Johnson was able to kind of keep her character as quippy and fun because apparently during the first movie E.L. fought hard against Dakota and Sam from injecting any kind of life into the character, or having her seem like a normal young girl in her early 20's in general. (The one good scene where Ana negotiates her terms with Christian was something E.L. apparently hated because it went against her idea of Ana as being a shy, retiring type. Even though that kind of the point.)

There doesn't seem to be much dirt against the shoot so it was probably the right call to just give in to James and let her husband "write" the script. It also sounds like Dakota and Jamie got a stern talking to by Universal because they seemed to have better chemistry this time around. And this director basically just seemed to say "Fuck it" and made an R-rated romantic comedy/melodrama instead of trying to be artsy like Tyler-Johnson tried to do to the consternation of E.L. James did. The movie in general just felt more cohesive.

[Ms Blue Jay]

I tried to Google this and could only find Bret Easton Ellis saying that Bomer being gay meant he couldn't play Christian.  If you have time can you show me where EL James said it too?

[BooBear]

On 2/16/2017 at 0:46 PM, Ms Blue Jay said:

No, it appears he was cut out.  He is scheduled on IMDB for Fifty Shades Freed which comes out February 14, 2018.

Probably a good thing for Tyler's career. I can't believe he will appear in this dreck. 

[Bruinsfan]

On 2/19/2017 at 11:48 PM, methodwriter85 said:

E.L. James actually said publicly that Matthew Bomer can't be Christian Grey because he's openly gay. He probably would have done it if he had the chance because dude's not exactly discriminating.

If that's the case, thank goodness for that halfwit's bigotry!

[JustaPerson]

I'm pretty sure when the first FSOG came out, Matt Bomer had just recently collected his Golden Globe for The Normal Heart so he lucked out, clearly.

[Conotocarious]

I saw this last week. Yes, it was terrible, no surprise there, but I legitimately LOLed when Ana gets the promotion at work when Jack is fired and then the other assistant asks Ana if she's now expected to call her "Ms. Steele". Everything Ana says "I expect you to call me Ana, I don't expect you to fetch me coffee unless you're getting some for yourself, and the rest we'll just make up as we go along" is exactly what Melanie Griffith says to her new secretary at the end of Working Girl. Fantastic shout out to an amazing movie starring her mom (which this one wasn't).

[Dejana]

E! is showing the first movie as a lead-in to their show The Arrangement, so the Fifty Shades dialogue is getting the basic cable edit. Now Christian says to Ana, "I don't make love, I play, hard." I've seen this channel show Knocked Up and there they just muted the forbidden words. Maybe they know people like me might stick around a few minutes longer to see how a "clean" version of this story would look?

Edited March 6, 2017 by Dejana

[Bruinsfan]

I thought the movie was basically two hours of bondage softcore. Were the commercial breaks longer than the actual aired footage from the movie?

[Spartan Girl]

I saw it on E. Good lord it was worse than I thought. I hate that they were trying to pass off Christian's creepy and possessive behavior as hot. Like the scene where he takes a bite of Ana's toast while she was holding it -- without asking and without respecting her personal space. All I could think was "Get your own fucking toast!" 

It was so repulsive that Jamie Dornan's hotness just left me cold.

[methodwriter85]

On 3/6/2017 at 8:21 PM, Spartan Girl said:

I saw it on E. Good lord it was worse than I thought. I hate that they were trying to pass off Christian's creepy and possessive behavior as hot. Like the scene where he takes a bite of Ana's toast while she was holding it -- without asking and without respecting her personal space. All I could think was "Get your own fucking toast!" 

It was so repulsive that Jamie Dornan's hotness just left me cold.

Don't forget Christian following Ana to Georgia where she's spending time with her mother who couldn't go out to her graduation because her husband broke his foot.

[rmontro]

I read the books, which are terribly written.  I liked the story well enough, it's just the writing was so amateurish.  Until the last book, by then even the story was no longer interesting.  As far as the sex and kinkiness goes, it's very mild.  In the books, after awhile the sex scenes just started to get in the way of the story, which I wanted them to get on with.

In the books, Christian is such a hot guy that women nearly swoon at the sight of him, even if they didn't know him.  It would be hard/nearly impossible for any male actor to live up to that.

I've seen the first 10 minutes of the first two movies on XFinity On Demand Sneak Previews.  They appeared to be just like the book to me, so I've never watched the movies any further.  I do hope they don't follow the trend of stretching out the final book into two separate movies, because that last book is horrible.  Plus I hate the trend anyway.

[methodwriter85]

They're not. The third and final movie was filmed back-to-back with the second one. Smart move. The third one probably won't gross above 80 million domestic given how much the second one dropped from the first.

[BetterButter]

[DollEyes]

On 2/22/2017 at 11:52 PM, JustaPerson said:

I'm pretty sure when the first FSOG came out, Matt Bomer had just recently collected his Golden Globe for The Normal Heart so he lucked out, clearly.

 By not playing Christian Grey, Matt Bomer, Alexander Skarsgard & Charlie Hunham dodged a clipload of bullets. 

Edited September 12, 2017 by DollEyes

[Bruinsfan]

In Hunnam's case, only to run face-first into a chaingun belt's worth of them with that horrible Guy Ritchie King Arthur movie.

[dusang]

My Google app recently served up a tabloid headline about rumours that Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan were having an off-screen romance. I clicked the headline just because it was so absurd -- I can't remember what the name of the site was but the article referenced their "incredible chemistry" and how rumours had been going around since the first film. I was like, yeah, rumours about how much they clearly hated each other and cringed to sit next to one another, let alone pantomime sex scenes!! I just thought it was hilarious and had to share.

[Bruinsfan]

I suppose I could buy hate sex, but romance?

[DollEyes]

23 hours ago, Bruinsfan said:

In Hunnam's case, only to run face-first into a chaingun belt's worth of them with that horrible Guy Ritchie King Arthur movie.

...Of which he might redeem himself with the upcoming reboot of Papillon, the 1973 Steve McQueen & Dustin Hoffman film based on the book about prisoners on Devil's Island. 

[cpcathy]

I don't think Charlie Hunnam is going to happen, we should stop trying to make Charlie Hunnam happen.

[methodwriter85]

On 9/19/2017 at 3:15 PM, dusang said:

My Google app recently served up a tabloid headline about rumours that Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan were having an off-screen romance. I clicked the headline just because it was so absurd -- I can't remember what the name of the site was but the article referenced their "incredible chemistry" and how rumours had been going around since the first film. I was like, yeah, rumours about how much they clearly hated each other and cringed to sit next to one another, let alone pantomime sex scenes!! I just thought it was hilarious and had to share.

I will say that they seemed to have had better chemistry in the second one, but yeah, absurd.

On 9/19/2017 at 1:31 PM, Bruinsfan said:

In Hunnam's case, only to run face-first into a chaingun belt's worth of them with that horrible Guy Ritchie King Arthur movie.

He looked hot, though. Isn't that what really matters?

The promotion for this has been pretty quiet, although I guess at this point Universal knows that they've probably got their core audience set for the 3rd one.

[Bruinsfan]

They'll get me as well if Hoechlin has any love scenes.

[BetterButter]

[MaggieG]

Who is Tyler Hoechlin supposed to be portraying?

I finally watched the second one and I agree, their chemistry was better this time around. They seemed a bit more comfortable in their roles. 

[methodwriter85]

I imagine that before they started filming Darker, they were both sat down and told that they needed to work on whatever shit was going on between them, being that this is a movie franchise that has grossed hundreds of millions of dollars. Petty fighting wasn't going to help anyone, least of all two actors who are trying to establish leading star clout.

[Enero]

I caught Fifty Shades Darker on HBO the other night. I've never seen the first installment, but still kind of had an idea of the story based on what I'd heard. Perhaps the books were better, but this was horrid. 

Great for a good laugh with the horrible dialogue and acting. As I watched, I sat wondering how the actors got through their scenes with a straight face, because some of their lines were downright ridiculous. LOL. Fanfiction run amok indeed. 

Also, where was the love story? As someone mentioned upthread hate sex maybe but romance? No. Christian was a controlling freak and for the life of me I could not understand why Anastasia was in a "relationship" with him except that the sex was supposedly that good. Other than that there was no substance to the "relationship." When she told him she would never be the submissive he wanted, I laughed and thought honey you're already 90% there. He controlled everything she did whether through direct actions or manipulation. Even his proposal was all about him. Not once did he say us, and people think this is romantic? I'm stunned. I guess everyone has their idea of romance, but for me this just wasn't it. I spent the whole movie waiting for Ana to wise up and leave his ass. Unfortunately that didn't happen. 

Again, perhaps the books were better, but this movie was terrible. The only good thing about it were the beautiful shots of the mountains while they were boating on the lake. The views were spectacular. 

Edited January 26, 2018 by Enero

[cpcathy]

The only reason to read the books is to get your jollies. They are ridiculously written. Obviously you can put that kind of stuff in a film, with somewhat known actors. My hygienist loaned me her books and had the idea that the whole series should have been on HBO with unknowns, we would have gotten more naughty bits. As it is, we get three tepid films with a lot of missionary. Boring.

[GaT]

7 hours ago, cpcathy said:

The only reason to read the books is to get your jollies. They are ridiculously written. 

I confess, I have never read the books, but that's because I read the actual fan fiction as it was being written & posted online. It was called "Master of The Universe" & the lead characters were still Edward & Bella. I still don't understand how you can just steal characters from another author, change their names, & publish a book about them.

[Frost]

On ‎1‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 10:58 PM, GaT said:

I still don't understand how you can just steal characters from another author, change their names, & publish a book about them.

I haven't read either the Twilight or FSOG series (I just come here to read the snark), so this confuses me.  It sounds like someone wrote and posted fan fiction with a BDSM twist in the Twilight universe (settings, characters, etc) and the FSOG author read those stories, changed the names and settings (no vampires, etc) and published her own book?  Isn't that plagiarism, even in the fan fiction world?

[Dejana]

1 hour ago, Frost said:

I haven't read either the Twilight or FSOG series (I just come here to read the snark), so this confuses me.  It sounds like someone wrote and posted fan fiction with a BDSM twist in the Twilight universe (settings, characters, etc) and the FSOG author read those stories, changed the names and settings (no vampires, etc) and published her own book?  Isn't that plagiarism, even in the fan fiction world?

She was the one who wrote the BDSM Twilight fic, Master of the Universe, which was always an alternate universe story without vampires (apparently it's a whole subset of Twilight fan fiction). She got a big following, took the story offline (though nothing is really deleted from the internet), changed key names/details and the story from Snowqueens Icedragon reappeared as E.L. James'  Fifty Shades trilogy.  Maybe Stephenie Meyer isn't particularly litigious or her lawyers looked into it and decided there wasn't enough of a case.

Edited January 28, 2018 by Dejana

[Chaos Theory]

On 1/26/2018 at 11:58 PM, GaT said:

I confess, I have never read the books, but that's because I read the actual fan fiction as it was being written & posted online. It was called "Master of The Universe" & the lead characters were still Edward & Bella. I still don't understand how you can just steal characters from another author, change their names, & publish a book about them.

It depends on your meaning.  There are a ton of popular lesbian stories out their with characters that bare a striking resemblance to Xena and Gabrielle from Xena.  Some are quite good.   Some are actually quite good.  I could never see a story like Fifty Shades becoming a movie because the book was nothing but a badly written sex fantasy and that is hard to portray on screen.  turning a nc-17 book into a PG13 movie was just ill advised.