Wander Talks: Episode 7 – 50 Shades of Grey Review
Two guys and a girl on 50 Shades of Grey.
In this week’s episode of Wander Talks, I sat down with my good friends, Joshua Abbott and Brandon Mosely to discuss the heavily controversial movie, 50 Shades of Grey. We went as a group to view the film on the day it premiered, sitting almost too close for comfort in the front section of the theater. I thought it would be interesting to get some feedback on what the two men had to say about the movie, especially since one had read the book and one had not. This already created a perfect setup for conversation brewed from vastly different exposures to the kinky novel-turned movie.
Hot or Nah?
Without giving too much away for those that don’t know what 50 Shades is all about, it was described by many reviews to be a poor depiction of sexual chemistry and set fire in the world of feminism. My friends and I surely thought that the sex was limited when compared to the book, and definitely had a different response to what we saw when compared to other reviews.
USA Today described it as a movie that “glamorizes sexual violence” while other reviewers credit the storyline to be a step back for feminists. Just check out your Google search bar. Many people have seemed to be bothered by bringing this kinky preference to the big screen because it somehow seems to portray gender roles in a negative light in the most unromantic way possibly. Personally, and what was gathered from the podcast, it didn’t seem like something that was trying to push dominant-submissive acts into my own bedroom, and it definitely didn’t make me feel like less of a woman if I found any of the sex-scenes to be hot. We lightly touched on preferences on sex and how this shouldn’t be interpreted as a movie filled with misrepresentation, rather a movie opening a door to sexual preferences that we as a society aren’t as familiar with.
Book vs. No Book
It didn’t seem like there was a big difference between the perspective of one who had read the book versus one who had not read the book. Josh and I only had the “pleasure” to have read a more detailed depiction of each sexual scene. We all agreed that it may have beneficial to have a background view of the characters to see what shaped their way of being, but we’ll have to wait and see if the second and third books do just that (we’re playing catch up). Being that this book was not a storyline that could get very deep, it didn’t seem like there was much you could miss if you hadn’t read the book. You’re judgment on the quality of the film seemed to come from your own personal preferences of what makes a good movie (filmography, acting, and dialogue) rather than the transition from text to film.
General Consensus
We concluded that the film wasn’t as awful as it’s been described. It ended well, and wasn’t as bad as critics made it out to be. It was not Oscar material, but it wasn’t a complete disaster in our eyes.
