2.5/5 Star Rating

The Fifty Shades film trilogy is now on it's final feature. Like the immensely popular books written by E.L. James, Fifty Shades Freed is the final chapter of Anastasia and Christian's story.

At the beginning of the film, the opening credits are played out over a five minute montage of Ana (Dakota Johnson) and Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan). This montage plays a pleasant, catchy pop song and starts by showing scenes of the couple at their extravagant wedding surrounded by friends and family. It's quite likely that in their world, this event would have been on the front of every magazine and newspaper possible. The lovebirds are then seen jetting off on their lavish honeymoon in their private plane to a variety of visually stunning locations. While away, they are seen going on romantic bike rides, kissing in the rain, eating in fancy restaurants and so on. These scenes are quite short but they are executed well. Ideal for a film purely about romance. It was one of the highlights within the film.

In the first scene that we see the couple interacting in the present time, they are resting on loungers while sunbathing on the beach. Ana is reading a book and Christian is applying sun cream to his wife's back. Ana decides to undo her bikini top so she can bathe topless. Bring on argument number one! In true Fifty Shades style he dominated the situation and tells her that she cannot undress as she is for his eyes only. He then backs up that statement by scolding her for "showing enough skin as it is". Ana then argues back stating that her breasts are the only ones that aren't on show and encourages her husband to relax. Ana's bikini is then done back up and Christian goes for a swim. His wife decides to wait for him to leave the area before then removing her top completely and lies on her back to expose her naked breasts to the public. Christian returns to their spot on the beach to find his wife sleeping and sunbathing with boobs on display for all to see. He throws a towel at her aggressively and shouts "cover yourself up!". The confrontation pointlessly goes back and forth for a few minutes before finally, Christian then reminds Ana that she is now married to a famous billionaire and she could be plastered all over the tabloids. Why on earth did he not start with this? A few minutes later all is absolutely fine and dandy between the two as they ride on a jet ski while another pop song plays as they travel back to their boat. It's like their argument didn't matter or didn't happen at all.

While enjoying being completely besotted with each other in newly wedded bliss, the couple's vacation is interrupted and soon cut short as they are contacted by Christian's assistant at his place of work who delivers some alarming news. She explains that there has been a break in at Grey Enterprises. Files were stolen and a small explosive device was deployed in the building causing an act of arson to arise. Christian and his new wife are shown the CCTV footage of the perpetrator when Mrs Grey suddenly recognises a face that is all too familiar to her. That face belongs to her former employer Jack Hyde (played by Eric Johnson). Hyde is out for revenge towards Ana as he blames her for the loss of his job after he was accused and proven guilty of sexually assaulting her in the workplace.

Now think about this realistically. Jack Hyde was an editor. He manages to break into the Grey Enterprises building completely undetected by any of the security on site and disguises himself in a stereotypical janitors outfit to continue to further into the premises. He also manages to hack the entire system within the company in order to not only steal protected files but also place and activate a small bomb within the facility to make sure the system is damaged. How does a writer/editor manage to pull off those type of particular skills? I guess he can have a hobby right?

After Ana and Christian return home, they are greeted by the staff and then settle back in. Ana decides that she wants to cook for her husband. As the two sit down to dine Ana then sarcastically brings up the topic of having children. As expected, Christian is not impressed and tells his wife that he doesn't like the idea of having a family. Upon sharing his emotions on the matter Ana then seems surprised and is upset to hear that her husband feels this way as she wants a family of her own. Surely this is something they should have discussed before getting married and deciding to settle down together? Christian then goes on to explain that he will be open to the idea someday but he's not currently ready to share Ana with anyone else.

Shortly after another argument for the couple, Ana is seen returning to work after her honeymoon. She is met by a red headed woman who has not been seen in the films before. The woman takes Ana to her new office and explains the reason for her new office is because she's got a promotion. The woman clearly has a little resentment towards Ana as she then sarcastically states to her " and you weren't even here". Immediately the audience can see that this woman is going to become a problem for the film's leading lady.

What is good about both the book and the film of Fifty Shades Freed is that we see a much more confident side to Anastasia. She is now prepared to take on Christian in matters where she is able to stand her ground without him controlling her as per usual.

We briefly see Johnson's character trying to be a little more assertive when she decides to defy her husband on the beach when it came to sunbathing topless. Another example of her learning to become a more dominant person is when Christian takes her to a location which she has once admired in Fifty Shades Darker. As expected, he has bought the land and house that stands upon it for them to make their home. He has also hired Gia Matteo (Arielle Kebbel) - an architect who was referred to him by his brother Elliot (Luke Grimes). The architect is a sexy, flirtatious blonde in a tight fitted dress that clearly displays her 'assets' while she shows the Grey's her design for a new house. while doing so she is very touchy feely with Christian as she discusses her ideas for a modern home. Christian receives a call on his phone and walks away leaving the two ladies to chat. Ana looks at Miss Matteo and says "please stop speaking to my husband as if I weren't here", Gia tries to defend herself and calls Ana by her first name. Big mistake towards the lady with the new found confidence as a married woman. Anastasia assertively tells her "you may call me Mrs Grey". To be honest this scene was purely to show how Johnson's character has progressed and that she is now married to a man that every other woman wants. Other than that it's pointless.

The films in the Fifty Shades trilogy and the books they are based on, are centred on two people from very different ways of life, learning not only how to get to know one another but also about how they learn how to push the boundaries of sexual pleasure in the world of BDSM. The first film in the trilogy, Fifty Shades of Grey became an instant sensation with the box office as it was highly anticipated after the huge success of E.L. James' books which were often labelled as 'Mummy Porn'.

This was something very different for a mainstream cinema release, so it was something that director Sam Taylor-Johnson had the freedom to experiment with when including these raunchy scenes. Fifty shades of Grey contained quite a lot of sexual scenes and not enough screen time featuring the actual plot of the book. Yes I know there's lots of sex in the book. But that is besides the point.

Fifty Shades Freed Trailer (courtesy of Youtube)

Now, two films later Fifty Shades Freed with director James Foley at the helm, who also directed Fifty Shades Darker, the movie sees a lot more detail focused on the story rather than just showing continuous scenes of sexual nature. I personally think it's great to feature more of the actual plot especially for Fifty Shades Freed as the story itself is far darker and more intense. Saying this, I do feel like the intimate moments between Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan's characters did not come across as passionate as they should have compared to the way it is imagined in the book. They don't come across as the newlyweds that are head over heels in love, they kind of seem like friends with 'benefits' in these scenes for this film. The writers have clearly tried to experiment with humour in Fifty Shades freed. At the beginning of one of their 'sessions' in the red room Christian asks Ana if she remembers their safe word to which she jokingly replies "purple". their safe word is "red". These 'raunchy' scenes are not actually that raunchy at all. They are full of close ups of nipples, bottoms and peach fuzz style body hair on both characters. Now Christian Grey is supposed to be the ultimate sexy male. I think Jamie Dornan is also an attractive man. But the only close up we got to see of him naked was his hairy nipple. This is not sexy and nor is it flattering for the actor.

Some other uneventful sexual scenes included the two characters licking ice cream off of each other like randy teenagers before then having sex on a dining room table while in Aspen with their friends and family who are all within earshot of them, sex in Ana's office at work and the most ridiculous is in Christian's car.

Sex scenes in cars isn't something new in films like this, but what I thought was just so absurd, was that before having sex in a their car, the couple were involved in a high speed car chase as they were pursued by Anastasia's former employer Jack Hyde. This for any normal person is a scary situation to be in.

During the car chase not one of the characters looked too phased by the situation that they were in. Ana (Johnson) is at the wheel, driving at quite some speed to get away from her psychotic ex employer. She even manages to drive the car through a tight spot between the back of a flat bed vehicle carrying timber and a large tow truck with what appears to be a large SUV on the back. To me this was a little far fetched. I can see why they added this in as it adds excitement to the scene and it shows a woman at the wheel being able to perform these type of stunts which isn't seen as often in movies. Meanwhile Christian (Dornan) is in the passenger seat with a calm expression on his face looking like he didn't have a care in the world as he gave his wife some instructions while trying to lose Hyde. Christian! Your're being chased by another car at high speed on winding country lanes and through urban roads with heavy traffic! Why would he be so laid back and relaxed in this situation!? I understand that he may have wanted to maintain as much of a grounded attitude as he could so that he could support his wife which is fair enough, and after all, he is the world famous Christian Grey ,so I can only assume he's experienced this sort of situation before. But come on! Here is something else that annoyed me about this part of the film, while this 'dramatic' chase was happening on screen there was some cheesy pop music played in the background. Why!? Car chases in films are usually added to intensify the emotions of the characters and also spark some concern for those characters from the audience watching the film. When the couple do eventually lose Jack, they pull into a busy car park, laugh together and then Anastasia decides that she wants to have sex with her husband! She takes off her seat belt, climbs on top of his lap and they get to it. Why would you laugh and have sex after a situation that is frightening and dangerous? Well this is a Fifty Shades film so I guess that's perfectly 'normal'.

As you would know if you have read the books, in Fifty Shades Freed, Ana discovers that she is pregnant as she had forgotten to go to the doctor to get her birth control for the last few months. In the film she attends an appointment as she has been unwell. Her illness is also mde worse by the stress from Jack's revenge plot. She is told by her doctor that she is around six to seven weeks into her pregnancy. Ana returns home to tell Christian about the baby, to which as you'd expect doesn't go down to well. She clearly (at the age of twenty two) isn't that fond of the timing either. Christian yells at his wife for being irresponsible with her birth control. After one of their many blow outs she spends the night in the red room and locks herself in. I suppose the staff were using all of the spare rooms. Christian goes out in anger and then comes back later rather sloshed. Again this is where some of the humour pops back into play. The two characters try to discuss the matter of the baby again but in a calmer manner. Christian mentions the possibility of having a son, which Ana then says they may have a daughter. Mr Grey shouts "Jesus!" in exhaustion as he flops down to pass out. Ok, I won't lie, that did make me laugh to see him a little more vulnerable in a comical sense. Unfortunately the light hearted moment was ruined when Christian's phone received a text from Elena (Christian's former mistress who introduced him to the world of BDSM when he was just 15 years old). The message said that it was nice to see him and he can talk to her about anything. So of course Ana finds out that not only did her husband spend the evening getting drunk with his former mistress but he also told her everything about his emotions towards his wife's pregnancy. Elena did appear in Fifty Shades Darker and was played by Kim Basinger, but for some reason in this film she was shown in the trailer, only mentioned once and you don't see anything of her in the theatrical cut. For a character that was a big focal point in the books, it's a shame that we saw very little of her in the films. So now this is where the story develops further. The couple are now married, they are being targeted by her former boss and now there's a little Grey on the way.

The last few scenes of the film show Jack Hyde getting in contact personally with Ana as he calls her at work to tell her some distressing news. He has taken Christian's sister Mia (Rita Ora) captive and says her life is in danger if Ana does not do as he asks. He asks her for around 5 million dollars in cash and tells Ana that she is not to contact anyone about the phone call or the requests made. Not Christian, not the police, no one. Again this is where it all gets a bit confusing and I found myself asking more questions. As I have mentioned before Jack was a fiction editor. He doesn't appear to have any resources to find out if Anastasia has called anyone about the phone call and his threats on her sister in law's life. He is not tapping into her phone, he doesn't have her office bugged with fancy technology. How would he know!? Not only this Ana decides she is going to run to the bank with huge bags and demand for the cash to be given to her from a bank account that she shares with her billionaire husband. The bank manager comes across a little startled, so without informing her, he calls Christian to discuss the situation to which Mr Grey demands to speak to his wife on the phone. She explains that she can't tell him why she needs the money but she has to get it out of the account. Christian figures out that she is in trouble and then tells the bank manager to give his wife whatever she demands. With no passwords or any other security checks to determine if it really is Mr Grey on the other end of the phone line, he allows Ana to take the full amount of cash out of the building. I highly doubt that this is how this situation at the bank would pan out. Then it just gets weirder. Ana asks the bank manager to borrow his phone and then asks to use a back door to get out of the building. The bank manager hands over his phone easily (which he does not get back) and allows her to exit via a back door out of the bank. It really wasn't well thought out at all.

Shortly after leaving the bank, Ana is picked up by a large vehicle that is being driven by a woman with red hair in a ponytail wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap in a rubbish attempt to hide her identity. You all know who I'm going to say it is right? Yes it's the resentful red head from Ana's place of work. It turns out she is in on Jacks plan. Although not by choice. He is apparently blackmailing her too as he has a sex tape of her that he is threatening to release. Is all that really worth a video of her having sex with Hyde? Oh well. As the film comes towards it's ending, the red headed woman takes Ana to what looks like an old abandoned industrial building where they are met by Jack and a frightened and gagged Rita Ora who is tied to a chair. After Ana takes a beating to her stomach and shoots Mr Hyde, Christian and the police come in to save the day! He was tracking his wife's phone and had been able to locate her.

Eventually the Grey's do get to have their happy ending including a life relaxing in the gardens of their newly renovated home with their toddler son and showing that Anastasia is pregnant again with their second child. The film ends with another montage of memories (clips from all three films) from both leading characters that plays over Ellie Goulding's huge hit 'Love Me Like You Do' (which featured in Fifty Shades of Grey) I thought this was a really nice finishing touch to the film. The only niggle I have about this montage is that it didn't show anything too iconic other than the song. Other than that is was actually quite good.

Video montage of Ana and Christian - Love Me Like You Do (courtesy of Youtube)

Overall I won't lie, I did enjoy this film and I would loved to have scored it higher than what I have. But unfortunately I was able to find too many issues with the film and I found myself asking more questions rather than getting answers from what I was watching. I know the plot holes are down to E.L. James story within the books, so I can't blame the film for that. But the other aspects I can. The one thing I am grateful for in these films is that they do not use the reference to Ana's "inner goddess". In the books that for me was repeated far too often and was completely cringey. I would watch Fifty Shades Freed again and I will probably purchase it too.

(All images are courtesy of Google)