Books vs Movies #4: Fifty Series
Guess you guys knew this one was coming and I'll try really hard not to dwell too much on the similarities to the Twilight series or the whole fan fiction issue (although it's probably gonna creep up once or twice).
I should give a bit of backstory here. I do read romance novels, although, if you would have asked me that question 20 years ago, I would have probably been appalled at the very fact you asked me. I didn't start reading them until after my divorce and was very anti-the-genre before then. One could argue that Jane Austen is "romance" but, in my eyes, that is CLASSIC literature and NOT up for discussion. The romance novels I do read, don't usually go in the direction of the BDSM or overtly sexual type. I am still a prude, after all. It's one of the reasons why I like young adult novels.
I didn't start with the books though, I started with the Unrated versions of the three Fifty movies and I could immediately see that scene after scene was a blatant rip-off of the Twi's (more book than movie on that front, but still), but Jamie Dornan is enough of a distraction that I tried to not dwell too much. Again, like Twi's and Kristen Stewart, I also don't like Dakota Johnson, so there is that issue to contend with. It's hard to champion for the heroine when you don't like the actress playing her.
Actually, as another side point, I don't care much for any actress period. I can count on one hand how many actresses I do like. And the ones I do like, I'm not sure if it's actually them, the kind of movies they typically do, or the actors they play against. Actors, well that list is almost endless, dominantly British, and usually not subject to change. A good smolder and I'm lost for life.
Now, I should also add I went "Unrated" movie-wise, not for the extra sex (there is no extra sex scenes in the unrated versions), just the extra scenes, period. I know this because I have since gotten the Blu-rays. It's one of those weird word plays that certain movies like to do, especially this sort of movie, to draw in their target audience. Twi's version is "Extended" versions, which are also unrated, but simply because they were created only for the BR or DVD version and not meant for theatrical release so no need for the MPA (Motion Picture Association for those non-US folks) to rate.
The Fifty movies, even though sexually heavy, are still a lot "softer" and more "romantic" than the sex in the books. I think I've become immune to Dakota's boobs because I think they are out more than they are covered. Jamie's butt, however, still makes me blush. I also don't typically watch movies with this much sexual content to them and I probably arrantly turned down the volume during certain scenes because I was afraid of what my neighbors might think (out of prudishness more than actual need to do so), so inner prude still intact.
The movies also make Ana a bit stronger and Christian a bit softer. In the books, she's a lot more of a wuss than Bella ever was and Christian is way more of a total jerk than Edward ever was. I'm not sure if they did this so that the movie-goer would like the characters better, but more on that later too.
I think it bugged me more that the movies lost two major characters (the doctor I mentioned in my last post) and Ethan, the brother to Kate, because I would have liked to see Ethan in screen form. Mia reminds me of Alice and I would have like to see her with at least a sort-of boyfriend. They kind of combined Jose and Ethan's character in the movies, and I really didn't like Jose in the books (or the movies for that matter), so that didn't (and still doesn't) sit well with me.
Even after watching the movies dozens of times, I still refused to buy the three books for as long as I could hold out. I HATE paperbacks (it's the smell of the paper and you have to be too careful so the spines don't get bent) and older printed books are hard to find in hardback (or incredibly expensive). Target had the paperbacks in a box set, but again, I was proud of myself for not buying them the first two times I went to Target after starting this movie mess. The third time I wasn't so lucky and the reason is not why you'd think.
Like Twi's unfinished Midnight Sun, there is also finished (and published) versions of the first two Fifty books from Christian's point of view (considering the publication date on those, I figure the third book will be out this November). I bought those digitally first and started with them.
From this point on, I'll refer to the original books as the "Fifty's" and the others as the "Christian's", to save space.
I also don't typically like digital books because it's hard on my eyes to read online for long periods of time, but I was intrigued because of my love of Edward's unfinished Midnight Sun (and, honestly, it was a late night decision and my OCD couldn't wait until the next day...I wanted to read them right THEN). Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed. I do typically put myself in the point of view of the lead heroine because I am female, but once that's established and I'm emotionally attached to the hero, then I want to know what he's thinking too. I felt like the movies had already did that for me.
Finishing the Christian's is what pushed me over the line and caused me to buy, not just the box set of the Fifty's, but the two Christian's in paperback as well, the last time I hit Target.
Had I read the Fifty's first before the movies, I would have never watched the movies at all and still would have been very anti-Fifty. They were whiney, too sexually repetitive, and the whole "I'll never leave you", "I love you more than anything" business got really old really fast. It almost makes me want to read them for the sole purpose of counting how many times the world "love" is used in the books (like I did with the "F" word in Die Hard 3, I can't remember now, but trust me, it was in the triple digits).
I didn't feel like I was re-reading the Twi's or re-watching those movies while I was reading the Fifty's, I only got that vibe from the Fifty movies (and it was more directed toward the Twi books, if that makes sense), although I could find correlating scenes in each movie series that were almost a match word-for-word. For example:
In Twilight, Edward saves Bella from being attacked by a group of guys and takes her out to dinner. After she questions him on how he found her and he admits he can read minds, just not hers, (although he leaves out the whole "because I'm a vampire" part), the following exchange takes place:
EDWARD: "I don't have the strength to stay away from you anymore"
BELLA: "Then don't"
In Fifty Shades of Grey, after Christian prevents a drunken Jose from trying to forcibly kiss Ana (not as risky of an attack, but another attack), Christian takes her back to his hotel, cleans her up, and lets her sleep (although he sleeps beside her, a first for him...something also repeated ad nauseam in the books). After a morning discussion during breakfast (another meal) where he explains that he's not the romantic type and only has a "certain kind" of relationship (which he doesn't explain at that point...another important factual omission), she asked him why he's brought her there at all and then their exchange is as follows:
CHRISTIAN: "You're here because I'm incapable of leaving you alone"
ANA: "Then don't".
Yeah, copyright warning bells were going off left and right in my head and I actually started Googling the history of the Fifty books because I just knew there had to be major issues there. I found some of the original fan-fiction text online (it was called Master of the Universe at that point and you talk about "word-for-word"...geez!). Apparently, there isn't that much copyright stance for Stephenie Meyer to fight on (some weird loophole) and, even weirder, Stephenie doesn't care and hasn't even read those books. If someone was making millions off my work, I'd care.
Anyhoo, bookwise, the Christian's, are a whole different ball of wax and I much preferred those, but again, I was already attached to the characters by that point, so again, had I not of seen the movies first, I'm just not sure I would have touched them. But there are some pretty big continuity errors with the first book, Grey compared to Fifty Shades of Grey, which bugs me, but I try not to dwell (I dwell too much as it is). I noticed them less with Darker versus Fifty Shades Darker, so either they got a different editor, or someone did their job better. Considering Ana is a book editor for a living, it is a bit insulting to the character plot lines that the editor of Grey did such a bad job.
The Christian books make you see things from his point of view better and he doesn't seem nearly as cold and cruel...he really does love her and everything he does, even the meanest of things, he does because it's the only way he knows how to protect her (and she keeps putting herself in danger left and right...similar to Bella), but Christian's way of dealing with things is punishment to Ana whereas Edward's way is to run away thinking that protects her. Men are dumb.
So, final verdict? This is a more loaded question than the others. I wouldn't have read the books without having seen the movies and, although the books give you more story, I'm not sure I necessarily need it. The lack of the explanation of "vanilla relationship" or "Wanda" as the name of Anastasia's car doesn't make sense in the movie if you haven't read the books (and about thirty other small points like that), but again, you don't notice much...Jamie Dornan has that affect, or at least he does on me.
The Christian's I wouldn't have even known about without the movies, so I have the movies to thank, but again, I still need Jamie Dornan in my head for them to work. I still keep re-reading all the books as well as watching the movies, but I think that's more of an OCD thing than an enjoyment thing. I watch the movies WAY more than read the books whereas, with the Twi's, I read the books more than watching the movies. That may be because I watch movies and read at the same time and it's easier to distract myself with a Twi book while there is sex happening on the screen (inner prude at work).
It's an on-the-fence answer, but for now, I'm going movies. My favorite scene in the movie Fifty Shades Freed is the Aspen "chalet" (and I use that term loosely - mansion is more like it) ice cream scene in the kitchen, which I was SOOOO excited to read about in the books, but it's not there. The ice cream part takes place in book 1 and I think it was just thrown in during movie three to appease the fans after a probable backlash. That was the most disappointing part of reading those books when I got to that section and the scene took an entirely different turn, which wasn't better at all. When it read it in book one, my first thought was, "ice cream twice?", but nope. And since it's out of order sequentially (because in the books, they have already been clubbing and Ana is really drunk, but that hasn't happened yet in the movie), her giggling and drunk-acting in the movie never made sense to me since she had just woken up from a nightmare. Again, continuity errors.
I would recommend movies first and then the Fifty's, then the Christian's. I'd like to know which you preferred and try hard not to let Jamie Dornan influence your decision like I do! But choice-wise, I'm going to say movies...for now with the Christian's not far behind. The Fifty's are irrelevant now, just part of the OCD cycle.
I should give a bit of backstory here. I do read romance novels, although, if you would have asked me that question 20 years ago, I would have probably been appalled at the very fact you asked me. I didn't start reading them until after my divorce and was very anti-the-genre before then. One could argue that Jane Austen is "romance" but, in my eyes, that is CLASSIC literature and NOT up for discussion. The romance novels I do read, don't usually go in the direction of the BDSM or overtly sexual type. I am still a prude, after all. It's one of the reasons why I like young adult novels.
I didn't start with the books though, I started with the Unrated versions of the three Fifty movies and I could immediately see that scene after scene was a blatant rip-off of the Twi's (more book than movie on that front, but still), but Jamie Dornan is enough of a distraction that I tried to not dwell too much. Again, like Twi's and Kristen Stewart, I also don't like Dakota Johnson, so there is that issue to contend with. It's hard to champion for the heroine when you don't like the actress playing her.
Actually, as another side point, I don't care much for any actress period. I can count on one hand how many actresses I do like. And the ones I do like, I'm not sure if it's actually them, the kind of movies they typically do, or the actors they play against. Actors, well that list is almost endless, dominantly British, and usually not subject to change. A good smolder and I'm lost for life.
Now, I should also add I went "Unrated" movie-wise, not for the extra sex (there is no extra sex scenes in the unrated versions), just the extra scenes, period. I know this because I have since gotten the Blu-rays. It's one of those weird word plays that certain movies like to do, especially this sort of movie, to draw in their target audience. Twi's version is "Extended" versions, which are also unrated, but simply because they were created only for the BR or DVD version and not meant for theatrical release so no need for the MPA (Motion Picture Association for those non-US folks) to rate.
The Fifty movies, even though sexually heavy, are still a lot "softer" and more "romantic" than the sex in the books. I think I've become immune to Dakota's boobs because I think they are out more than they are covered. Jamie's butt, however, still makes me blush. I also don't typically watch movies with this much sexual content to them and I probably arrantly turned down the volume during certain scenes because I was afraid of what my neighbors might think (out of prudishness more than actual need to do so), so inner prude still intact.
The movies also make Ana a bit stronger and Christian a bit softer. In the books, she's a lot more of a wuss than Bella ever was and Christian is way more of a total jerk than Edward ever was. I'm not sure if they did this so that the movie-goer would like the characters better, but more on that later too.
I think it bugged me more that the movies lost two major characters (the doctor I mentioned in my last post) and Ethan, the brother to Kate, because I would have liked to see Ethan in screen form. Mia reminds me of Alice and I would have like to see her with at least a sort-of boyfriend. They kind of combined Jose and Ethan's character in the movies, and I really didn't like Jose in the books (or the movies for that matter), so that didn't (and still doesn't) sit well with me.
Even after watching the movies dozens of times, I still refused to buy the three books for as long as I could hold out. I HATE paperbacks (it's the smell of the paper and you have to be too careful so the spines don't get bent) and older printed books are hard to find in hardback (or incredibly expensive). Target had the paperbacks in a box set, but again, I was proud of myself for not buying them the first two times I went to Target after starting this movie mess. The third time I wasn't so lucky and the reason is not why you'd think.
Like Twi's unfinished Midnight Sun, there is also finished (and published) versions of the first two Fifty books from Christian's point of view (considering the publication date on those, I figure the third book will be out this November). I bought those digitally first and started with them.
From this point on, I'll refer to the original books as the "Fifty's" and the others as the "Christian's", to save space.
I also don't typically like digital books because it's hard on my eyes to read online for long periods of time, but I was intrigued because of my love of Edward's unfinished Midnight Sun (and, honestly, it was a late night decision and my OCD couldn't wait until the next day...I wanted to read them right THEN). Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed. I do typically put myself in the point of view of the lead heroine because I am female, but once that's established and I'm emotionally attached to the hero, then I want to know what he's thinking too. I felt like the movies had already did that for me.
Finishing the Christian's is what pushed me over the line and caused me to buy, not just the box set of the Fifty's, but the two Christian's in paperback as well, the last time I hit Target.
Had I read the Fifty's first before the movies, I would have never watched the movies at all and still would have been very anti-Fifty. They were whiney, too sexually repetitive, and the whole "I'll never leave you", "I love you more than anything" business got really old really fast. It almost makes me want to read them for the sole purpose of counting how many times the world "love" is used in the books (like I did with the "F" word in Die Hard 3, I can't remember now, but trust me, it was in the triple digits).
I didn't feel like I was re-reading the Twi's or re-watching those movies while I was reading the Fifty's, I only got that vibe from the Fifty movies (and it was more directed toward the Twi books, if that makes sense), although I could find correlating scenes in each movie series that were almost a match word-for-word. For example:
In Twilight, Edward saves Bella from being attacked by a group of guys and takes her out to dinner. After she questions him on how he found her and he admits he can read minds, just not hers, (although he leaves out the whole "because I'm a vampire" part), the following exchange takes place:
EDWARD: "I don't have the strength to stay away from you anymore"
BELLA: "Then don't"
In Fifty Shades of Grey, after Christian prevents a drunken Jose from trying to forcibly kiss Ana (not as risky of an attack, but another attack), Christian takes her back to his hotel, cleans her up, and lets her sleep (although he sleeps beside her, a first for him...something also repeated ad nauseam in the books). After a morning discussion during breakfast (another meal) where he explains that he's not the romantic type and only has a "certain kind" of relationship (which he doesn't explain at that point...another important factual omission), she asked him why he's brought her there at all and then their exchange is as follows:
CHRISTIAN: "You're here because I'm incapable of leaving you alone"
ANA: "Then don't".
Yeah, copyright warning bells were going off left and right in my head and I actually started Googling the history of the Fifty books because I just knew there had to be major issues there. I found some of the original fan-fiction text online (it was called Master of the Universe at that point and you talk about "word-for-word"...geez!). Apparently, there isn't that much copyright stance for Stephenie Meyer to fight on (some weird loophole) and, even weirder, Stephenie doesn't care and hasn't even read those books. If someone was making millions off my work, I'd care.
Anyhoo, bookwise, the Christian's, are a whole different ball of wax and I much preferred those, but again, I was already attached to the characters by that point, so again, had I not of seen the movies first, I'm just not sure I would have touched them. But there are some pretty big continuity errors with the first book, Grey compared to Fifty Shades of Grey, which bugs me, but I try not to dwell (I dwell too much as it is). I noticed them less with Darker versus Fifty Shades Darker, so either they got a different editor, or someone did their job better. Considering Ana is a book editor for a living, it is a bit insulting to the character plot lines that the editor of Grey did such a bad job.
The Christian books make you see things from his point of view better and he doesn't seem nearly as cold and cruel...he really does love her and everything he does, even the meanest of things, he does because it's the only way he knows how to protect her (and she keeps putting herself in danger left and right...similar to Bella), but Christian's way of dealing with things is punishment to Ana whereas Edward's way is to run away thinking that protects her. Men are dumb.
So, final verdict? This is a more loaded question than the others. I wouldn't have read the books without having seen the movies and, although the books give you more story, I'm not sure I necessarily need it. The lack of the explanation of "vanilla relationship" or "Wanda" as the name of Anastasia's car doesn't make sense in the movie if you haven't read the books (and about thirty other small points like that), but again, you don't notice much...Jamie Dornan has that affect, or at least he does on me.
The Christian's I wouldn't have even known about without the movies, so I have the movies to thank, but again, I still need Jamie Dornan in my head for them to work. I still keep re-reading all the books as well as watching the movies, but I think that's more of an OCD thing than an enjoyment thing. I watch the movies WAY more than read the books whereas, with the Twi's, I read the books more than watching the movies. That may be because I watch movies and read at the same time and it's easier to distract myself with a Twi book while there is sex happening on the screen (inner prude at work).
It's an on-the-fence answer, but for now, I'm going movies. My favorite scene in the movie Fifty Shades Freed is the Aspen "chalet" (and I use that term loosely - mansion is more like it) ice cream scene in the kitchen, which I was SOOOO excited to read about in the books, but it's not there. The ice cream part takes place in book 1 and I think it was just thrown in during movie three to appease the fans after a probable backlash. That was the most disappointing part of reading those books when I got to that section and the scene took an entirely different turn, which wasn't better at all. When it read it in book one, my first thought was, "ice cream twice?", but nope. And since it's out of order sequentially (because in the books, they have already been clubbing and Ana is really drunk, but that hasn't happened yet in the movie), her giggling and drunk-acting in the movie never made sense to me since she had just woken up from a nightmare. Again, continuity errors.
I would recommend movies first and then the Fifty's, then the Christian's. I'd like to know which you preferred and try hard not to let Jamie Dornan influence your decision like I do! But choice-wise, I'm going to say movies...for now with the Christian's not far behind. The Fifty's are irrelevant now, just part of the OCD cycle.
Comments
Anyhoo I have only seen the first Fifty Shades movie and I have to agree with you that the movie is better. But I haven't seen them all so that could change. Also, I didn't watch the movie for so long because I had another actor in mind for Christian that I thought would be perfect, Colin Egglesfield. He should have been Christian Grey. You maybe know who he is but if not look him up. He has the perfect smolder. But I recently watched The Fall and I am now team Jamie Dornan. He is now my celebrity crush so I caved and watched the first movie and I loved it. So I will definitely be watching the other movies. And I really should pick up the Christian books.
Great review!!
I hate to disappoint you though but the third Christian book doesn't look like it's coming out this year. She did the first in 2015, the second in 2017 so it might be next year or they might not bother. I don't think sales have been that great.
https://www.ffadultsonly.com/j/e-l-james/