Parents' Guide to Fifty Shades Freed

Although Johnson tries to liven up the wooden dialogue, this third and final installment is still a plot-free excuse to show the chemistry-less Greys having lots of sex in beautiful locales. Dornan, who's a decent actor in non-Fifty Shades projects -- particularly the gritty crime drama The Fall -- finally looks comfortable in his role, but Christian is still a deeply flawed, unlikable, mostly undeveloped character. The filmmakers tell but don't show him dealing with his past. He's just a walking piece of wish fulfillment, not a fully fleshed-out human character. And let's not even mention the ridiculous way in which Anastasia is promoted (due to nepotism) at work. The fact that Christian feels free to barge into an important meeting she's having with a star author to demand that she explain why she didn't immediately change her email address from "Ana Steele" to "Ana Grey" is perhaps one of the worst marital conversations ever portrayed on the big screen.

What makes this movie and Fifty Shades Darker even bigger disappointments than the original is that there's basically no plot. Like a more polished, big-budget version of late-night cable erotica, Fifty Shades Freed is pretty much just a series of artfully shot sex scenes (director James Foley loves to zoom in on Johnson's breasts) separated by the thinnest of narrative structures and poorly executed characterization. By the time Ana's unsurprising pregnancy enters the picture, it's that much more obvious that this movie isn't so much a climax but an anticlimax. But if all you're craving is a movie with plenty of graphic love scenes and luxe interiors, this is a fine pick.