Fifty Shades Freed
Universal Pictures | Release Date: February 9, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
31
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
10
Negative:
25
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
Boston GlobeMeredith GoldsteinFeb 8, 2018
Fifty Shades Freed is as boring as . . . well . . . Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. It’s a trilogy climax that should be fun, but it’s monotonous — maybe because we’ve seen it all before. Read full review
38
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldFeb 8, 2018
Johnson and Dornan’s performances are wooden and their chemistry nonexistent (particularly in the movie’s more-of-the-same sex scenes), but think of it all as ultra-deadpan entertainment and it kind of works. Read full review
38
USA TodayBrian TruittFeb 8, 2018
Actually does manage to be the best of the BDSM bore-fests in the forgettable erotic saga based on E.L. James’ Fifty Shades novels. Read full review
38
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonFeb 8, 2018
Stories about the way men and women negotiate sex, power, money, work and relationships — Anastasia ends up working for a company Christian owns — should make the Fifty Shades trilogy relevant and exciting. They are, somewhat mysteriously, the opposite of that. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 7, 2018
At least this time, some of the laughs are intentional. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeFeb 8, 2018
Turns out, what really turns series creator E.L. James on is well-heeled domesticity. Read full review
33
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyFeb 8, 2018
Strip the pleasure away from a guilty pleasure and what are you left with exactly? Fifty Shades Freed, the third and final cinematic installment in E.L. James’ trashy S&M trilogy, answers that question with every ludicrous plot twist, stilted line delivery, and too-laughable-to-be-hot sex scene. Read full review
33
The PlaylistKimber MyersFeb 8, 2018
Ostensibly aimed at an adult audience that craves equal parts romance and raunch, Fifty Shades Freed appears to have been written by a teenager – and not just because of its groan- and giggle-inducing dialogue, lack of emotional investment and thinly drawn characters. There’s no knowledge of any element of how the world functions, particularly in its approach to relationships. Read full review
30
ScreenCrushMatt SingerFeb 8, 2018
Fifty Shades Freed must set a record for the most subplots and supporting characters introduced and then abandoned in film history. Read full review
30
IGNWilliam BibbianiFeb 8, 2018
Fifty Shades Freed concludes the trilogy as it began, with a romance you can’t believe in, endless montages of affluence, lousy dialogue, weak plotting, and - admittedly - a heck of a lot of sex. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangFeb 8, 2018
If liberation is the endgame of Fifty Shades Freed, most of the time we feel trapped right alongside the characters, immobilized by the pointless, suffocating beauty and the stultifying dramatic inertia of the world James has created for them. Read full review
30
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Feb 8, 2018
Luckily the latest episode to arrive, dubbed Fifty Shades Freed, is also the last. And good thing, too, because by now we’ve definitely gone 100 shades too far. Read full review
30
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzFeb 8, 2018
Johnson and Dornan retain the chemistry of two mannequins knocked into each other in a department-store storage closet; the actual sex scenes play more like aerobics videos than anything actually steamy. Read full review
30
Screen DailyBen CrollFeb 7, 2018
While we can quibble about the underused lead or the meandering plot, Fifty Shades Freed ultimately authors its own most stinging rebuke, closing on an extended montage highlighting major moments and turning points from the trilogy. Tellingly, none of them come from this film. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedFeb 14, 2018
This lumbering trilogy of trash based on the books by E. L. James has so run out of blood and oxygen that it has varicose veins. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 9, 2018
In the home stretch, Fifty Shades Freed leaves the sexy stuff behind and turns into a combo platter of a cheesy, easily solved mystery-thriller and an overwrought, daytime soap opera melodrama. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorFeb 8, 2018
So, romance-novel boilerplate that sounded clichéd on the page becomes outright laughable as it's transferred to the screen. Read full review
25
UproxxVince ManciniFeb 8, 2018
Fifty Shades Freed is meant to make us believe that a matching tea towel marriage doesn’t preclude shirtless Fabio romance novel cover sex, but everything is so catalog-ready and scrubbed free of humanity that it actually does the opposite. Read full review
20
The AtlanticChristopher OrrFeb 22, 2018
The good news—and, yes, we are grading on a curve so steep that it’s essentially a vertical drop—is that Fifty Shades Freed is marginally less retrograde and offensive than Fifty Shades Darker. The bad news is that it is even more idiotic, which is in its way a remarkable achievement. Read full review
20
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisFeb 8, 2018
As popular as this window-fogging franchise has become, its flaccid finale is likely critic proof. But if I can persuade just one of you to bypass its milquetoast masochism and watch the stratospherically superior “9 1/2 Weeks” instead, then I will have done my job. Read full review
20
The GuardianBenjamin LeeFeb 8, 2018
As usual it’s left entirely up to the beleaguered Johnson to make any of it even remotely watchable. She remains a compelling presence, trying her darnedest with lifeless words, but, again, she’s stranded by the energy-sucking vortex of nothingness that is Jamie Dornan. He’s better than this...but he knows it and his boredom is lazily apparent throughout. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinFeb 7, 2018
This is a film in which one of the more emotionally detailed performances is given by a product-placement Audi. Read full review
16
ConsequenceAllison ShoemakerFeb 8, 2018
Give or take one excellent joke about the practical applications of handcuffs — delivered with expert awkwardness by Dakota Johnson, who remains the only moderately charming element of the trilogy — the film is as devoid of wit as it is of subtlety, and that combined absence, courtesy of screenwriter Niall Leonard, leads to some of its biggest unintentional laughs. Read full review
11
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiFeb 14, 2018
The biggest takeaway from the film is that the American foster-care system has failed us all. And that’s super sexy. Read full review
0
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 8, 2018
With this last entry, we have officially hit the bottom of the barrel. Whips, chains, butt plugs and nipple clips are nothing compared to the sheer torture of watching this movie. Read full review
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