'Fifty Shades of Grey': What the Reviews Are Saying

If we were to tell you that "Fifty Shades of Grey" was getting a good number of positive reviews, would you scoff?

With the movie releasing just a few days from now, the reviews are starting to come in...and believe it or not, they're mostly positive.

While many are calling the source material (the book written by E.L. James) "hokey" with "flat characters," the consensus seems to be that stars Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson give excellent performances that help to lift the material to a higher level. In this way, it seems that even the positive reviews aren't glowing, but rather admit that the movie is far better than expected.

Those hoping for a truly titllating movie might end up disappointed, though. A number of reviews note that the movie tones down the sexual nature of the story, with David Ehrlich of "Time Out New York" even calling it "hopelessly soft-core." However, he qualifies that statement by saying that the shift of focus away from sex scenes is what ultimately makes the movie work.

It's still early, but thus far "Fifty Shades of Grey" only has one negative review from a top critic on Rotten Tomatoes, courtesy of Justin Chang of Variety. Chang agrees that the story has been toned down and is now "fairly mild" in our current landscape of sex in cinema, but acknowledges that the movie is a "significant improvement" on the novel and lauds the addition of some humor to the script.

That seems to be the common thread in the reviews: this isn't by any means a perfect movie, but it throws out the truly awful elements of the book and, thanks in part to a shift to third-person perspective, turns it into a perfectly serviceable movie. The talent is the other major talking point, with the "New York Daily News" calling Dakota Johnson a "true find."

Chances are if you were a fan of the book, you were already set on seeing "Fifty Shades of Grey" in theaters. But with these reviews, it's entirely possible that those who never picked up the book trilogy might still enjoy it.