Moviestore/ShutterstockWhile we still have to wait until February 13, 2015, for Fifty Shades of Grey to hit theaters, a few lucky folks were treated to a five-minute preview of the highly anticipated erotic flick earlier this week.
Never-before-seen footage from E.L. James' BDSM book-turned-movie was introduced to those at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Tuesday, and their reactions have been making the Internet rounds.
The overall consensus? The film—which is based on the S&M thriller of the same name and stars Jamie Dornan as domineering billionaire Christian Grey and Dakota Johnson as virginal Anastasia Steele—is far more focused on romance than raunchiness. Here's what folks are saying:
"Rather then [sic] fill the five-minute teaser with the sex that made the books by British author E L James so popular, the studio went against expectations and highlighted the romance between the two leads," Entertainment Weekly's Nicole Sperling writes. "But with the exception of a brief blindfold, a hand on a thigh and a glimpse of a riding crop, Mr. Grey's penchant for domineering sex was kept to a minimum."
And despite the fact that producer Dana Brunetti even previously expressed a desire to release an NC-17 version of the flick after the R-rated version hits theaters, the initial preview is far more PG.
"While the movie promises to be filled with all kinds of taboo carnal relations, what was shown in the clips was very PG-rated (they didn't even mention the word "sex.")," CinemaBlend's Eric Eisenberg details. "Of course, there was plenty of innuendo and suggestion of Christian Grey's habits behind locked doors, but none of it was explicitly shown. The closest it came to showing anything even remotely R-rated was Ana tied to a bed with a blindfold on, but even that shot lasted only about half a second."
So we know there's still seemingly lots of sex, but what about the chemistry between Johnson and Dornan?
"As for the actors, Johnson appears to play Anastasia's wide eyed perspective appropriately and certainly looks good with a reddish brown dyed hair," HitFix's Gregory Ellwood writes. "Jamie Doran is handsome and has that debonair thing down, but…whether the two of them have genuine chemistry remains to be seen."
However, superfans rest assured as L.A. Times' Amy Kaufman points out that studio chairman Donna Langley promised the crowd before playing the clip that Dakota and Jamie "have the kind of chemistry that could turn this into the next iconic romance."
But as Variety's Alexandra Cheney points out, "Universal played it safe," noting that the sneak peek "looked like a love story," which Kaufman says may be dilemma while making a film based on a book with such strong sexual content that appeals to a mass audience.
"It's of course possible some of that footage was of the toned-down sort, thanks to the CinemaCon crowd, which can be a more buttoned-up group," Kaufman explains. "Still, that only underscores the balance Universal must strike in selling this film to a large mainstream audience, some portions of which may have appreciated the explicitness in the privacy of their own home more than they will in the communal setting of a movie theater."
But don't worry avid Fifty Shades fans, because there were still some excited reactions.
"JAMIE pushing DAKOTA to the wall !!!!!!!!!!!! #FSOG #FiftyShades," one fan site tweeted after watching the clip.
Fifty Shades hit theaters on February 13, 2015, just in time for Valentine's Day.
(E! and Universal Pictures are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)
Will you be heading to the theaters to watch?