This Thursday I went to a midnight showing of "Fifty Shades Darker"--immediately after getting off a five-hour flight. Was it worth being dead tired and struggling to stay awake on the drive home? I'm not sure, to be honest. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I will be the first to admit that I do have a taste for terrible movies. There were a lot of problems in the movie, but so many aspects that were actually pretty good. Here are the pros and cons of "Fifty Shades Darker", and I should warn you that this includes spoilers for the movie.

Pros

1. Christian Grey's characterization. Most people know by now that Christian Grey is an awful boyfriend. He's controlling, manipulative and just plain abusive. By the second movie Christian still has not changed his ways and continues to take charge not only of protagonist Anastasia Steele's personal life, but also her work life. But that's not what I'm praising.

Towards the end of the movie, when Ana has decided that she's had enough of Christian's dominant status, Christian admits that he's not a dominant, he's a sadist. He goes on to explain that he gets off on punishing women who look like his mother in order to get back at her for abusing him. This was not in the book. Christian never admitted that he was abusive, the entire book series convinced us that this is what a dominant/submissive relationship is like.

While I'm in no way excusing any of Christian's past behavior towards Ana, or his past submissives, I do appreciate that the movie made an attempt to acknowledge that Christian is abusive and that he is trying to get past it, rather than having Ana just give into him.

2. Ana and Christian's relationship. I'm not saying that Ana and Christian have a healthy relationship. At all. However, I will admit that I found myself rooting for them towards the end of this film. The first movie portrayed their relationship in a dark and dismal way, a kind of warning against men like Christian. At the end of that movie I was so relieved when Ana walked away from Christian, and almost didn't want the sequel to be made. She was out! She was never returning to him again.

But then in "Fifty Shades Darker" Ana forgives Christian right away and they settle into a nice, "vanilla" relationship. While I was annoyed at Ana for letting Christian off so easily I did appreciate how much Christian was trying with her. Whether this was the writing of Jamie Dornan's acting, but I was convinced that Christian legitimately cared about Ana, and wanted to give her the kind of relationship she deserved. There was a lot more cheesy romance, but it was a nice contrast from the first movie.

3. Leila Williams. I loved, loved, loved the storyline involving one of Christian's past submissives, Leila Williams. Even though Leila took up all of 20 minutes of the movie I thought her character was so fascinating. Leila comes into the picture when she begins stalking Ana over jealousy for Christian, and we find out that although she moved on from Christian and got married, she had a breakdown after her husband died and became suicidal.

I found myself thinking about how badly I wanted the story from Leila's point of view. I was so interested in the story of a girl who had been so messed up over a dominant/submissive relationship. Not to mention, Bella Heathcote, who played Leila, was so creepy she scared me a couple of times. This movie is worth it just to see Leila, in my humble opinion.

4. The soundtrack. I don't have much to say about this point other than that the soundtrack is the bomb. I absolutely loved the "Fifty Shades of Grey" soundtrack and didn't think it could be topped, but it was. "Fifty Shades Darker" has songs from Halsey, Nick Jonas and Nicki Minaj, Sia, Tove Lo and of course the song that has been overplayed on the radio, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" by Zayn and Taylor Swift. Even if you despise the "Fifty Shades" series with a passion you have to admit the soundtrack is amazing.

Cons

1. Anastasia Steele's characterization. Where Christian was redeemed in almost every way possible, Ana's character was ruined in almost every way possible. I loved how Ana was shown in the first movie as someone who was stubborn and strong enough to stand up to Christian. Although some of her stubbornness showed in "Fifty Shades Darker" she was much more submissive. There were times when Ana would refuse to do exactly as Christian told her, but then she would concede right away when he wouldn't let her go to New York for work.

It aggravated me to no end seeing this girl who was supposed to be so strong and assertive just let Christian push her around, or give into him with no argument. It was like the cost of having Christian redeemed was to make Ana a flimsy girlfriend.

2. The pacing of the plot. After the movie ended my sister mentioned that it seemed as if it had been written by a first-time screenwriter. I explained that this one had been written by the author, E.L. James' husband, who had only written for TV up until that point. And it showed, it really showed.

There was so much happening in the movie at one point I could never tell what kind of movie I was watching. Ana and Christian would be cooking food together and then Leila would show up in their bedroom to watch them sleep. Ana and Christian would have kinky sex and then Ana's boss would be sexually assaulting her. I got whiplash from how many different movies I was watching.

Not only that, but every conflict was resolved so easily. Like I said, Leila only took up 20 minutes of screen time, despite being a pretty big plot point. She spent 18 minutes of her screen time stalking and harassing Ana and then Christian fixes it in 2 minutes. We couldn't figure out what the climax was because every huge event that happened was solved in no time at all. Whether it was a fault of too many events happening in the book or the writer not knowing how to pace, it was not great writing.

3. Ana constantly has to be saved by Christian. I already talked a little bit about how submissive Ana was towards Christian, but there's something to be said about her dependence on Christian to get her out of sticky situations. There was no point in the movie in which Ana was able to do anything on her own. The series sets up that she graduated college with a 4.0 GPA and got a job on her own at a prestigious publishing company, but we never see any evidence of this kind of intelligence or independence.

Every issue she's faced with Christian is the one to get her out of it. Leila threatens Ana with a gun, Christian subdues her. Ana's boss tries to rape her, Christian is there to save her. It's not only that this adult woman is constantly the damsel in distress, it's that the series tries to convince us that she's so smart and has been independent her whole life, yet needs Christian to save her.

4. The inaccurate representation of BDSM. This is a pretty obvious one. There are loads of article slamming the "Fifty Shades" series for getting BDSM all wrong. The most troubling thing about the portrayal of BDSM in "Fifty Shades Darker" was that it didn't stay in the bedroom.

In the first movie, it was clear that Christian was bringing the rules of a dominant/submissive relationship into his regular relationship with Ana. In typical BDSM relationships the rules stay in the bedroom, and only in a sexual situation do the partners abide by the rules. But in the scene where Leila threatens Ana with a gun Christian is able to calm her down by giving her orders as a submissive. But if Leila was under the influence of Christian in a non-sexual situation, that is not okay. There is something wrong with that situation, and it's not a normal BDSM relationship.

Those are just a few of the pros and cons of "Fifty Shades Darker". Take these with a grain of salt as these are just my opinions and they may not be shared by everyone.