After: Chapitre 5

No pun intended - I actually thought the one before this was going to be the last one. But they had another one in them. Although technically speaking only one of the two main stars/characters is really present in this - physically that is. Of course the presence of the other main character is felt.

While there are still many things that are at least borderline cringe (and Mimi tries her best to fill in the role of female anchor point as good as she can, I reckon being cast because of the show she had done and became famous for) ... there are also moments where you think: oh they actually "act" like adults ... ok not too many of those moments, but still way more "level headed thinking" than in the previous entries.

Since I have not read any novels, I have no idea how this fairs with anything this is based on ... just saying. It is not as "sizzling" (I assume) as 50 shades of Grey ... but they do get it on - even if not ... "really" ... no pun intended.

I am torn between a lot of things - we have quite the despicable character who seems to be self destructive ... but also tries to do amends ... should we give him a break? Unforgivable? You decide that. The father has a few good scenes ... almost philosophical ... who'd have thought .. definitely a step up from the previous entries ... even without (or because?) one of the stars is seemingly absent ...

As a longtime fan following this franchise, it was obvious some stuff went down outside of filming. I guess the repercussions of that meant losing Josephine as our female lead. What's After without the source of the story? Don't get me wrong, Hero was great. But it didn't feel the same. He was incomplete. This movie served no purpose other than to promote Hero in a stand alone film. It was watchable but if you're watching it as part of the series, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Completely and utterly offensive to see Josephine only have about 15 minutes of legitimate screen time. And I'm not talking about flashbacks. What even was that? I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm glad the After era is over.

I wanted an ending to this wonderful story, it's been a journey for me! There is a rushed version of it, ten minutes or so, with two epic songs of Amber Run and James Bay! That's the whole movie.

The rest is a Portuguese vacation for the movie makers and don't get me wrong, it's beautifully filmed. The problem is that it has no story and very little to do with After. The feeling of the books is completely lost to a filler that looks like youtube lounge chillout background.

I have many harsh words for the executive team, but in the end, what truly matters is that they learn from this mistake, so no other beloved stories get butchered like this.

The first thing to remember is that Hollywood will change stories. It's an inevitable part of the process and is always a divisive move for fans of the original work. If you've read the stories, you may feel cheated - Tessa features so little in the story of what was her life. It's so unlike the works that came before it, as though the producers knew that Hero was the star to rely on for one more round. Their golden ticket. But, it's important to remember that it's deviated from the original plot since it's inception. It's all part of the transition from novel to screen and until this point, it's still managed to pull in our heart strings and give us enough of the characters to keep us on the edge of our seats.

I loved that 'After Everything' felt like an homage to 'Before', giving an insight into who Hardin was and how he became the villain we grew to love. It's his redemption story and Hero played the character he's worked hard to build, fantastically. But ultimately, the final part of the story was too rushed and I couldn't help but feel like the soundtrack overplayed it's hand throughout. It took away from what could have been an important and fitting ending to the story.

Whether you're a fan of the books or not, as a romantic movie, it failed to deliver that satisfying closer that we all hope for. It forgot what it was trying to achieve in the previous films, which is what took away from what could have been a real happy ever after.

After Everything is the fifth and final part of the After film series. The film is again directed and written by Castille Landon, who also directed two previous films in the series.

After his relationship ends, Hardin Scott (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) runs into writer's block. He is no longer able to write a second book. As a result, he ends up as a lost alcoholic.

To escape this life, he travels to Lisbon to visit his old lover Nathalie (Mimi Keene). In this way, he hopes to learn how to right his mistakes and have another chance with his lost love Tessa Young (Josephine Langfort).

This film is the first film in the film series that is not directly based on a real book from the After book series. Instead, they based this film more on unused storylines and Castille Landon himself was able to provide some inspiration for the story. The fact that this film is not really based on a book and comes more from pure inspiration is reflected in the messiness of the final film. This shows that they unnecessarily spread this book series over too many films, which was ultimately a bit unnecessary.

Hardin's character is also on more of a holiday in Lisbon for much of this film. It seems as if they have saved up the proceeds from the previous films in order to be able to go to Lisbon with the film cast and crew. Nothing special happens on Lisbon itself, except that Hardin tries to learn from the mistakes of his past. For this he picks up an old relationship with a new character who did not appear in the previous films or was not mentioned further. Josephine Langford, her character, hardly appears in this last film and is more visible in flashbacks of old scenes from the previous films. This makes it not very credible that the two separated lovers in this last film really tried to pick up or improve their relationship again.

After five films, the acting hasn't really improved either. Hopefully, after this film series, Hero Fiennes Tiffin will find better films and film series in which he can act in the future. Because Josephine Langford is hardly in this film, she didn't have to do much else. Hopefully she can also find better future films to act in. The rest of the returning and new cast members also get little special to do in this last film. Some seem a bit strange, because after four previous films they suddenly have to play important roles in this film out of nowhere. Most of these characters just have little to no background for the viewer to really care about them.