Considering the young-adult dystopian book to movie adaptation craze of the 2010s, it goes without saying that “Uglies” is a little late to the party. While the book series by Scott Westerfeld had been published years before popular adaptations such as “The Hunger Games,” “The Maze Runner,” and “Divergent,” it is the last to receive a movie adaptation, that being an entire decade after its predecessors. The movie was released on Netflix on Sept. 13, with a run time of an hour and 40 minutes.
Although the movie could have been a way to join in on a dystopian revival, “Uglies” reminds audiences why the trend had died out with poor writing, uncanny CGI and lackluster execution.
“Uglies” follows the main character Tally Youngblood, played by Joey King, who lives in a world where everyone receives a surgery at 16 which makes them effortlessly beautiful and carefree. The people who have not received the surgery yet are called Uglies and are separated from the rest of society on the other side of the city.
While counting down the months until her sixteenth birthday, Tally befriends Shay, played by Brianne Tju, who shares the same birthday as her. Shay and Tally form a fast friendship and proceed to misbehave by performing pranks and breaking their city’s rules. The day before they both turn 16, Shay reveals that she doesn’t want to get the surgery and runs away, leaving Tally clues on how to find her if she wants to follow.
When it comes time for Tally to receive the surgery, she is stopped by Dr. Cable, played by Laverne Cox, who forces Tally to help her find Shay otherwise she cannot get the surgery to be pretty.
Even with the almost two-hour runtime, the movie fails at pacing the story well and making it easily digestible. It wastes time on pointless exposition and narrated montages that could have been used to develop characters, while not spending enough time explaining and developing certain aspects of the world “Uglies” takes place in. This leaves the audience feeling lost and confused, unable to keep up with the constantly new information that keeps appearing on screen.
The voiced-over montages also condense a lot of chapters from the books, stripping away key character moments that not only develop Tally but also expand the world outside of Tally’s city, showing how it is so much bigger than the one she previously knew.
The movie also doesn’t have a clear focus on what message it wants to push. It can’t decide between wanting to tell the audience about the importance of protecting the environment, that a person is beautiful just the way they are or the importance of having your own autonomy. The movie touches on all these topics, but never delves too deep into them. The characters instead say the ideas blatantly in a line and never come back to it.
It is understandable that movie adaptations will have to make changes from their source material to better translate it to the new medium. However, some of the changes in “Uglies” take away from the movie.
This is evident with Peris, played by Chase Stokes, who is Tally’s best friend, yet is supposed to be hinted at being something more in the movie. In the books, Paris was a minor character, used as a plot device to show what happens when someone turns pretty and to persuade Tally to go find Shay. Yet, the movie insists on giving Peris more screen time, rewriting his story by having him become a soldier for Dr. Cable.
Peris was such a minor character in the books that he lacks any personality, and that is apparent when he has so many more scenes in the movie. He is also used to provide a love triangle between Tally, him, and another character, but since his character has no development the audience cannot get invested in the drama since it’s obvious who Tally will end up with.
A lot of characters were also removed from the movie, such as Tally’s parents, who could have been good examples to show how shallow and divided the world of “Uglies” is, displaying how different the familial relationships are.
One of the biggest issues with the movie is the visuals, specifically how horrendous the CGI is.
The movie contains scenes where characters are riding on hoverboards, but they move as if they are standing in front of a wall and look like a confusing blurred mess. The actions and movements just aren’t believable for the audience to suspend their disbelief.
The CGI also does nothing to distinguish uglies from pretties. Pretties look as if they have an Instagram filter slapped onto them that makes their eyes look like lightbulbs, but there is no major change to their features.
Every actor is conventionally attractive which does nothing to help differentiate between the two groups. For example, Tally is nicknamed Squint because she’s supposed to have squinty eyes, but Joey King’s eyes are anything but that.
One of the only positives about this movie was Brianne Tju’s performance as Shay, who perfectly nails the nuances and personality of the character. They also removed Shay’s jealousy of Tally when they both end up liking the same guy, a plot point that was very unnecessary in the books.
The abysmal quality of the movie and lack of care that went into trying to develop the world-building and character arcs supports exactly why critics gave it a 15% on Rotten Tomatoes. The poor execution of the story does nothing to help the audience get invested in the character’s struggles and immerse themselves into the fictional setting.
The “Uglies” adaptation was late to the party, yes, but not fashionably late. It trips, stumbles, and falls flat on its face while trying to pretend it is a movie with something meaningful to say. Audiences who do choose to view this movie better be aware that they are in for a pretty ugly watch and a waste of almost two hours they can never get back.
