Uglies is a film adaptation of a 2005 book authored by Scott Westerfeld concerning a society where everyone not beautiful is automatically termed as an “ugly” but. It is set in a futuristic stage where at the age of 16 everyone’s society undergoes an aesthetic operation so as to be “pretty”. After her best companion Peris (Chase Stokes) changes in character after his surgery, Tally Youngblood (Joey King) becomes a member of a resistance chewer called Lennon who lives without the basic necessities of society and completely approves of Tally’s new lifestyle including her best friend Shay (Brianne Tju) and their leader David (Keith Powers). Eventually, Tally reveals the awful truth about the society she grew up in and wants to make a difference, but stands in her way Dr. Cable (Laverne Cox) – the earthen soldier’s transformation technology designer.
One interpretation of Uglies’ main plot, which features the ‘Uglies’ and the ‘Pretties’ as distinct groups within society, is that it represents a mocking analysis of the archetypal popular elements in most young adult dystopian literature, and that is one of the reasons why it was written in the first place. The author seems to want to show how ridiculous the concept of being ‘pretty’ really is, and how people can be pigeonholed simply because of their appearance. The plot does not hide the fact that it is meant for younger viewers. The film makes this evident when the so-called ‘ugly’ people happen to have instead images of conventional beauty and the obsession with attaining beauty through surgical procedures is made to feel excessive.
All the patients with a surgery have this weird android-like quality where the film kind of puts some veil over their features rendering it smooth and undesirable at the same time. Unlike the 2010 film Beastly, it is the case with this source material that, for almost no obvious reason, reasonably desperate characters resort to shared delusions. The reason being there is a very fast-forward scene that especially takes away the seriousness of the situation where one of the characters who is fleeing for their life, for knows how many times exclaims, “They were swifter than any pretty we have seen before,” while understanding the vulnerability of that character.
It’s a benevolent thought, that people are very critical on their flaws and their limiting belief of wanting to do better without recognizing their positive attributes. Unfortunately, because of Uglies creative perspectives many times this film’s point can be missed or extremely dangerous for public views. It is quite unreasonable to present all kinds of cosmetic enhancement as bad; a large proportion of the patients do choose to operate on themselves for no sociological conditions. Uglies again fails to account for the diversity of the gender experience through transsexualism.
If anything ~ regard, this type of blame the evil disease, get surgery, and go back to normal is the center of even more violence. Other than reaching for an anti-surgery message, it becomes even more jarring with the central antagonist being played by Laverne Cox, the first transgender woman ever nominated for an Emmy for her role in the TV show Orange is the New Black – an actress, LGBTQ+ activist, and back in 2022 – the first transgender Barbie doll. This is definitely not an attack on Cox, who is one of the better parts of this film. In every scene, Cox commands a chilling, sterile treatment with terrifying composure and shallow niceness which has little relevance in the film devoid of dramatic scope that her talents deserve. Let us all pray that other filmmakers will drag Cox into different sci fi and fantasy worlds and let her act.
It is quite disturbing that a trans actress has to play a villainous role in a movie that shows the negative aspects of putting so much emphasis on one’s looks and the painful procedures it entails. At a time when the government and society are attacking transgender people’s rights, the Uglies and their harsh “not changing one’s body with plastic surgery is good” message stand.
This is not to say the people who made Uglies are in fact looking to put out such a message; I mean there is already an already well known author whose well known series of young adult novels is aimed at doing just that. One does not even have to construct such a fertile imagination when there are real bad guys; it only states what the creative people behind Uglies have not, which is how about its metaphor of the 2005 books that will not work in the year 2024.
Uglies in many aspects suffers also by the John Carter syndrome a film screenplay which had spent long in developmental purgatory. Uglies was also announced many years backward in 2006, that is 18 years ago like that movie, it is such that after many years of waiting would jump into the fray too late and appear to have plagiarized a number of other titles whereas it was made even before those later titles. Following certain patterns as for instance appearing like a conglomeration of the titles ‘The Hunger Games, Divergent and The Maze Runner are all Uglies’ has preceded all of these patterns.
In all fairness to Uglies, this is a much delayed sequel coming out long after those films Uglies that were always planned for. Still there was potential to create the visual discrimination either by go where the originals went wrong. This is however not the situation here. McG the filmmaker of Uglies happens to be same person who turned American Biographical thriller Ghost Rider into a bore by making one generic bland bulky action moving faster than the last. Therefore, he presents uncomplicated and mundane spaces that are meant to express a vision of future cruel and minimalism but are actually of decayed malls instead. Where even the lame attempts at action were even more laughable in detail than when cutters were cut and not very thought about that is sad considering Charlie Angels both of which are still impressive far from the first two McG’s films.
NotWithoutGoods and believe me, there are certain things in Uglies, like Laverne Cox etc that are worth focusing. For Uglies, Joey King has been the most engaging regardless of the screen size, but here she is not just the main star, but also a producer and a passionate reader of the previously mentioned book. The character of Tally Youngblood cuts this great even in the young adult adaptations she is the klevel-headed of differences in all the big characters as she takes initiative and makes things happen instead of just letting things happen to her.
But, Keith Powers is quite easy on the eyes and appeals nicely however for this role Even when he delivers, Keith Powers is too good looking and suave. Outer Banks’ Chase Stokes does quite well in his part, he is certainly attractive – in a creepy way, which is how he should be. It is always more interesting to play villain-type twist of Pretty Boy. Why not he will obviously have such a long way ahead.
However, the film is mainly carried through Brianne Tju’s portrayal as Shay. Shay is the one who provides Tally the extra push to defect from all that she knows and embrace the resistance. Shay represents the most successful explication of the gender issues that Uglies tried to incorporate in the story as she seems to reject most of the stereotypic notions of womanhood. Through Shay, the audience gets a realistic picture on how disgusting the process of becoming ‘pretty’ is. She gives a stunning performance in which there is a peak in emotions heard in the climax of the film, which is gloomy and scary, the effects of which will likely stay in the mind of the audience more than anything else.
Uglies surprises on occasion, yet overall is more of a letdown and a typical example of the Netflix business model wherein there are no surprises. It looks like a studio getting this produced just to increase their stock pile and not caring if the audience is actually engaged with such content. Who cares if the device makes sense or not, as it’s expected everyone will listen to something while half plonking on their phone and then forget about it. In spite of the efforts of the actors who wish for this to mean something and evoke resentment in regard to It, a series that fans adored and tried to recreate on-screen in a manner suitable for the modern world, the end product is lacking creativity in the set design and too many clones of other more successful (The Hunger Games) and worse (The Giver) films.
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