Mikes Film Talk

I don’t want to denigrate Uglies unfairly. However, this 2024 young adult offering about a time of superficial problems really grates. To be honest, it seems to say a lot about the real world’s preoccupation with looking good being the end all be all of existence.

I expected more from McG. The guy who brought us Charlie’s Angels:Full Throttle and, my personal guilty pleasure; The Babysitter: Killer Queen. Scott Westerfeld wrote the book, apparently, and admittedly I have not read it.

Don’t misunderstand me, I like a lot of YA (young adult) books. I loved Michael Grant’s Gone series. It may well be that the literary world of Uglies is much better than this Netflix offering.

The Story

The world has moved on, like a watered down version of the Mad Max verse, sans “guzzoline.” Flowers power the planet and war has been eliminated by having the world undertake plastic surgery at the age of 16.

Part of this process includes removing anything remotely resembling a personality. It also gives the participant a sort of AI appearance. Uglies starts with two besties; Squint and Nose. Both teenagers are excited and eager to get their life changing transformation.

Nose is first and Squint’s world changes. Nose has moved on and the tale then shifts onto Tally, AKA Squint and Shay and the big smoke.

The main cast

Joey King is Tally/Squint, the “hero.”

Brianne Tju is Shay, possibly my favorite character.

Keith Powers is David, this dystopian world’s saviour.

Chase Stokes is Peris, AKA Nose before his surgery.

Laverne Cox is Dr Cable, the big bad.

It’s a small (minded) world after all

To be fair, any film that uses the superficial premise that looks can change the world, along with flower power (Any old hippies out there?) is going to have problems. A shallow and two dimensional plot line along with a pretty simplistic backstory lets Uglies down.

The book may well explain why living in the woods and eating your home grown food is called “The Smoke.” It is not addressed in the film. Not to be too dismissive, but classing it as Young Adult may be a tad insulting to the intended audience.

Some things do work

The relationships work, to a degree. I liked the rebels; Shay and Tally. While there was not too much in character development between the two, they were like-able.

Uglies has been compared to Divergent. I personally cannot see a connection, except for the simple plot lines. It has much more in common with The Twilight Zone. Season 5, episode 17 “Number 12 Looks Just Like You” is what this story has been based on, apparently. It works, but one can assume that Rod Serling, Charles Beaumont and co are a bit annoyed at this blatant rip off of their story.

The adults are, despite being the real movers and shakers of this world, pushed to the back of the stage. Dr Cable is a phantom menace and David’s mum a single note hero.

However: The action scenes work. Sure it is all green screen and CGI but they do work nonetheless. In reality, these are the only real entertaining portion of the film.

The Verdict

Uglies earns a scant 2.5 stars. It is streaming on Netflix at the moment. Fans of the source book may want to head on over and watch it.

The Trailer