‘Uglies’ leaves a not-so-pretty impression on audiences 

By Katlynn Rossignol

In the sci-fi future society of “Uglies,” everyone undergoes cosmetic surgery at 16 to become Pretties and live in a city of pleasure. Until their surgery, youth are kept separate across the river and labeled Uglies. Tally Youngblood can’t wait until it’s her turn to become a Pretty, but her world falls apart when her friend Shay decides to leave their society and join The Smoke, a rebel community that rejects the surgery. Determined to bring her friend back so they can be Pretties together, Tally journeys beyond the city and learns the truth about her pretty society.

Pros:

“Uglies” is a long overdue movie adaptation based on the 2005 YA dystopian novel of the same name. Fans of the original series will be happy to hear that this film is incredibly faithful to the book. In interviews, the movie producers were proud to discuss that they kept lines directly from the novel and hope to make sequels following the rest of the series (The Wrap). A few plot points were changed in adaptation, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a very loyal script.

The cast did a great job bringing the characters to life. Joey King starred as adventurous Tally, alongside Keith Powers as David and Chase Stokes as Peris. Some standouts were Brianne Tju’s portrayal of the passionate rebel Shay and Laverne Cox as the movie’s villain, Dr. Cable. Brianna Tju brought to life Shay’s attitude against the system that raised her and her simultaneous naive affection for The Smoke. Her immersive acting made the character’s journey effectively tragic when the movie’s villain, Dr. Cable steps in as an antagonist. Laverne Cox made an intimidating impression on screen as the leader of Special Circumstances, the police force of their futuristic society. 

“Uglies“ faced the unique challenge of consistently changing the characters’ faces. The end result looks like a Snapchat filter applied on top of the actors’ makeup, giving an impression that there is something uncanny about their appearance. The rest of the CGI cityscapes and environments were fun and futuristic renders that meshed well with the script. However, they didn’t have any designs that seemed creatively inspired beyond the typical futuristic city model. 

Story and Themes:

I’m not sure whether the story of “Uglies” is a strength or weakness of the film. Its plot is pulled directly from the book, including commentary about beauty and human nature with undertones of environmentalism. 

Despite the movie’s focus on being pretty, I believe this movie’s ultimate message is about choice and free thought. Although a surface-level look suggests a message about appearance, the prettiness of the surgery is never questioned to be wrong, only critiquing the procedure’s potential side effects. Rather than say changing your appearance is bad, the movie suggests that people should appreciate each other’s character and you should be content with how you look. What’s important is that people have a choice to look, live, and act how they please. 

Similar to “The Giver” and other YA dystopian novels, the plot of “Uglies” asks if we’re willing to trade our freedom, environment, and individuality for peace. As convoluted as the plot and details become, I think this is a decent message for the movie to center on. By portraying The Smoke as protagonists, the film encourages individuality, freedom, and taking responsibility for our futures. 

Cons:

Tally was the stereotype of a generic main lead who follows the call to adventure, has multiple love interests and is the girl who is the key to everything. In “Uglies” introduction, it fails to utilize Tally’s point of view and instead opts to give a voice-over exposition dump. The film could’ve significantly benefited from focusing more on Tally’s time as an Ugly to introduce the setting more organically. 

Why, oh why, the costumes!?! For a movie giving commentary on outer appearance, the costume department failed this film. I’m not someone who usually micro-analyzes how costumes are constructed, but I recognized the origin of most of the pieces for this film. The Uglies’ uniforms have pants made from Petit Pli expandable material, with the tops being simple knitted sweaters with stripes added on top. Specials, a super soldier group, are dressed in futuristic body suits straight out of a Tron knock-off, with patterns disappearing into the outfit’s seams and plastic cyberpunk helmets I have saved to my Pinterest boards. Some of the villain outfits worked well, but most costumes were distractingly cheap and broke my immersion constantly.

Any YA dystopia calls for a few action sequences, which is another area where “Uglies” struggle. With much of the budget put into the Pretties’ filtered faces, the action and stunts are clearly computer-generated ragdolls. Crashing hoverboards, bungee jumping jackets, and super soldier fights look noticeably unrealistic. Compare the action of “Uglies” to the arenas of “The Hunger Games,” and the production difference is clear. 

Conclusions:

The “Uglies” book series is a staple of the YA dystopian genre, originally published in 2005, preceding even the Hunger Games trilogy. Almost 20 years later, “Uglies” gets its first movie adaptation and a direct-to-streaming release on Netflix. Was it worth the wait? 

No, not really. 

From my perspective, I had a great time humoring my inner 16-year-old, ecstatically calling out plot points from the book before they happened on screen. It was a nostalgic and enjoyable film to finally get to watch. However, this movie left much to be desired as a technical piece. “Uglies” was released 15 years too late to please its biggest fans. 

I would recommend “Uglies” to fans of dystopian sci-fi, the “Divergent” series and the “Uglies” book series. 

“Uglies” is available to watch on Netflix

Katlynn Rossignol is a junior Strategic Communications Major and A&E assistant editor for Cedars. She loves arts and crafts, spending time with friends and watching superhero movies.  

Images courtesy of Netflix