Uglies is based on the 2005 dystopian novel by Scott Westerfeld and set in a post-apocalyptic society where everyone is considered an “ugly,” but then at the age of 16, undergoes cosmetic surgery to be turned “pretty.” After her best friend Peris (Chase Stokes) has a change in personality following his surgery, Tally Youngblood (Joey King) joins a rebel group called “The Smoke” who lives off the grid and accept themselves as they are, which include Tally’s new best friend Shay (Brianne Tju) and their rebel leader, David (Keith Powers). Tally eventually uncovers a dark secret about the world she had been raised in and looks to change the world, facing off against Dr. Cable (Laverne Cox), the creator of this cosmetic surgery.
Uglies Has Good Intentions but Fumbles Its Message
One read of Uglies’ central premise of a society separated into “the uglies” and “the pretties” reads like a parody of the prototypical YA dystopian novel, and that is part of the point. It wants to highlight how silly the notion of being “pretty” is, and how society can separate people based on looks. The story is meant to be an obvious allegory for a young audience. The movie makes this clear by having the people labeled “ugly” not being ugly at all, but having features that are considered conventionally beautiful, while the need to chase perfection with cosmetic surgery is designed to seem garish.
Everyone who undergoes surgery has a creepy, uncanny valley look to them, as the movie seems to employ a slight filter over them to make them look a little too smooth and unsettling. Unlike the 2010 film Beastly, here it is intentional. Yet that doesn’t stop it from being a little silly when a character says, “They were faster than any pretty we’ve seen before,” after escaping a life-and-death situation.
It’s a nice sentiment — people focus too much on their perceived imperfections and the desire always to be “better” while overlooking the best parts of themselves. However, many of Uglies’ creative choices often clash with the movie’s message, which can send mixed to dangerous signals. It’s extreme to frame all cosmetic surgery as inherently negative; many people undergo surgery willingly, not because of outward forces from society. Uglies’ metaphor does not take into consideration the transgender experience.
Laverne Cox Is Great but Her Casting Is Troubling
This anti-surgery framing also becomes worse with the main villain being played by Laverne Cox, an actress and LGBTQ+ advocate who became the first trans woman to be nominated for an Emmy for her role in Orange is the New Black, and the first trans Barbie back in 2022. This is certainly not a critique of Cox, who is one of the movie’s best parts. Cox has a cold, icy presence in every one of her scenes, projecting a terrifying sense of calmness and artificial pleasantry that is effective in a movie that doesn’t live up to her talents. Hopefully, other filmmakers will tap Cox into other sci-fi and fantasy worlds and allow her to continue to show her acting talents.
Casting a notable trans actress as the villain in a movie that is about the evils of focusing on one’s appearance and the dangerous surgeries it involves feels troubling. At a time when transgender rights are being attacked both by the government and society, Uglies’ strict “changing one’s body through cosmetic surgery is bad” messaging can easily be co-opted for nefarious purposes.
This isn’t to say the people who made Uglies are trying to spread such a hateful message; there is already a prominent figure who wrote a beloved series of YA novels who is doing that willingly. There is no need to create imaginary villains when real ones exist; it just says that the creative minds behind Uglies didn’t thoroughly think through its metaphor or how the message that originated in the 2005 books might need to be reworked for 2024.
Bland Design for a Bland World
Uglies, in many ways, suffers from the John Carter effect, an adaptation that spent a long time in development hell. Like that film, Uglies was first announced back in 2006, 18 years ago; it arrives so late to the game that it seems derivative of many other titles, even if it was being developed before them. Uglies feels like a collection of tropes found in The Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Maze Runner despite the books preceding all of them.
Just because Uglies is coming out long after those films, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have created its own unique visual style to stand apart. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Uglies director McG is the same filmmaker who took the visually distinct Terminator franchise and stripped it of uniqueness with his washed-out post-apocalyptic movie, Terminator Salvation. Here, he delivers sterile sets that are supposed to evoke futuristic, brutalist architecture but instead feel like abandoned shopping centers. Even the action scenes feel drained of detail and as if corners had been cut, which is certainly disappointing, given that the action in McG’s two Charlie Angels movies still holds up.
Joey King and One Stand-Out Performance Worth Watching
For all its faults, there are some promising glimmers in Uglies, like Laverne Cox mentioned earlier. Joey King has always been a compelling screen presence, and for Uglies, she is not only the lead star but also a producer and passionate fan of the book. The character of Tally Youngblood also feels like a protagonist who has more agency than many other leads in these YA adaptations, as she makes choices that drive the plot forward instead of just reacting to situations around her.
Meanwhile, despite giving a good performance, Keith Powers is perhaps too handsome and suave for his character. Outer Banks‘ Chase Stokes, however, perfectly fits his role; he is certainly pretty (and appropriately creepy). It’d be more interesting to see him play some evil twist on Prince Charming than his more derivative character here. Maybe he will — he obviously has a long and strong career ahead of him.
The film’s standout performance, though, is Brianne Tju as Shay. Shay is the voice that helps radicalize Tally to venture out of the controlled world she knows and join the resistance. Shay offers one of Uglies’ best attempts to address the seemingly gender-binary nature of the story, as she tends to askew many of the traditional feminine signifiers. Through Shay, the audience gets true insight into how horrible the procedure to turn “pretty” is. Tju gives a breathtaking performance, with a moment in the film’s climax that is so tragic and horrifying, with the implications so haunting, that it will likely stick with viewers more than anything else.
Uglies Is a Stream-and-Forget-It Disappointment
Despite some strong performances, Uglies is an overall disappointment and emblematic of the Netflix business model. Seemingly greenlit by a studio to fill their library and being nothing more than just another title they dump on their service, people are meant to half-watch while looking at their phone and then forget about it. Despite the work of the stars who want this to say something about the world today and bring a book series they loved to life, the finished result features uninspired production design and too many similarities to other better (The Hunger Games) and worse (The Giver) movies.
Uglies is the cinematic equivalent of the kid asking, “Can we go see The Hunger Games?” and the mom going, “We have The Hunger Games at home,” and putting on Uglies. But, you can decide if it’s ugly or pretty yourself when it hits Netflix Sep. 13, 2024. Watch it through the link below:
Watch Uglies
